Project Manager

October 2020

The Project Manager dialog can be used to create, copy and delete project files stored on disc... and can be accessed from the Options Menu...

You'll see that it lists projects as found in the Projects Folder you defined previously, so for a new installation the list may be empty...

Ensure the root node (the folder icon which represents where you want to create a new project) is select (as shown above)... then press [New]...

Enter a useful name for your project at the prompt...

then press [OK]. A confirmation should be as follows...

Finally, ensure the new Folder is selected, then press [Add] to add the project to the Project Explorer...

The Project Explorer should now reflect the added project...

Adding Sheets

Note: In the next chapter we'll look at Deleting Sheets.

A Project contains schematic files of the ".Sheet" extension, these are the XML files that store the location of objects such as lines, circles and texts.

With your new project node selected, select File > New Sheet...

When prompted enter, a sequence number (sheet number) for the new sheet...

Dots are also permitted, for example 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc are valid, however, as with Alpha-Numeric sheet names, it's the printing that becomes a bit trickier to manage.

Note: Although Circuit does support Alpha-Numeric sheet names - that's for another day, for right now, please use try to use numerical sequencing.

Understanding Files & Types

Before we do anything more, let's take a quick look at file types.

Browse now to the folder that contains your newly created project... it's appearance should be as follows...

A project will contain SHEET XML files and various other XML files.

The SHEET file stores the graphical location of objects such as squares, lines, wire nodes and text types in the particular sheet.

To look inside any XML file simply open with Windows Notepad, or other such tool of your preference...

So, not much in 1.SHEET right now, as we haven't added any graphical objects.

For every TEXT object that we add to any SHEET, an entry will be made in textfile.xml. This file is shared across every SHEET created, the intention being that all text properties can be evaluated and modified in one single file, for example, automatic wire numbers.

For every object in any SHEET that has component data attached, for example a relay, terminal or crimp, the datafile.xml will act as single source file for all these. Again, the intention being that reports and lists can be evaluated from a single file.

Finally, the manifest.xml file has a project wide purpose that will be discussed in a later chapter.

(Note: All XML files can be edited in a plain text editor - that's the point - human readable and editable if required - HOWEVER, be very careful, as any error such as omitting a < or > or adding a comma in the wrong place will break the file. The good news is that as it is just plain text, such errors can be found a fixed quite readily. Before any manual editing, be sure to familiarise yourself with XML text basics.)

Project, Border, Symbol and Forms

All graphical files are stored in XML Format. The reasoning for Project, Border, Symbol and Form types are as follows:-

Project folders contain the SHEET, data, text and manifest files unique to that project. (They will contain many other files also when a project is Localised for transfer to another machine - again, to be discussed in a later chapter).

A Border file is just a regular SHEET file saved in a certain way, and when applied to a project is loaded only once but appears as the edge or backdrop to every sheet in the project. The Border file can also contain text objects that can contain project wide detail such as the customer, and this detail can be adjusted in the manifest.xml settings, as one example.

A Symbol file is just a regular block of graphical objects, with perhaps some wire-nodes added, and importantly may also have component data embedded into the symbol also.

A Form file is again just a type of SHEET file which has rows of text objects with tags that can be automatically discovered and populated with data, for example component lists which then form part of the printed output. Adding a Form to your project in effect is liking adding another SHEET, but it's handled differently in the program.

That's a new empty project setup.