What's Good About SPB16.2 OrCAD Capture? Many Usability Enhancements!

There are enormous usability updates in the SPB16.2 release of OrCAD Capture. From new ways of managing multiple windows to the ability to place wires and parts using a cross hair cursor - all enhancements are designed to increase ease of use. You can read about the highlights below.

Tabbed windows with docking, floating, and MDI child capabilities:  Now it is easier to manage multiple open windows through tabs that show tooltips with window names. You can click a tab to activate the associated window or press CTRL+TAB to navigate through different open windows. The Session Log and Project Manager windows give you the flexibility to dock them or keep them as floating. You can right-click the title bar of these windows to get options to dock the windows to the top, bottom, left, or right of the main window. You can also specify to open these windows as MDI child windows in the maximized, minimized, or restored states

Ability to close all open windows:  You can close all open windows with a single action by choosing Windows - Close All Windows.

Display of net names for selected nets on the status bar:  You can check the name of a net by simply selecting the net or a wire in the net. The status bar displays the name of the net when it is selected.

Increased choices for lines:  You now have additional choices for line style. Two new line styles have been added to provide thicker line choices. This also enhances print-ability of the designs.

Search capability enhanced to find part pins:  The Find dialog box has been augmented with a new option to search for part pins. You can now search for a pin by selecting the Parts Pin option of the Find dialog box.

Resizable split part window:  The Split Part window is easier to use. You can now resize the window to adjust the number of pins visible.

Junction dot size:  Now you can choose the size (Small, Medium, Large, or Very Large) of the junction dot that appears when two wires are connected. You can set the junction dot size by choosing the option from the Junction Dot Size drop down list in the Miscellaneous tab of the Preferences dialog box.

Full screen mode by pressing Ctrl+F8:  You can change to full-screen mode by pressing Ctrl+F8. You can then exit the full screen mode by clicking the Close Full-screen button or by pressing the Escape key.

Cross hair mode:  When placing a part on a very dense design, it is often not easy to find your way around the design. To make this task more manageable, you can turn on theCross Hair mode. This will place a Cross Hair at the edge of the mouse pointer. As you move your cursor across the page the cross hair will make it easier to locate objects like pin and nets or very small parts in your design. Use the F6 key to toggle this mode on and off.

Property editor enhancements:  Enhancements include:

• Value editor that allows you to edit property values without having to resize the spreadsheet columns
• Immediately refresh property editor when a property is deleted

New project manager shortcuts:  The right mouse button shortcut menu in the Project Manger includes some new useful options:

• Annotate: You can now choose to annotate a design or selected parts of a design by selecting the Annotate menu item from context menu in the Project Manager. You will see this option either at the design or page level.

• Cut / Copy & Paste: The Project Manager context menu also includes the new Cut / Copy & Paste options. You can cut or copy a page from one design folder and paste into another folder. Note, while you can perform the copy operation at any time, you can do a cut operation only if that particular object is not current open, You can even cut or copy a design folder from one design and paste it into another design.
  

Enhanced search functionality - find toolbar & find window:  Search functionality is enhanced to include a new Find toolbar. This includes a new Search options button that allows you to narrow down or expand your search to the types of objects on the canvas. Once the search is complete, the new Find window groups the search results by object type making it easier for you to track down your result. You also have the option of saving the search results to an HTML file.

New Annotation Type Option:  The annotation dialog box now includes a new Annotation type list. When annotation your design you can now choose from three sequence options:

Default: This options annotates your design in the same sequence and manner as previous versions of OrCAD Capture.

Left - Right: Use this option if you want the objects in your design to be annotated in the left to right order in which they are placed on the page grid

Top - Bottom: You can annotate the objects in your design from top to bottom order on the page grid using this option.

New icons: OrCAD Capture and OrCAD Capture CIS have been upgraded with new, softer looking icons. This upgrade brings uniformity across many of the generic icon styles in different Cadence products. There are eight main toolbars in OrCAD Capture and OrCAD Capture CIS. 

• Capture Toolbar
• Draw Tool Palette
• Part Tool Palette
• Symbol Tool Palette
• PSpice
• FPGA
• CIS Explorer
• Part Manager

• The Toolbars tab allows you to add and remove toolbars. It also allows you to create new toolbars. You can decide whether or not you want to view tooltips.
• Use the Commands tab to add or remove buttons from the toolbars. Also, clicking on each button in the tab displays a short description of the button.

• Change the display of toolbars
• Create a new toolbar
• Add buttons to toolbars
• Remove buttons from toolbars
• Reset toolbars to their default settings

Change the display of toolbars

• From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
• Click the Toolbars tab.
• In the Toolbars list, select the toolbars you want to be displayed.
• Select any of the following options:
  •  Select Show Tooltips to enable ToolTips.
  •  Select Cool Look to make the toolbar buttons appear flat.
• Click Apply to apply changes without closing the dialog box, or click OK to apply changes and close the dialog box.
  

• From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
• Click the Toolbars tab.
• Click New.
• In the text box that appears, type a name for the toolbar, then click OK.
• The name of the new toolbar appears in the Toolbars list.
• Click Apply to apply changes without closing the dialog box, or click OK to apply changes and close the dialog box.
  

Add buttons to toolbar

• From the Tools menud, choose Customize.
  
• Click the Commands tab.
• In the Categories list, click a category to display related toolbar buttons in the Buttons frame.
• Under Buttons, click a button to display a description of its function in the Description frame.
• To add the selected button to a toolbar, drag it from the Customize dialog box to any toolbar displayed in the program window.
• Click OK to close the dialog box.

• Drag the button you do not want from the toolbar to the Customize dialog box.

Reset toolbars to their default settings

•  From the Tools menu, choose Customize.
• Click the Toolbars tab.
• Do one of the following: 
  • Under Scheme, from the list, select Default.
  •  Click Reset.
• Click Apply to apply changes without closing the dialog box, or click OK to apply changes and close the dialog box.

As always, I look for your feedback and suggestions on using these new capabilities.