> Brad Velander wrote:
>
> > Hi guys,
> > I have a problem which is driving me nuts. I have a PCB which I
just
> > finished placing, there is something outside of the visible area of the
> > components and PCB outline. Using Zoom All I get a window approx. twice
the
> > size expected. I cannot find anything outside of the expected area of
the
>
> You may have component text on a layer that is not being displayed
(mechanical
> or assembly drawing, for instance). You can turn on all layers and look
for
> it, or select all outside the 'correct' area, and see what objects light
up.
> The 'lit up', or selected, objects are the ones that have the hidden
primitives
> that are outside the desired region.
>
> Jon Elson
I have also read the responses in which correspondents suggested unhiding
the Comment strings of all components, checking their locations, and then
hiding these again (after rectifying their locations as required).
It has/had long been my belief that whenever a component is moved, then the
location of that component's Comment string, *relative* to its insertion
point, does not change, and that is the case regardless of whether this
string is displayed or otherwise. If that is no longer the case in some
circumstances, then I regard that change as a bug, with which Ian Wilson
concurs. (Introduced with SP6 for Protel 99 SE, or perhaps been around for
longer?)
I am not unaware of the AutoPosition feature (for each component's
Designator and Comment strings). That said, I still would not expect large
offsets between a component and its Comment string to occur following any
movement of a component.
My PcbAddon Server (still available for downloading from Yahoo's WebSite)
incorporates a Process which invokes an enhanced dialog box for displaying
and changing the visibility of layers. Amongst other aspects provided is the
feature of color-coding the text (beside each checkbox, which identifies
each layer, ) depending upon the corresponding layer's usage (note though
that this feature is not provided by default, and has to be enabled by
invoking the Process with a parameter and parameter value), and I find this
very helpful in giving me an indication of which layers are currently used,
and regardless of whether each layer is currently displayed or otherwise. As
such, if there are *other* items, apart from concealed Comment strings, that
are not currently displayed, then this dialog box can provide an indication
of which layers these items could be residing on (because the dialog box
will clearly depict any layers which are currently used, and which are not
currently displayed as well).
(Perhaps I should review the code in order to cater for Room Definitions as
well. I think that any layer which has nothing else on it will currently be
depicted as being in an unused state. There probably is something to be said
for changing this situation, or at least if Room Definitions have an impact
upon the area displayed after the "Zoom All" command is used.)
To finish off, a bit of food for thought. PCAD 2001 currently sells for
US$9,995 (full price), while the corresponding price for Protel 99 SE will
be going from US$5,995 to US$7,995 after the end of next month. A shrinking
price margin between these two products...
I have had experience with the AD2.0 version of PCAD, which was a DOS
application released in the first half of the 1990s. Does anyone have
experience with using PCAD 2001, and can thus inform us how it compares with
and differs from Protel 99 SE? (I am contemplating trialling PCAD 2001 at
some stage, but I have yet to get around to doing so. And at present, I am
focusing on writing code for an addon Pcb Inverting Server.)
Regards,
Geoff Harland.
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