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8 TOOLS MENU |
The tools are format conversion and utility routines. Most of the format conversions only allow a subset of the given format. Sometimes this is due to the geometry handling capabilities of LC, and sometimes due to lack of development of the translation.
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Read AutoCAD DXF... |
Read geometry from an AutoCAD DXF file into the model. |
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Read NC Drill... |
Read an NC drill file and convert the drills into model vias. |
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Read Gerber Artwork... |
Read a Gerber artwork file as a layer in the model. |
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Write ACAD FDTD... |
Write model as an ACAD FDTD mesh. |
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Write Movie... |
Write model as a Movie file. |
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Write OBJ Geo... |
Write the model as a Wavefront OBJ Geo file. |
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Write VRML... |
Write the model as a VRML file. |
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Convert To Mesh... |
Convert model to FDTD mesh of cells. |
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X-Y Plot... |
Display an X-Y Plot file. |
8.1 READ AUTOCAD DXF FILE DIALOG
This dialog reads an AutoCAD DXF format file and converts the drawing into LC geometry blocks. The input can be clipped to a smaller region as it is read, and the geometry can be offset during translation.
The AutoCAD entities which are translated are:
Other types of entities (2D and 1D shapes, points, text, and other non-geometric entities) are discarded during the translation process.
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DXF File |
The input file name. |
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Name Prefix |
This prefix is used to name the blocks created during the translation. If no value is specified, then the input file name is used. |
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Material Name |
This material is assigned to the blocks created during the translation. |
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X Offset
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When a new geometry block is created, an offset can be added to shift the block to align it with the existing model. |
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Clip X Min
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The region of interest. Any of the six clip limits can be enabled and a value set. Disabled limits are ignored As the geometry is read from the input file, any drawing outside of a clip limit will be discarded. Drawing that is partially within a limit is clipped to within the region. |
This dialog will read an NC drill file, converting the drills into round vias. Either board level thru-hole or layer pair blind/buried vias can be created in this way.
The assumed data format is 2.4, mils, with trailing zeros included (leading zeros may be suppressed).
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Drill File |
The input file name. |
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Name Prefix |
This prefix is used to name the blocks created during the translation. If no value is specified, then the input file name is used. |
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Material Name |
This material is assigned to the blocks created during the translation. |
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Clip X Min
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The region of interest. Any of the four clip limits can be enabled and a value set. As the geometry is read from the input file, any drills outside of a clip limit will be discarded. |
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Z Minimum
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The via depth limits. For thru-board drills, this is the bottom and top of the board. For layer-pair drills, this is the bottom and top of the layer pair. |
8.3 READ GERBER ARTWORK FILE DIALOG
This dialog will read a Gerber format artwork file, converting the draws into traces and the flashes into pads. The apertures can be round or rectangular.
This file format is based on the format accepted by photoplotters developed by Gerber Scientific Products, Inc. This format has been standardized as EIA RS-274A.
The assumed data format is 2.4, mils, with trailing zeros included (leading zeros may be suppressed).
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Gerber File |
The input artwork file name. |
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Aperture File |
The input aperture file name. See below for the aperture file format. |
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Layer Prefix |
This prefix is used to name the blocks created during the translation. If no value is specified, then the input file name is used. |
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Material Name |
This material is assigned to the blocks created during the translation. |
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Clip X Min
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The region of interest. Any of the four clip limits can be enabled and a value set. Disabled limits are ignored As the geometry is read from the input file, any drawing outside of a clip limit will be discarded. Drawing that is partially within a limit is clipped to within the region. |
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Z Maximum |
This is the top of the layer being read. If a board is being built up from the top layer down to the bottom layer, this is the current bottom of the model plus the thickness of the dielectric layer. |
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Layer Thickness |
This is the Z-dimension thickness of the blocks created during the translation. Usually this is the thickness of the metal of the layer. |
8.3.1 Aperture File Format
The aperture file is a simple text file, one line for each aperture used in the artwork file.
The allowed line formats are:
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CIRCLE |
diameter |
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D-code |
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LINE |
length |
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D-code |
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SQUARE |
x-y size |
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D-code |
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RECTANGLE |
x size |
y size |
D-code |
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OBLONG |
x size |
y size |
D-Code |
Flashes of CIRCLE and LINE result in a LC cylinder-shape geometry blocks. SQUARE, RECTANGLE, and OBLONG create cube-shape geometry blocks. Draws always create cube-shape geometry blocks.
Some Movie geometry files that contain only simple rectangular structures can be read, creating geometry blocks. The translation has very limited capability, but can read plane probe Movie geometry files.
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Movie File |
Movie input geometry file. |
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Layer Prefix |
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Material Name |
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Clip Minimum |
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Clip Maximum |
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Offset |
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The GDS-II two dimensional layout can be read as rectangular and circular geometry blocks. The rectangular blocks can be rotated from the coordinate axes.
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GDS File |
GDS-II input file. |
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Layer Prefix |
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Material Name |
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Clip X Min |
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Clip Y Min |
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Clip X Max |
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Clip Y Max |
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Z Minimum |
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Z Maximum |
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X Offset |
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Y Offset |
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8.6 WRITE ACAD FDTD FILE DIALOG
The Write FDTD dialog writes the current geometry as an ACAD FDTD geometry file. This file can be useful for examining the FDTD computational mesh.
Due to the limitations of the ACAD FDTD file format, only three and two dimensional geometry is written. One dimensional geometry, such as wires, are omitted. Also, only blocks of materials can be represented. Probes, sources, loads, and ports are not written.
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Output File |
This is the name of the file to be written. |
Press "OK" to write the model geometry to the file, or "Cancel" to close the dialog.
