Creating a Cover Sheet with Links

Creating a Cover Sheet with Links

A few weeks ago I was visiting a nearby customer to demonstrate the powerful ELDO SPICE simulator as an add-on to our HyperLynx Analog simulation lauchpad. To navigate through the schematic, I clicked on the arrows I use for links on the cover page to jump to the page for simulation. After the demo was complete the customer asked me, “You clicked on an arrow on the table of contents page and ended up on the page you wanted to simulate. How did you do that?” The answer is using a Link.

A Link is simply an symbol of type annotate, that is listed in the special components file of the project as a Link. Because it is a symbol, it could have any shape or design on your schematic. Connected Links don’t need to be the same symbol, they only need to share the same name. Links were introduced in DxDesigner for EE7.9.2 to assist in cross referencing your schematic pages. With the EE7.9.4 release, Links were enhanced to traverse through the design hierarchy simplifying navigation and your ability to verify connectivity in your design. The number of Link symbols I used in the Aspen design added up to 17 symbols and made the dropdown list quite long.

As we introduce future versions of DxDesigner we are looking to optimize the dropdown list, simplify Link settings, and improve the capabilities Links provide. If you have any suggestions in our Link capability, please create a post in the Mentor Idea’s site for DxDesigner! In the meantime, they work great and provide a quick method to jump though your schematic. If you want to see how I used Links in Aspen, check out the Virtual Lab!

Happy New Year!

Gary Lameris
Mentor Graphics, Technical Marketing Engineer
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Gary Lameris joined Mentor Graphics in 2008 as a Technical Marketing Engineer for the Mentor Expedition PCB flow. Prior to Mentor Graphics, he has served on the DxDesigner and PADS Customer Advisory Boards, and is the founder and manager of the DxDesigner Yahoo forum.

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