W Reference

WINDOW | WRITE

WINDOW

Function

 Zooms in and out of a drawing.

Syntax

 WINDOW;

 WINDOW ;

 WINDOW ;

 WINDOW

 WINDOW scale_factor

 WINDOW FIT

 WINDOW LAST

 WINDOW FLIP

Mouse keys

Left&Drag defines a rectangular window (shortcut for " ;").

Keyboard

 Alt+F2: WINDOW FIT Fit drawing on the screen

 F2: WINDOW; Redraw screen

 F3: WINDOW 2 Zoom in by a factor of 2

 F4: WINDOW 0.5 Zoom out by a factor of 2

 F5: WINDOW (@); Cursor pos. is new center (if a command is active)

The WINDOW command is used to zoom in and out of the drawing and to change the position of the drawing on the screen. The command can be used with up to three mouse clicks. If there are fewer, it must be terminated with a semicolon.

Refresh screen

If you use the WINDOW command followed by a semicolon, EAGLE redraws the screen without changing the center or the scale. This is useful if error messages cover part of the drawing.

New center

The WINDOW command with one point causes that point to become the center of a new screen display of the drawing. The scaling of the drawing remains the same. You can also use the sliders of the working area to move the visible area of the drawing. The function key F5 causes the current position of the cursor to be the new center.

Corner points

The WINDOW command with two points defines a rectangle with the specified points at opposite corners. The rectangle expands to fill the screen providing a close-up view of the specified portion of the drawing.

New center and zoom

You can use the WINDOW command with three points. The first point defines the new center of the drawing and the display becomes either larger or smaller, depending on the ratios of the spacing between the other points. In order to zoom in, the distance between point 1 and point 3 should be greater than the distance between point 1 and 2; to zoom out place point 3 between points 1 and 2.

Zoom in and out

WINDOW 2;

Makes the elements appear twice as large.

WINDOW 0.5;

Reduces the size of the elements by a factor of two.You can specify an integer or real number as the argument to the WINDOW command to scale the view of the drawing by the amount entered. The center of the window remains the same.

The whole drawing

WINDOW FIT;

fits the entire drawing on the screen.

Back to the previous window

WINDOW LAST;

switches back to the previous window selection. A window selection is stored by every WINDOW command, except for zoom-only WINDOW commands and modifications of the window selection with the mouse.

Window Flip

WINDOW FLIP;

allows the user to view and edit the board from the perspective of the bottom side of the board.

Very large zoom factors

By default the maximum zoom factor is limited in such a way that an area of 1mm (about 40mil) in diameter will be shown using the full editor window. If you need to zoom in further, you can uncheck "Options/User interface/Limit zoom factor" and will then be able to zoom in all the way until the finest editor grid can be seen.When zooming very far into a drawing, the following things may happen:

Parameter Aliases

Parameter aliases can be used to define certain parameter settings to the WINDOW command, which can later be referenced by a given name. The aliases can also be accessed by clicking on the "WINDOW Select" button and holding the mouse button pressed until the list pops up. A right click on the button also pops up the list.The syntax to handle these aliases is:

WINDOW = name parameters

Defines the alias with the given name to expand to the given parameters. The name may consist of any number of letters, digits and underlines, and is treated case insensitive. It must begin with a letter or underline and may not be one of the option keywords.

WINDOW = name @

Defines the alias with the given name to expand to the current window selection.

WINDOW = ?

Asks the user to enter a name for defining an alias for the current window settings.

WINDOW = name

Allows the user to select a window that will be defined as an alias under the given name.

WINDOW = name;

Deletes the alias with the given name.

WINDOW name

Expands the alias with the given name and executes the WINDOW command with the resulting set of parameters. The name may be abbreviated and there may be other parameters before and after the alias (even other aliases). Note that in case name is an abbreviation, aliases have precedence over other parameter names of the command.

