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      <title>Viewing ECAD files</title>
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      <div class="title_topic3" id="xps10_pagetitle">Viewing ECAD files</div>
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      <div class="title_division">Assembly Navigator</div>
      <p class="para_division">The PCB.xchange Assembly Navigator makes it easy to get information about the PCB assembly. You can use the Assembly Navigator to inspect the assembly as a whole, or to get detailed information on the following entities included in the assembly:</p>
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            <p class="para_item">Components </p>
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         <li>
            <p class="para_item">Board </p>
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         <li>
            <p class="para_item">Drilled Holes </p>
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            <p class="para_item">Restriction Areas (keepins, keepouts, etc.) </p>
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      <p class="para_division">You can view the Assembly Navigator from the Window menu. A new pane appears on the right side of the PCB.xchange window displaying the name of the assembly followed by two main headings, Components and the name of the board part. By double-clicking on the either heading, you can open up an expanded list of the entities that fall under that heading. Certain items on the expanded list are sub-headings that can also be expanded to show a list of individual entities. Double click any expanded heading to collapse that branch of the list.</p>
      <p class="para_division">When you select an individual entity in the list, the corresponding entity highlights on the PCB.xchange graphical display. Similarly, when you select an entity in the graphical display, the corresponding entry highlights on the Assembly Navigator list. When you select the information icon [i] at the top of the Assembly Navigator, a pop-up window appears, showing the attributes and other information on the selected entity.</p>
      <div class="title_division"> Status Bar</div>
      <p class="para_division">The Status Bar is the information area at the very bottom of the PCB.xchange window. It is always visible. The status bar displays information on toolbar buttons</p>
      <div class="title_division"> List Region</div>
      <p class="para_division">The List Region hides or displays the message display pane at the bottom of the PCB.xchange window.</p>
      <div class="title_division"> Using the View menu</div>
      <p class="para_division">Use the  <b class="uiTerm">View</b> menu to control the display of the PCB Assembly. Toolbars provide easy access to these commands; you can display any toolbar by opening the Window menu and choosing the toolbar. Three toolbars together contain all the commands on the View menu:
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            <p class="para_item">The <b class="uiTerm">View </b> toolbar allows you to adjust the display for better viewing. Flip rotates the board 180 degrees about the Y axis, the other icons work the same way as the similar icons on the NX Operations menu/toolbar. 
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         <li>
            <p class="para_item">The <b class="uiTerm">Show/Hide</b> toolbar displays or hides entities such as components, holes, restriction areas and FE mesh. 
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            <p class="para_item">The <b class="uiTerm">Info/Settings</b> toolbar allows you to display a HTML file with detailed information about the PCB Assembly, set the units for this display, or open a dialog box to specify colors and other display options. 
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      <p class="para_division">Choose<b class="uiTerm"> View</b>&rarr;<b class="uiTerm">View Settings</b>. Specify the color and other options desired. When you Click  <b class="uiTerm">OK</b>, the settings are applied immediately.
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      <div class="title_division"> Top and bottom views</div>
      <p class="para_division">Top View and Bottom View allow you to flip the PCB Assembly to view either side. The status bar at the bottom of the PCB.xchange window changes to indicate the current view, Top or Bottom.</p>
      <p class="para_division">ECAD applications typically display bottom surface mountings by making the PC board appear &quot;transparent&quot;, so that top and bottom surface mountings are superimposed. PCB.xchange displays the bottom of the board as if it were flipped (rotated about the Y axis),  not as if it were transparent.</p>
      <div class="title_division">Saving settings</div>
      <p class="para_division">To save the settings you make from the <b class="uiTerm">View</b> menu or its dialog boxs (View Settings and Units) you must copy the file  <i class="pathName">%MAYA_PCB_DIR%/pcbx_ug.ini</i> (or<i class="pathName"> $MAYA_PCB_DIR/pcbx_ug.ini</i> on UNIX), and place the copy in the working directory or your home directory. Then, choose <b class="uiTerm">File</b>&rarr;<b class="uiTerm">Settings</b> and click Save Settings. The current settings on the  <b class="uiTerm">View</b> menu and its dialog boxs are saved in the <i class="fileName">pcbx_ug.ini</i> copy you have made, and PCB.xchange reproduces the settings by reading the <i class="fileName">pcbx_ug.ini</i> file during start up.
      </p>
      <p class="para_division">When you click  <b class="uiTerm">Save Settings</b> in the File Settings dialog box, PCB.xchange first looks for the file <i class="fileName">pcbx_ug.ini</i> in the working directory. If the file is not there, it looks in the user's home directory. If it is not there, it uses the file in the PCB.xchange installation.
      </p>
      <p class="para_division">The working directory is defined as the directory from which PCB.xchange is launched, typically the same directory from which NX is launched. The home directory is an environment variable typically defined by a system administrator for a specific user.</p>
      <p class="para_division">Note that when you click  <b class="uiTerm">Save Settings</b>, PCB.xchange also saves the current settings on the File Settings dialog box, as well as certain settings on the Import, Export and Write dialog boxes. See the articles <a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('pcb/xu_nx_to_idf.html');return(false);">Exporting NX Models to ECAD</a> and  <a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('pcb/xu_idf_to_nx.html');return(false);">Importing ECAD Files into NX</a> for details. 
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      <p class="para_division">You can also modify the application's default settings for viewing ECAD files by modifying the <i class="fileName">pcbx_ug.ini</i> file. See <a class="links" href="javascript:void(0)" onclick="top.openFile('pcb/xu_modif_ini.html');return(false);">Modifying Initialization Files</a>.
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      <div class="title_division"> Getting More information about a PCB assembly</div>
      <p class="para_division">To display a summary of the current PCB Assembly, choose  <b class="uiTerm">View</b>&rarr;<b class="uiTerm">PCB Assembly Info</b>. An HTML file (named  <em>pcbm_[assembly name].htm</em>) is created and saved in the current working directory, and opens in your web browser. If the file already exists it is overwritten; to save the file, change its name.
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