The Schematic Document
The main AutoTRAX document type is the Schematic, which consists of one or more named sheets. These sheets are presented to the user as a vertical pile of sheets with the selected sheet on top and all the others are hidden beneath the top sheet. A group of page tabs at the bottom of the main AutoTRAX window show the names of the pages.
Each page can be selected by clicking on its tab. This will bring it to the top of the pile of sheets.
Dragging a sheet tab to another location will change the order of the sheets.
Individual sheets can be deleted.
New sheets can be added.
The Schematic Sheet
The schematic sheet represents a single sheet or page of the design. Onto these sheets are placed the parts, electrical connections and non-electrical graphical elements that make up the circuit schematic or circuit diagram.
Each sheet can be assigned a standard sheet size such as A0 or they can be given a custom sheet size.
A Sheet consists of:
An optional title block
An optional reference border.
A drawing area with a configurable grid.
The sheet background color can be changed.
The Title Block
Each sheet can contain an optional title block. This contains the following:
The sheet title.
A description of the sheet.
The designer's name.
The design checkers name.
The design approver's name.
The date.
The design revision number.
The document number.
The Grid Reference Border
Each sheet can contain an optional grid reference border. This border consists of grid reference bars on the top, bottom, left and right edges of the sheet. These can be configured to be:
Alphanumeric or numeric.
Ascending or descending.
The number of divisions.
The Grid
An optional grid can be placed on the sheet and is drawn underneath parts, the title block and the reference border. The grid can be one of three types:
Graph paper. This has the appearance of graph paper.
Grid. This is a rectangular grid of horizontal and vertical lines.
Dots. Here the grid is drawn as a rectangular array of small points.
Viewports
The user views a sheet via a viewport. A viewport is a window onto the sheet. Each sheet can have one, two or four viewports.
The viewport displays a view of the sheet that can be panned or zoomed in and out to view the required details. There is effectively no limit on the precision of the pan or level of zoom. This contrasts sharply with other EDA software. AutoTRAX's data is represented using 8 byte double precision floating-point numbers. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) format has a range from 2.225e-308 to 1.798e+308; more than our universe can use!
Rulers
Vertical and horizontal rulers can be attached to the top and bottom of a sheet viewport.
As the cursor moves, lines are drawn on the rulers to indicate the mouse cursor position, object borders etc.
The Status Bar
A common status bar at the base of the application displays:
The mouse cursor position.
Object specific size and/or location
Command prompts.
Printing
Each sheet can be printed to any Windows printer that supports raster graphics. Great care has been taken in the design of AutoTRAX to give you the ultimate professional quality printing. The aim has been to produce artwork that the user will truly proud of. Gone are the days of the 'blueprint' and the poor quality line plots produced by pen plotters.
Plots can be same size as the logical sheet size or the logical sheet size can be scaled up or down to fit the printers paper size.
AutoTRAX contains internal algorithms designed to produce the ultimate print quality, for instance in fountain filling.
Printer Setup
The printer to use can be selected using the 'File/Print Setup' menu command.
Print Preview
Prior to printing, it is possible to preview a print using the 'File/Print preview' menu command.
Email Documents
AutoTRAX has built in electronic email support via the 'File/Send' menu command. This allows the user to easily sends documents to more or more co-workers.
Editing Previous Work
AutoTRAX remembers up to the last 15 schematic documents that the user worked on. These are displayed in the File menu to allow rapid access to previous work.
In addition AutoTRAX can optionally automatically reload the last schematic or PCB document you worked on at startup. This eliminates the tedious repetitive chore of having to manually reload work every time the user starts work.
AutoTRAX warns the user if they try to exit without saving any edited work.
Multi-monitor Support
Not all application work well with multiple monitors; for instance they can get confused when the their main window is moved off the main monitor with popup dialogs appearing on the wrong monitor. AutoTRAX has been designed to work on system with multiple monitors. Windows 98 and Windows 2000 support multiple monitors. Multiple monitors allow you to organize their screen space more efficiently and to easily interact with more than one program at a time.
Undo/Redo
AutoTRAX has an effectively unlimited design history memory. All operations can be undo and redone. The limit is only controlled by physical memory but in general provides well over 1000 undo/redoes. Each sheet has its own separate undo/redo list.
As a design progresses, the design moves from one state to another with the operations being the link between the states. AutoTRAX names and remembers each of these states. The states are named after the operation that preceded it. So in addition to single undo/redo actions that move between adjacent states, AutoTRAX can display a list of named states so the user can rapidly move from one state to another.
The Recovery File
Before all operations, the current state of the design is saved on the undo stack. In addition, before any significant operation that modifies the design database, the current design is saved as a recovery file on the hard drive. When AutoTRAX terminates normally, the recovery file is deleted. However, if the operation fails and AutoTRAX terminates due to a serious error then the recovery file is not deleted. The presence of the recovery file will be automatically detected when AutoTRAX is restarted and the user will be prompted to load the recovery file. This will restore the design to the point just before the serious error occurred. The user will not have lost any work!
If the operating system fails due to say a power outage, AutoTRAX will detect the recovery file on restart allowing the user to recover their work. In this case at most only the last operation is lost.
One of the main advantages of the recovery file is the improved effective reliability of using AutoTRAX and the effect that recovery has after a program or system failure. Imagine, if you will, the user having worked on a design for 2 hours without saving the design and then the program crashes or the power goes off. The user will be none too pleased! Now imagine their delight when then start up AutoTRAX again to find that their work is still there. NOTE: Unfortunately a hard drive crash will not save enable recovery of the users work if a RAID system was not used.