The Write Movie dialog writes the current geometry as a Movie geometry file. The Movie file can be read into a visualization tool (such as Ensight, AVS, or Explorer).
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Output File |
This is the name of the output Movie geometry file. |
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Mesh Surfaces |
Set this toggle if you want the geometry surfaces to be displayed as a mesh, rather than a flat surface. |
Press "OK" to write the model geometry to the file, or "Cancel" to close the dialog.
This dialog writes the current model into Wavefront OBJ Geo format. This 3-D wire frame format can be read by visualization tools from several vendors. A freely-distributed Java viewer for OBJ format is included as an example in Sun's Java Developer's Kit (JDK).
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Output File |
This is the name of the output OBJ geometry file. |
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Mesh Surfaces |
Set this toggle if you want the geometry surfaces to be displayed as a mesh, rather than a flat surface. |
This dialog writes the current model into VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) format. This three-dimensional geometry format can be read by some Web browsers such as WebSpace and CosmoPlayer. Either VRML version 1.0 or VRML 2.0 (Moving Worlds) format can be produced.
The Convert to Mesh dialog generates a mesh form of the current model. The original model is not changed, but a new model is created. The original model can be retrieved with the Model menu. Only the blocks of materials are converted into a mesh. Probes, sources, loads, and ports are copied without change.
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New Model Name |
The file name of the mesh form of the model. A default name is provided, but you may assign a different one. This name will be added to the Model menu. |
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3D Cells |
The 3D cell mesh divides the original model into cubes. The cubes are the Model Cell Width size. All 2D and 1D blocks are copied without change. |
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2D Cells |
The 2D cell mesh divides the original model into square cells representing the six faces of each cube in the 3D mesh. Interfaces between adjacent dielectric regions are assigned a new material, the average of the two dielectrics. All 1D blocks are copied without change. |
Press "OK" to create a mesh representation of the model geometry, or "Cancel" to close the dialog.
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8.11 X-Y PLOT DIALOG |
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8.11.1 MENUBAR
File
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New |
Clear the current plots from the graph. |
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Open... |
Read a plot file and add it to the graph. |
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Save As... |
Save this graph to a file. |
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Close |
Close this graph dialog. |
View
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Reset Zoo |
Reset to the original graph view after a magnify operation. |
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Bounds... |
Set the X- and Y-axis boundaries. |
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Labels... |
Set the graph labels. |
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Plots... |
Select plots to be displayed. |
Options
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Show Grid |
Draw a background grid instead of tic marks. |
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Show Legend |
Show a legend identifying the plot curves. |
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Line Graph |
Connect the data points with lines. |
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Log X-Axis |
Display log10 of the X-axis values. |
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Log Y-Axis |
Display log10 of the Y-axis values. |
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Prefix X-Axis |
Use prefix units for the X-axis values. |
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Prefix Y-Axis |
Use prefix units for the Y-axis values. |
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Limits Spikes |
Clip min/max spike values. |
Help
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On Menubar... |
Help on the Graph dialog menubar items. |
8.11.2 PLOT AREA
Table 4. Mouse button functions.
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Button 1 |
Magnify the region of the plot boxed by a mouse drag. |
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Button 2 |
Reset to the original graph view after a magnify operation. |
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Ctrl-Button 1 |
Close the Graph dialog. |
8.11.3 GRAPH SAVE AS DIALOG
The Graph Save As dialog writes the plots which are displayed in the Graph dialog to an output file.
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Output File |
The name of the file to be written. |
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Output Format |
Format of the output data. |
Press "OK" to save the plots, or "Cancel" to not write the file.
8.11.4 Plot Output Formats
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LCPlot |
The format used by the LCPlot program, the plotting program distributed with LC. This is also the format used by LC to read and write point probe data. |
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Postscript |
Adobe Postscript format, used for high resolution printing and data interchange. |
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Xgraph |
The format used by XGraph, the plotting program distributed by the X Consortium. |
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XYPlot |
The format used by the XYPlot program. This is nearly identical to the LCPlot format, and the two can usually used interchangeably. XYPlot is a plotting program distributed with earlier versions of LC before being replaced by LCPlot. |
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GNUPlot |
The format used by the GNUPlot program, the flexible plotting program distributed by the Free Software Foundation. |
8.11.5 GRAPH SET BOUNDS DIALOG
With the Graph Set Bounds dialog, you can more precisely manipulate the graph format. By default, the value are automatically calculated from the plot data.
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Minimum |
The minimum value displayed along the axis. |
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Maximum |
The maximum value displayed along the axis. |
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Tics |
The number of tic marks along the axis. |
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Set |
Update the graph to the currently displayed values. This action will disable the automatic scaling of the axis until a reset is performed. |
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Reset |
Turn on automatic scaling. |
8.11.6 GRAPH SET LABELS DIALOG
When a plot is created, default labels are assigned based on the type of data. With the Graph Set Labels dialog, the title and labels can be edited. Units are normally shown within parenthesis after the axis label, but if the units is left blank, then the the label is displayed alone.
8.11.7 GRAPH SELECT PLOTS DIALOG
The Graph Select Plots dialog is for reducing the number of curves shown on the graph. By default, all plots read in are displayed. The plots can be individually selected and deselected using this dialog.
A list of the plots is displayed, and plots can be selected or deselected from the list. Use a button 1 click to select a single plot and a button 1 drag to select a consecutive range of plots. Ctrl-button 1 can be used to add and remove items individually. Select All selects all of the plots.
Line probes have all of their curves displayed at once by default. This dialog can be used to individually display the lines. In addition, the Play button can be used to show the curves in sequence, in an animated display.