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COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Labcenter Electronics Ltd 1990-2007. All Rights Reserved.


The PROTEUS software programs (ISIS, PROSPICE and ARES) and their associated library files, data files and documentation are copyright Labcenter Electronics Ltd. All rights reserved. You have bought a licence to use the software on one machine at any one time; you do not own the software. Unauthorized copying, lending, or redistribution of the software or documentation in any manner constitutes breach of copyright. Software piracy is theft. PROSPICE incorporates source code from Berkeley SPICE3F5 which is copyright Regents of Berkeley University. Manufacturers SPICE models included with the software are copyright of their respective originators.

WARNING
You may make a single copy of the software for backup purposes. However, you are warned that the software contains an encrypted serialization system. Any given copy of the software is therefore traceable to the master disk supplied with your licence. PROTEUS also contains special code that will prevent more that one copy using a particular licence key on a network at any given time. Therefore, you must purchase a licence key for each copy that you want to run simultaneously.

DISCLAIMER
No warranties of any kind are made with respect to the contents of this software package, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Neither Labcenter Electronics Ltd nor any of its employees or sub-contractors shall be liable for errors in the software, component libraries, simulator models or documentation, or for any direct, indirect or consequential damages or financial losses arising from the use of the package. Users are particularly reminded that successful simulation of a design with the PROSPICE simulator does not prove conclusively that it will work when manufactured. It is always best to make a one off prototype before having large numbers of boards produced. Manufacturers SPICE models included with PROSPICE are supplied on an as-is basis and neither Labcenter nor their originators make any warranty whatsoever as to their accuracy or functionality

INTRODUCTION
Overview
The aim of this guide is to provide concise information on significant changes to the Proteus Design Suite in the latest major release (Version 7). It is not intended as a comprehensive resource on using the Proteus software modules practical tutorials and more detailed discussion of features take place in the reference manual which is accessible from the Help Menu in both ISIS or ARES. You may also find our web based support forums useful for general Proteus enquiries and discussion : http://support.labcenter.co.uk Finally, if you still have questions or problems after consulting the reference manual please contact your local authorized distributor for technical support or mail us directly at support@labcenter.com quoting your customer number in the subject line of the email.

System Requirements
The Proteus Design Suite 7 makes use of advanced Windows APIs and as such is directly supported only on the following operating systems : Windows 2000 Windows XP Windows Vista (following release)

Please note that while the software may work on legacy Windows OS such as Windows 98, NT4 or Millennium, neither Labcenter nor indeed Microsoft actively test or support these operating systems. A 1GHz processor with 256MB of RAM and 150MB of free disk space would be a sensible minimum configuration. Proteus VSM microcontroller simulations are CPU intensive so if you are conducting such simulations, the faster the machine the better.

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Installation
The Proteus Design Suite will install by default into a separate location from any existing Proteus installation, specifically: C:\Program Files\Labcenter Electronics\Proteus 7 Professional\ Following installation, you may wish to port your existing user libraries into the Proteus 7 installed directories. This is as simple as moving the appropriate library files from the Library directory of the Proteus 6 installation to the Library directory of the Proteus 7 installation. Such libraries will then be visible within the software when it is next launched. Designs and Layouts created in Proteus Professional Version 6 will load directly into Version 7 in the normal way. However, due to new functionality in Version 7, do note that files saved in Version 7 cannot be loaded back into an older version of the software.

Automatic Updates
Proteus 7 comes with a new Update Manager that will notify you automatically when a new release of the software is available. By default this checks our server when your machine is switched on but the frequency of update checking can be configured via the Update Manager command on the System Menu.

Manually Configuring the Update Manager. We recommend that, provided your computer has internet access, you leave the Update Manager at its default settings to ensure that you are always running the latest copy of the Proteus software.

ISIS SCHEMATIC CAPTURE


Overview
The general aim of the functional changes in the ISIS software package was to improve ease of use whilst maintaining speed of use. Much of the development effort has therefore been concentrated on the user interface and with particular regard to mouse operations. We have also introduced a powerful Windows Explorer type view of the schematic in the form of the Design Explorer. These changes and additions are detailed in the following sections.

User Interface
Proteus 7 comes with an entirely new mouse interface, designed from the ground up to both make it easier to access functionality and to maintain speed of operation for common design tasks. These changes broadly fall into five categories: cursors, design navigation, object placement, selection & editing and block operations. Cursors ISIS includes several mouse cursors which change dynamically to help you identify which action will be performed if you click the mouse. These are exceptionally useful indicators, particularly when you are initially exposed to the new user interface. While we would expect these to be intuitive to most users we recommend that you take a moment to familiarize yourself with them. Standard Cursor used in selection mode when not over a hot object. Placement Cursor placement mode will be entered on left click. Hot placement cursor for wires - a wire will either start (or stop if currently placing a wire) when the mouse is left clicked. Hot placement cursor for buses - a bus will either start (or stop if currently placing a wire) when the mouse is left clicked. Object under the mouse will be selected on left click. The object under the mouse can be moved by left depressing the mouse and dragging it into the desired position. The wire segment can be dragged by left depressing the mouse and dragging it to the desired position. Left clicking the mouse will assign the specified property to the object (used with the Property Assignment Tool).