Example:WINDOW = MyWindow (0 0) (4 3);

Defines the alias "MyWindow" which, when used as in

WINDOW myw will zoom to the given window area. Note the abbreviated use of the alias and the case insensitivity.

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WIRE

The keyword 'WIRE' is deprecated. The WIRE command has been renamed to LINE

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WRITE

Function

 Saves the current drawing or library or design block.

Syntax

 WRITE;

 WRITE name

 WRITE @name

 WRITE 7 [ name ]

 WRITE [ DBL ] name

The WRITE command is used to save a drawing or library or design block. If 'name' is entered, EAGLE will save the file under the new name. The file name may also be entered with a pathname if it is to be saved in another directory. If no pathname is given, the file is saved in the project directory or design block directory (option DBL).

If the new name is preceded with a @, the name of the loaded drawing will also be changed accordingly. The corresponding board/schematic will then also be saved automatically under this name and the UNDO buffer will be cleared.

If WRITE is selected from the menu, a popup window will appear asking for the name to use (current drawing name is default). This name may be edited and accepted by clicking the OK button. Pressing the ESCAPE key or clicking the CANCEL button cancels the WRITE command.

To assure consistency for Forward&Back Annotation between board and schematic drawings, the WRITE command has the following additional functionality:

Saving for EAGLE 7.x

If the word 7 is provided after write, the file(s) will be saved for EAGLE 7.x. All XML attributes added in EAGLE 8.x will be omitted, and other adjustments will be made to ensure the file can be opened in EAGLE 7.x. Note that some information, such as the URNs of managed libraries and the assets inside them, will be lost.If no file name is provided on the command line, the user will be prompted to select one. Note that the @name format (to change the name of the loaded drawing) is not supported when saving for EAGLE 7.x.

Generate and write a Design Block

General

With option DBL, a design block is generated from the currently loaded schematic and/or board (depending, from which editor executed and whether schematic and board are in consistent state) and saved under the given name.If no name is given, a dialog for design block generation pops up. It additionally allows entering an HTML description and attributes. In the upper left there is a preview of the description. The description can be written in the text field below. Attributes can be managed in the bottom left. There are also automatically generated attributes which are not editable. The preview on the right side represents the drawing(s) to be included in the design block. At the bottom you can enter the file name or select where to store it.

Consistent Selection

Via the pulldown menu entry File/"Save selection as Design Block" it is possible to select parts of the current schematic, board or of both and save it as a design block.After having clicked this menu entry you do a selection in the first editor. The selection works in additive mode and may be adjusted several times. Deselection with Ctrl-Click is also supported. The selection in the first editor can be finished with Ctrl-Rightclick. There are a couple of criteria for such a selection that will be checked (see below). If these criteria are not met, an according error message is displayed and the user may continue the selection to correct his selection Ctrl-Rightclick again.

If there's only one editor open, the design block dialog like above pops up, presenting current selection in the preview. The selection can be saved this way.

If both editors are open, with the Ctrl-Rightclick you can continue the selection in the second editor.

In the second editor, initially the corresponding objects from first editor are selected for f/b annotation (e.g element R1 if part instance R1 has been selected first). With the selection in the second editor additional objects can be selected, as long as they do not disturb consistency. Selection or deselection of any objects that would disturb consistency are automatically filtered out. For example objects without electrical meaning like texts, dimensions etc. can be selected, routed wires or polygons from signals can be added or removed from the selection if the corresponding nets have been selected. The selection can be finished with another Ctrl-Rightclick and the design block dialog appears. Now the combined selection is visible in the preview and can be saved as a design block for future reuse.

The combined selection is only possible if a consistent schematic/board pair is loaded and it works in both directions. It is not supported yet within hierarchical designs.

Selection criteria

If the schematic has multiple sheets and the selection is started from board, only objects with counterparts on current sheet are supported.

If the selection is started from schematic, it is checked that the user selects net segments completely, in particular not leaving behind some net wires or labels.

For each part all it's instances must be selected.

With a net segment being selected, all connected part instances connected to this segment must be selected.

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