Chapter 2
Beginning a Design
2-2
ni.com
Creating a Design
A design is created automatically when you create a project file. You can
also create a design and assign it to an existing project file. Remember that
a design must always be associated with a project.
Complete the following steps to create a design file:
1.
Choose
File»Open
and open the project to which the design is to be
added.
2.
Choose
File»New Design
. The
New Design
dialog box appears.
3.
Type the design name in the
Design Name
field.
4.
From the
Design Type
drop-down list, select PCB Design. Refer to the
, for more information on the Mechanical CAD Design file type.
5.
Choose which of the open projects is to contain the design. The
Add
to project
drop-down list shows only the open projects.
6.
Click
OK
. The
New Design
dialog box disappears, and a blank design
with the name that you specified is opened. The
Projects
tab shows
that the new design is a part of the project file that you specified.
Creating a Design from a Netlist File
You can create a design based on a netlist file. A netlist contains
information about a given board's nets (the electrical connections between
pins) and parts. Multisim generates a
.EWNET
file which has all the details
required to import the schematic into Ultiboard.
Note
If PCB constraints are set in the Multisim file, they will also be included in the netlist
file. The file also contains
Trace Width Analysis
results if you checked the
Set Node
Trace Widths Using the Results from This Analysis
check box when doing the analysis
in Multisim.
The following is an example of net information from a netlist file. A value
of
-1.000000000000
indicates that the Ultiboard default value will be
used for that parameter when the file is imported into Ultiboard.
(nets
(net "VCC"
(trackwidth "-1.000000000000")
(trackwidth_max "-1.000000000000")
(trackwidth_min "-1.000000000000")
