Sunstone Printed Circuit Board Forum

Happy to help.

I'd like to post these as bugs which needs immediate attention. It's hard for me to continue using this tool with these problems: 1. schematic symbol doesn't update after being modified 2. cannot cleanup "dirty" symbols in symbol editor (no way to delete them) 3. cannot cleanup "dirty" footprints in footprints editor (no way to delete them) 4. pull-downs in symbol footprint editors do not remember the last entered fields (i.e. library path, part description, etc), requires constant retyping of all fields. 5. schematic nets get ripped up if you delete a part, this requires constant rewiring; there should be an option to retain the nets when a part is deleted. 6. when trying to add hidden P/G pins to a symbol, the hidden pins dissappear after doing a save reopening the symbol, I tried saving under a different name etc, but couldn't make it behave properly I don't believe the above is a complete list of the problems I've encountered, but it would be very helpful if those were fixed at the least. These problems resulted in many do-overs which costs lots of time. Thank you.

Yes, thanks for the clarification. It was my misunderstanding regarding the intended use of the "add existing" button. I'll use the "open file" option from now on. Thanks also for investigation and adding this issue to the bug list.

Thanks for your feedback. We are aware of issues 1 and 5. We are working on these items and will improve how the tool works in future releases.

Issues 2 and 3, we do have a solution to remove symbols and footprints from libraries. To remove footprints go to the layout and selectDesign Manage library. Select the library you want to edit then select the part you want to delete. Select the red X in the Footprints section to delete the footprint.

To delete a symbol go to the schematic and select Tools Symbol Editor. Select the Open symbol icon and load the symbol you want to delete. Select the red X on the toolbar to delete the symbol.

I am unable to reproduce issue 4. The only time I would expect to see the description already filled in is when I am editing an existing footprint or symbol. What behavior would you like to see?

I am also unable to reproduce issue 6. If you set a pin as Hidden you should not be able to see the pin in the Symbol Editor display or on your schematic. To modify hidden pin properties you need to use the Pins tab located in the Symbol Editor in the bottom left hand corner. Would you please provide more information so that I can try to reproduce this issue?

Ed,

I appreciate all of you feedback. I have submitted your suggestions to our development team. I am still unable to reproduce issue 6 in a windows 7 environment. It may just be that I don't have enough detail to reproduce the issue.

Here are the steps that i went through.

1. open the symbol editor. 2. Place 6 pins around the shaded area then draw a symbol body. 3. switch to the pins tab and set pins 5 and 6 to hidden. 4. Assign pin 5 to VCC and pin 6 to GND. 5. Save symbol. 6. close symbol editor. 7. open symbol editor. 8. Select the open symbol icon from the toolbar. 9. locate and load existing symbol. 10. Switch to the pins tab to verify hidden pins are still there.

No issues found. I am testing on Windows 7 Ultimate 32- bit.

If you can provide the steps that you go through to reproduce the issue I can report the bug. Thanks for your help.

Quote: Sal Hernandez 02-22-2012 10:06:19 Thanks for your feedback. We are aware of issues 1 and 5. We are working on these items and will improve how the tool works in future releases.

Issues 2 and 3, we do have a solution to remove symbols and footprints from libraries. To remove footprints go to the layout and selectDesign Manage library. Select the library you want to edit then select the part you want to delete. Select the red X in the Footprints section to delete the footprint.

To delete a symbol go to the schematic and select Tools Symbol Editor. Select the Open symbol icon and load the symbol you want to delete. Select the red X on the toolbar to delete the symbol.

I am unable to reproduce issue 4. The only time I would expect to see the description already filled in is when I am editing an existing footprint or symbol. What behavior would you like to see?

I am also unable to reproduce issue 6. If you set a pin as Hidden you should not be able to see the pin in the Symbol Editor display or on your schematic. To modify hidden pin properties you need to use the Pins tab located in the Symbol Editor in the bottom left hand corner. Would you please provide more information so that I can try to reproduce this issue? Hi, Issues 1 5: Glad to hear you are working to resolve those. It will make schematic creation more efficient, and take out some of the frustration. Issues 2 3: Your solution for issues 2,3 does work, thanks. However, prior to me reading your post the support staff indicated it was not possible to delete old symbols. Your solution is fine for short term. But for long term I propose a file navigator approach where you can select several files and delete them in one step (it makes library management much more efficient). Issue 4: This really has to do with the "Manage parts" editor and not the symbol/footprint editors, sorry. The manage parts editor doesn't remember any of the last used field entries. For example I created parts for Murata, Panasonic, Molex, etc. But next time I create a part, the pull-down comes up "blank". It should remember those names. Same for part number fields, etc., there should be a pull-down to remember those (or at least the last 10 used), at which time I can choose to modify or select "blank" to enter from scratch. These requests are all for the sake of efficiency. Issue 6: Apparently this is a Windows 7 issue. The support person I spoke with was not able to reproduce it on his Windows XP machine. He stated that he would try to find a Windows 7 machine to verify if this is an actual bug and get back to me. I have not heard back. The problem still exists in my environment (Windows 7 Pro, 32 bit). Another request for future releases... is that the symbol editor have tight integration with the schematic. In other words, if a change is made to a symbol it immediately updates in the schematic. No need to "delete" and "replace" parts, etc. This would save a lot of time.

Overall I think this is a decent tool and I do like the tight integration between the layout editor, schematic editor and the BOM. The 3D viewer is a nice bonus. Please help make it better by considering the above. Thanks, Ed

Hi, I think I found the mechanism for the failure (in my case anyways). If I follow your steps above, it works fine. Seems the key is to "open" the symbol file rather than "add existing". I was using the "add existing" option, then the hidden pins dissappear after saving the file. Seems the behavior should be the same though, regardless of which way you open the file. Thoughts?

I can nowreproduce the issueand I will report it to our development team. Thanks for the follow up. The add existing button is intended to add a new section and load an existing symbol into the new section. The hidden pins should not be removed during this operation. Unless you are trying to create a multi-section symbol, you do not need to use any of the options located under the title "Section".