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.\" PCB, interactive printed circuit board design
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.\" Copyright (C) 1994,1995,1996 Thomas Nau
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.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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.\" (at your option) any later version.
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.\" This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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.\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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.\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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.\" GNU General Public License for more details.
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.\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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.\" along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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.\" Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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.\" Contact addresses for paper mail and Email:
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.\" Thomas Nau, Schlehenweg 15, 88471 Baustetten, Germany
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.\" Thomas.Nau@rz.uni-ulm.de
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.\" RCS: $Id: pcb.man.raw,v 145.1 1997/07/26 13:12:05 nau Exp $
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.TH PCB 1 \" -*- nroff -*-
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Pcb \- X11 interactive printed circuit board layout system
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The current release is: RELEASE
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[\-option ...] [\-toolkit_option ...] [description file]
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\fIPcb\fP is a handy tool for the \fIX Window System\fP build to design
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printed circuit boards. All coordinate units are 1/1000 inch.
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It implements the most needed features like:
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* A layout consists of lines, arcs, polygons, elements (lines, pins and arcs),
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vias and text information seperated into several layers. Each of them
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is identified by a unique name and color (if supported by your display).
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SMD circuits are also supported.
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* MAX_LAYER layers are supported in addition to a silkscreen layer.
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Visibility of pins and SMD pads and vias is controllable.
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* All files are 7 bit ASCII and can be preprocessed with any UNIX command
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that writes it's results to \fIstdout\fP (\fIGNU m4\fP is required).
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* The layout grid is anywhere in the range from 1/1000 inch up to 250/1000
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inch. The maximum is defined at compilation time.
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* Zooming is supported.
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* A copy of the current data is saved temporarily in /tmp to
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ensure that nothing is lost during critical sections of the program.
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* An unlimited (depending on memory) undo operations
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is supported. Also redo is available in case you change your made.
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Pcb is intended to be a simple tool without memory and time consuming
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features like autorouter and autoplacement. It worked well for several
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people on an \fIAtari\fP platform till it was ported to \fIX11\fP
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in 1994. Most of the settings can be specified by resources, passed
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in the command-line or changed at runtime. Layout related settings are saved
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together with the data.
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Beside the toolkit options, Pcb recognizes some command-line options
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with following syntax:
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\-option switches it on, +option switches it off
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.BI \-alldirections,+alldirections
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Enables or disables lines in any direction. Overrides the resource
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\fIallDirectionLines\fP.
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.BI \-backup " <value>"
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Time in seconds between two backups. Overrides the resource
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Number of characters per output-line. Overrides the resource
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\fIcharactersPerLine\fP.
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.BI \-fontfile " <filename>"
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The default font is read from this file. The file is, together with a path,
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passed to an external program. The path is defined by the resource
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\fIfontPath\fP wheras the command uses \fIfontCommand\fP.
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Overwrittes the resource \fIfontFile\fP.
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.BI \-lelement " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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Sets the command to be executed when an element is loaded.
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The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p
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which is replaced by the element search-path. The command must write it's
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results to \fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIelementCommand\fP is overwritten.
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.BI \-lfile " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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Sets the command to be executed when an layout file is loaded.
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The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p which is
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replaced by the search-path. The command must write it's results to
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\fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIfileCommand\fP is overwritten.
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.BI \-lfont " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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Sets the command to be executed when an fontfile is loaded.
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The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p which
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is replaced by the font search-path. The command must write it's results to
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\fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIfontCommand\fP is overwritten.
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.BI \-lg " <layergroups>"
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This option overwrites the resource \fIlayerGroups\fP. See its description
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for more information.
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.BI \-libname " <filename>"
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The default filename for the library. Overwrites the resource
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\fIlibraryFilename\fP.
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.BI \-libpath " <path>"
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The default search path for the the library. Overwrites the resource
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.BI \-llib " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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Sets the command to be executed when an element is loaded from the library.
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The command may contain %f and %p to pass the requested filename
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and the searchpath to the command. %a is replaces by the three arguments
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\fItemplate\fP, \fIvalue\fP and \fIpackage\fP. The command must write
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the data to its standard output. The related resource is \fIlibraryCommand\fP.
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.BI \-llibcont " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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The command lists the contents of the library.
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The command may contain %f and %p to pass the library filename
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and the searchpath to the command.
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The related resource is \fIlibraryContentsCommand\fP.
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.BI \-loggeometry " <geometry>"
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Determines the geometry of the logging window.
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.BI \-pnl " <positiv integer value>"
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Defines the maximum length of a pin name to be displayed in a pinout
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window. Overwrittes the resource \fPpinoutNameLength\fI.
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.BI \-pz " <positiv integer value>"
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Sets the zoom factor for pinout window according to the
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formula: scale = 1:(2^value). The resource \fPpinoutZoom\fI is
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If enabled, all found connections are reset after an element has been scanned.
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This setting is only used while scanning connections to all elements.
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Overrides the resource \fIresetAfterElement\fP.
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Overrides the resource \fIringBellWhenFinished\fP. If enabled, the bell
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on the keyboard is rang when connection searching has finished.
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Enables/Disables the saving of the previous commandline. Overrides the
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\fIsaveLastCommand\fP resource.
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Overrides the resource \fIsaveInTMP\fP. If enabled all data is saved
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in a temporary file in the directory \fI/tmp\fP instead of being lost.
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.BI \-sfile " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
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Sets the command to be executed when an layout file is saved.
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The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename. The command
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must read it's data from \fIstdin\fP. The resource \fIsaveCommand\fP is
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.BI \-size " <width>x<height>"
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Overrides the resource \fIsize\fP which determines the maximum size
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.TP .BI \-v " <\-100..100>"
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Sets the volume of the X-speaker. Overrides the resource \fIvolume\fP.
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In addition to these 'normal-work-options' you will find additional
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special options, \fI\-copyright\fP, \fI-help\fP and \fI\-version\fP,
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which print out the GNU COPYLEFT notice, a usage message and the current
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There are several resources, actions and menus available.
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For a detailed description see the GNU info file or the printed manual.
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X(1), Xlib Resource Manager documentation, Xt resource documentation,
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PCB, interactive printed circuit board design,
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Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, 1996 Thomas Nau
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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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Thomas Nau, Thomas.Nau@rz.uni-ulm.de
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Schlehenweg 15, 88471 Baustetten, Germany
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harry eaton (haceaton@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu) for many new features
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Bernhard (Bernhard.Daeubler@physik.uni-ulm.de) and Harald Daeubler
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(Harald.Daeubler@physik.uni-ulm.de) for helpful hints, testing and
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a neverending stream of new options and ideas.
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Roland Merk (merk@faw.uni-ulm.de) for his help during the hard days of
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learning X11 programming.
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Erland Unruh (Erland.Unruh@malmo.trab.se) for alpha and beta testing of
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Many, many others who donated some of their time for developing new
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circuit-files, did testing and came up with several bug-fixes and
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improvements. Thanks to all of them.
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doc/pcb.man.raw
