DesignWorks Development

We are very pleased to announce that the long-awaited new release of DesignWorks Professional schematic capture is now out the door!  The major items in this release are the new scripting and customization features, PDF export and a list of other refinements.  For a list of the features in the new version see http://www.capilano.com/html/dww5.html

Over the next one or two weeks we’ll be processing accumulated upgrade orders and free upgrades for recent purchasers.  The current release includes only the base schematic capture package.  The simulator option is heavily in progress here and will be out in a couple of weeks.  Stay tuned!!!

Although we don’t have any mechanism for editing the line widths and colors of multiple signals directly built into the new version (we have it on our list to do in the future) you can write a simple script that will do it.  Here is a sample:

You can fire up an external application from within DesignWorks Professional using a script.  You can use this, for example, to create a complete linkage to an external simulator or PCB process that generates a netlist file and fires up the application in a single command.  This can be linked to a custom menu command or even to a special symbol on your schematic.

Using the report script language (in DWP for Windows version 4 or 5), use the $SYSTEMOPEN command, like this:

$SYSTEMOPEN(NotePad.exe, file_to_open.txt)

In JavaScript (DWP5 only), use the top-level run method:

run(”NotePad.exe”, “file_to_open.txt”);

Both commands will use the usual search paths to find an application in the usual places.  A couple of other notes:

• both commands have extra arguments to let you determine whether DesignWorks waits for the external application to complete before continuing
• both commands also accept document files as the first argument, not just an application.  In this case, this is equivalent to double-clicking on the file in Windows Explorer.  It will attempt to open the document using its usual application.

We’re just in the process of putting together some examples of using the new scripting capability in DesignWorks Professional 5 for Windows.  The JavaScript engine combined with the ability to instantiate an Internet Explorer window inside the program gives you some really cool ways of creating “mini applications” within the program.  You can create a new window using any buttons, text, images, links, etc. that invoke any DesignWorks function or display any design data.

One of the examples we’ve put together allows you to interactively generate customized test vector files from a simulation running in DesignWorks.  The window has controls to capture signal lists, select the output file, display ongoing simulation results and start and stop the simulator, all in one control panel.  All this has been added to the program using a small number of lines of script code and is completely user-customizable!

Registered users of DesignWorks Professional for Windows can now download a version 5 beta for a free trial from our support web site at www.dwpro.com.  Users can check out the new drawing, scripting and other features for 30 days for free.   The upgrade will be free for anyone who purchased the package on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

The upcoming version 5 of DesignWorks Professional for Windows now has script methods for connecting to a database created using Microsoft Access.  This means you can extract information about parts in your design from the database to use in DesignWorks reports, or the other way around: write data to the database so that you can use Access’ reporting features to generate the reports you need.

The methods are simple and easy to use, here’s an example (for simplicity of viewing, we’ve left out any error checking):

// Run through all the parts in the circuit and fetch
// the company inventory code for each part from
// the parts inventory databasedb = SPDatabase(”design_db.mdb”);
db.openTable(”Parts”);
devs = currentCircuit.devices;
for (i = 0; i < devs.length; i++)
{
  partName = devs[i].getAttribute(”Part”);
  if (partName != “”)
  {
    if (db.findRecords(”PartName”, partName))
    {
      invNum = db.getFieldValue(”InventoryNum”);
      devs[i].setAttribute(”InventoryNum”, invNum);
    }
  }
}

DesignWorks Pro has always been well suited for OEM applications, i.e. where it is adapted for other applications and included as part of another vendor’s product.  Menu commands, symbol libraries, netlist and report outputs, design templates and other items can be customized to meet new requirements.  Version 5 now adds a whole new dimension with the JavaScript scripting capability.  Practically every operation that can be performed by a user can now be scripted, plus a lot of major new capabilities like internet and database access, HTML data display and much more.  For an example of how a major new application can be created with these capabilities see the EMTP product at www.emtp.com.  The front end for this power simulation package is DesignWorks with an extensive set of custom libraries and scripts.

To discuss your requirements, call us at 800-444-9064 or send an email to sales@capilano.com

Owners of an existing DesighWorks Professional for Windows package can take advantage of a special offer on upgrades.  The regular price for an upgrade from any previous version to 5.0 will be $195*.  Through September 30, 2007, you can pre-order your 5.0 upgrade package for only $125*.

(Note:  All users who purchased DesignWorks Professional for Windows 4 on or after Jan 1, 2007 will be eligible for a free upgrade to 5.0)

To place your order or find out more about the immediate benefits of DesignWorks Professional 4, and the additional features in DesignWorks Professional 5, click here:

http://www.capilano.com/special107/

or call us at 800-444-9064

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Capilano Computing

* Pricing in US dollars for the download-only version

DesignWorks 5 now has the ability to display whole circuits as elements in the “parts library” window.  This means you can create any regular design file containing elements that you want to reuse in designs and place it in a folder.  This folder is then treated just like a symbol library in that you can select it, in the list, view the graphical preview and drag it into your design.

To add a folder to the parts list, just open the initialization file dw.ini (in the DesignWorks program folder) using NotePad, and insert the following line in the [Libraries] section.

libraryfolder = myfolder\my circuit scraps

DesignWorks Professional 5 now adds the ability to specify any library in any location to opened automatically at startup.  To do this, just use the Open Lib command to open the library and check the “open automatically” box.  Alternatively, you can use the Auto Open Libs command to add or delete items from this list.

The items selected are stored in the [Libraries] section of the file “dwstate.ini” in the DesignWorks program folder.  If you’re brave, you can edit this file directly to manage this list.

This mechanism is in addition to the old method of specifying auto-open libraries, which was to place them (or a shortcut) in the Libs folder, or any other folder specified in the INI file.