|
Home
Up
| |
DesignWorks 4.0 is Taking Off!
The long-awaited DesignWorks 4.0 release is now shipping with native PowerPC
performance and new features that will make your design process easier than ever before.
This release will be coming out first on the Macintosh/Power Macintosh platform with a
Windows release scheduled for later in the year. There were no data file format changes in
the new release, so all files created by DesignWorks 4.0 on the Mac will continue to be
compatible with the current Windows version.
 | See our Free Demos Page to
download a native PowerPC demo version or a 68K version. |
What's In the New Version?
DesignWorks 4.0 is a bit different than previous major upgrades in that we have
focussed on the design process, rather than on any major new schematic
editing features. In particular, you can match the package for your specific design
application by providing more scripting and customizing features and by re-organizing
existing capabilities. The focus in this release is on addressing tech support issues that
come up frequently and on making your design process easier and less error-prone.
Enter the Design Kit
To this end, the major new concept in this version is the design kit. A design kit
consists of sheet templates, symbol libraries, netlist and report formats, specialized
menus and data entry boxes, error checking scripts, back annotation, and anything else
that helps to address a specific type of design. Current DesignWorks users will recognize
that most of these things are not new features. The idea is to group these functions
together so that one simple installation procedure quickly converts DesignWorks into, say,
a customized SPICE front-end, a tool for interfacing to PADS PCB, or whatever.
Workgroup Features
For those who are supporting groups of DesignWorks users, the new version will allow
you to customize the attributes and design options that are visible to your users. For
example, the New Design box can now be customized to show only design templates,
attributes and report formats appropriate to your environment.
New Features in DesignWorks 4.0
Here is a detailed list of new features in 4.0, relative to 3.1.5, sorted roughly in
descending order of magnitude.
| Power Macintosh native execution. |
| Major enhancements in scripting and report generation. These are discussed in more
detail below. |
| Major changes in "New Design" dialog with template list, access to examples,
and clearer layout. |
| Major reorganization of signal and device naming and packaging options to improve
clarity. A different box is displayed depending on hierarchy mode. |
| New DesignKits tool to help with installing design kits. |
| New ErrorScript tool replaces ErrorFind with a scriptable environment. |
| New ConnMaker tool auto-generates connector symbols. This was resurrected from
DesignWorks 2.5 by popular demand and enhanced with many new styles and features. |
| New timed auto-backup and auto-checkpoint options. |
| Many improvements in Update from Lib: |
- Update all devices, even in closed sub-circuits
- Update devices by type name, thus merging cases where multiple similar types were
created accidentally.
- More attribute update options.
| DevEditor now allows pin settings to be changed on multiple selected pins. |
| Ability to run scripts at startup or when a file is opened. |
| You can now control what type of objects are selected when you click or drag select
items by holding the D, S, P, T or G keys on the keyboard. |
| "Fit to Sheet" auto-scale printing option. |
| Improved access to internal circuits. If Find or ErrorScript locates an item in an
internal circuit, it can be displayed immediately in most cases. |
| Major changes to Bus Pin Info dialog: You can now add and delete bus internal pins
without using DevEditor, plus you can now join more than one pin to a single signal. |
| Edit a symbol in place on the schematic. |
| Place Internal Circuit command auto-generates a symbol and attaches a sub-circuit in one
operation. |
| Improved bus info dialog: |
- Signals are sorted
- Access to signal info on internal signals.
| Default attributes in a device symbol can now be set to Always Visible/Use Design's
Default Visibility/Never Visible. |
| Better display of attribute values in the ? probe tool. Fields are sorted and null
values are removed. |
| Improvements to device info dialog: |
- Access to part type info
- List of devices with same part type
| Improvements to pin info dialog, including direct access to bus pin info |
| Browser mode improvements: "Browse" mode is now truly read-only. Multi-cell
cut/paste operations can be done in "Edit" mode. |
| Browser now always sorts on opening. |
| Browser stores the last scope it was used with. |
| Non-flickering device placement. |
| A new auto-generated identifier called a "locator" which guarantees the unique
identification of any object in a hierarchical design. This can be used for error location
and other purposes. |
| Save the default miscellaneous text font specs with the design. |
| Better checking for port/pin mismatch in hierarchical designs. |
| Date stamping of devices, for PCB back annotation purposes |
| Better ability to disable annoying repeated messages. |
| Elimination of 32-gate limit in Packager. |
| No name packaging option. If Name.Prefix is $NONAME, no name is assigned. |
| Packager can be left enabled even with packaging errors. |
| Packager "free unit report" is now handled by report generation. |
| Issue a warning when editing an internal circuit with and external reference. |
| Save and restore instance data when updating internal circuits after a definition
change. |
| Improved rotation of wide lines in symbols. |
| Allow "." and "_" in field names used in miscellaneous text
variables. |
| Better repositioning of circuit on resizing the window. |
| More efficient updating of text blocks with variables. |
| Nicer progress display on startup. |
| Improved packager error checking. |
| Fixed Open Transport network protection problem. |
| Handling of multiple setup files for design kits. |
| New setup file keywords for design kits. |
| Setup file keywords FONTS, SIZES, STYLES, and BREAKOUT have been removed. This
information is now stored with the design. |
| Better positioning of default attribute fields. |
| Performance improvements in attribute access. |
| Sundry minor improvements and bug fixes. |
Major Report Generation/Scripting Enhancements
The Report Generator has been renamed "Scripter" to reflect its more general
purpose nature. Many new script features have been added, while retaining 99%
compatibility with old report scripts. Features are intended to allow customization of
DesignWorks in the areas of error checking, report generation, simple back annotation,
user prompting, etc. The features include:
| Improved file handling: direct access to directory path names for important file
locations. |
| Unix-style regular expressions allow powerful extraction and modification of data. |
| You can now read a line-oriented text file and extract data from it. |
| You can now directly generate Unix or DOS/Windows style text files. |
| Commands to put up simple prompt boxes to get user input. |
| Powerful date formatting commands with access to date created and modified. |
| Many structure commands: $IF/$ELSE, $WHILE, etc. |
| Translation tables. |
| Ability to generate a report to a text item on the schematic. |
| Ability to modify the "primary" vs. "secondary" status (and some
other properties) of attribute field definitions from a report. |
| Ability to set the hierarchy mode of a design from a script. |
| More control over progress display |
| Ability to create a secondary "transcript" file at the same time, to output
report logs or messages while generating the main report. |
| Generalization of keyword usage so that almost any keyword can be used anywhere it makes
sense. |
| Simple arithmetic and comparison commands. |
| Text variables. |
| Find objects by complex expression, e.g. using regular expressions. |
| New function oriented syntax for most commands, i.e. arguments in parentheses. |
| Ability to set attribute values. |
| More options for inclusion of bus names in signal names. |
| Ability to select and object from within a script. |
| Ability to test and set OKErrors bits to implement a "Mark as OK" function in
error checking. |
| You can set a value break to insert a new heading or page break when a sorted field
value changes. |
| Create a directory and write multiple output files into it. |
| New $SYSTEMOPEN command sends a message to the Finder to open a file in another
application. |
| Performance improvements. |
|