By chance during the creation of this actual paragraph (using Word 2000 on Windows 2000 Professional) the computer decided to reboot. All the work was lost so it had to be retyped&ldots;.
Object Selection
Objects can be selected individually by clicking the mouse over the object.
One or more objects can be selected by holding down the mouse button and dragging the mouse to reveal a selection rectangle (drag selection). All objects inside the selection rectangle will be selected and the display will dynamically change to show the selected items highlighted.
Selection can be inverted by menu command or by holding down the shift key during drag selection.
Grouping objects
One or more objects can be arranged into a group. Once formed, the collection of object can be manipulated as a single object (a group object).
Groups can contain groups. There is no limit to the level of nesting of grouped objects.
However, even though a selection of objects are contained in a group, it is possible to select and manipulate individual objects by holding down the Alt key during selection.
Mirroring Objects
One or more objects can be mirrored about their common central vertical or horizontal axis.
Rotating Objects
One or more objects can be rotated about their common center point by ±90° or 180°.
Delete/Cut/Copy
All objects or collections of objects can be:
Deleted
Cut (copied to the clipboard and then deleted)
Copied to the clipboard
In addition to the objects being copied to the clipboard, if it is a single text object, then the text is copied to the clipboard. A bitmap representing the current viewport is also copied to the clipboard.
Paste
The following data can be pasted onto a design sheet from the clipboard:
Objects cut or copied from any AutoTRAX sheet.
Bitmaps
Windows Metafiles.
Text.
Alignment aids
The following aids are available.
Snap to Grid
Objects can be snapped to a regular rectangle grid. This is configurable.
Snap to Objects
Objects can snap to key positions on other objects, such as the endpoints of lines, and the corners of rectangles.
Guides
You can add point, horizontal and vertical guides to help you precisely align objects.
Ortho
Line can be restricted to horizontal, vertical or diagonal directions.
Object Alignment
If two or more objects are selected, they can be aligned together in several ways. Alignment is based on the position of one of the selected objects. This object is called the dominant object and is user specified.
Dominant Object
Alignment is based on the position of one of the selected objects. This object is called the dominant object and is user specified.
Align at Top
Objects are aligned so that the top of each object is level with the top of the dominant object.
Align at Bottom
Objects are aligned so that the bottom of each object is level with the bottom of the dominant object.
Align at Left
Objects are aligned so that the left edge of each object is level with the left edge of the dominant object.
Align at Right
Objects are aligned so that the right edge of each object is level with the right edge of the dominant object.
Align Horizontal Middle
Objects are aligned so that the center of each object is horizontally aligned with the center of the dominant object.
Align Vertical Middle
Objects are aligned so that the center of each object is vertically aligned with the center of the dominant object.
Object Vertical Order
Objects are drawn in a set order. The order is normally the order of creation. However, sometimes it is desirable for the order to change to force say one of the objects to appear above another.
To Front
This brings the selected objects to the front. They will be drawn last and cover objects before them.
To Back
This places the selected objects at the start of drawing. They will be drawn first and may be covered by objects drawn after them.
Forward One Level
This will move the selected objects forward one level. They will be drawn after the object that previously preceded them.
Backwards One Level
This will move the selected objects backward one level. They will be drawn before the object that previously preceded them and may be drawn behind them.
Distributing Objects
Object can be distributed evenly spaced either horizontally or vertically or both.
The Viewport
AutoTRAX displays a view of the current sheet. This view is can be split into 2 or 4 independent views.
Panning
You can pan around a sheet in real-time.
Zooming
You can dynamically zoom the view in and out in real-time.
Persistence
AutoTRAX automatically saves the position, size and visibility of the application and toolbars when the program exits.
Custom Toolbars
AutoTRAX comes with several predefined toolbars. However, the user can create their own toolbars and modify existing toolbars. These are saved on a per user basis.
Custom Menus
AutoTRAX comes with several predefined menus. However, the user can create their own menus and modify existing menus. These are saved on a per user basis.
Object Names
All objects in a sheet have a user definable text name. This can be changed using the object properties dialog.
Object Properties
Each object has its own set of unique properties. Common properties include:
Line properties such as color, width and corner/end styles.
Fill properties such as color and style.
The Layer on which the object resides.
Object name.
In addition, objects can have properties unique to their type. For example, lines have a start and end point.
The properties can be inspected and/or changed using the dockable objects property dialog box.
If the user does not wish to have the object properties dialog permanently docked to either the left or right side of the application, these can have it either floating or non visible.
If it is floating the user can optionally have the object properties dialog box disappear during object movement and manipulation. This leads the user see the 'wood for the trees'.
If it is invisible, then the user can double click on the object to reveal the properties dialog box.
Status Bar
At the base of the application is an optional status bar. This displays cursor position and/or selected object dimensions.
Design Library
You can save your designs to a hierarchical design library.
Component Library
AutoTRAX comes with a component library containing 1000s of parts.
Splitting the View
The main viewport can be split up into 2 or 4 viewports with each viewports having its own independent view of the sheet and its own optional rulers.
Each viewport can have its own viewport layout.
Full Screen
In order to provide a greater portion of the screen to be used for viewing, a full screen mode is available. The user can toggle between the normal view and a full screen mode that has reduced toolbars and no menu.