When the mouse is over an object in ISIS a small dashed line will appear to indicate which object is considered hot. Using this context highlighting together with the dynamic cursors tells you both which object will be acted upon and what that action will be when you left click the mouse. A right click of the mouse over an object will always select the object and present you with a context menu with appropriate actions (edit, move, delete, etc.). Design Navigation Navigation around a sheet within ISIS now takes place primarily via the middle mouse button as follows : Rolling the middle mouse forwards and backwards over the Editing Window while ISIS has the focus will zoom you in or out around the mouse pointer. Clicking the middle mouse will enter Track-Pan mode, effectively picking up the sheet at the point the mouse is clicked. Moving the mouse will then move the entire sheet with a second click on the middle mouse button exiting track-pan mode and dropping the sheet. Hold the SHIFT key down and drag out a box with the left mouse button around the area you want to zoom in to. We call this Shift Zoom

LABCENTER ELECTRONICS LTD. Note that when using the track pan method above you can also zoom in and out by rolling the mouse wheel. So, click the middle mouse button to pick up the sheet and move the sheet by moving the mouse and zoom the sheet by rolling the middle mouse button. Left click to 'drop' the sheet and exit track pan mode. You can use the F8 key at any time to re-center the Editing Window on the complete schematic. The above techniques may take a little practice but will prove to be markedly faster and more convenient when mastered than previous sheet navigation commands. That said, the traditional F6 & F7 shortcut keys to zoom in and out around the mouse have been maintained, and the Overview Window is still available for panning and zooming in the usual way. Navigation between sheets is now conveniently available from the right click context menus :

Right clicking in an empty area of a root sheet on the schematic provides context options to navigate to a specific root sheet on the design. Right clicking on a sub-circuit body provides a context option to enter the sub-circuit. Right clicking in an empty area of a sub-circuit (child sheet) provides a context option to return to the parent sheet.

In addition the Design Menu provides both the traditional Goto Sheet command and also a listing of root sheets at the foot of the menu. Finally, the new Design Explorer provides a Windows Explorer interface to the schematic, allowing easy sheet navigation. This is covered later in this documentation and discussed in depth in the online reference manual. Object Placement Placement of objects is slightly different from older versions and works as follows : 1) Select the desired mode (e.g. component mode) in the normal way. 2) Select the desired object from the Object Selector in the normal way. 3) Move the mouse over the Editing window note that the mouse cursor is the object placement cursor (uncoloured pencil). 4) Left click the mouse once. This will enter placement mode and a preview of the object will then appear (and follow the mouse). 5) With most objects (components for example), you can move the mouse at this stage to reposition the object, use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to rotate the part and use the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. With 2D Graphics you can move the mouse to define the shape of the graphic (the initial left click acting as an anchor) and use the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. 6) When the object is positioned correctly click the left mouse button again to commit placement and exit placement mode.

PROTEUS UPDATE GUIDE Selection & Editing Object selection is an area that has been extensively reworked and enables modeless selection via the mouse. The following is useful to remember as a general rules of thumb: When you move the mouse over an object a dashed line will appear around the object to provide visual confirmation on which object is currently under the mouse. Right click on an object will simultaneously select the object and present a context menu populated with actions that can be invoked on that object. A left click on an object will select the object if the mouse cursor is the selection cursor (pointed hand). Two left clicks (double click) on an object will launch the Edit Properties dialogue form for that object. The mouse cursor will change to a hand with a pointed finger to indicate when an object can be selected. This serves as a visual cue to identify when a mouse click will result in object selection. It follows from the above that the user has a choice in normal selection. There are however, necessary exceptions to the guidelines rules above. Wires/Buses/Pin Tips In normal modes a left click on these objects serves either to start a new wire or to terminate an existing wire (modeless wiring). This behaviour is unchanged from older versions but will be clearly identifiable as the mouse cursor will change to be a green pencil (or a blue pencil when placing buses) when the mouse is over the wire/bus. To select a wire therefore you must first enter Selection Mode - and then left click on the wire.

Mouse cursor over wire in other modes.

Mouse cursor over wire in selection mode.

Alternatively, simply right click on the wire, which will both select the wire and present a context menu of actions that can be performed on the wire.

Typical context menu after right clicking on a wire. 2D Graphics In order to select a 2D Graphic either via the left or right mouse buttons you must click on the border of the graphic rather than on the body of the graphic. Additionally, to select via a left click you must first enter Selection Mode - . This is necessary to distinguish between a desired action on the graphic and (potentially) an action on an object superimposed on the graphic. The cursor provides a visual help, identifying when a graphic is hot for selection.

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Selecting a 2D Graphic Object. Editing an objects properties is possible either by double clicking on the object (not exceptions above) or by right clicking on the object and selecting Edit Properties from the resulting context menu.

Editing a components properties via the right mouse context menu. Block Operations We have enhanced both block selection and block operations in Version 7. There are now two ways of block selecting objects in ISIS: 1) Select discrete single objects with the CTRL button depressed on the keypad. This works exactly as per Windows and allows you to tag multiple objects individually regardless of their relative position on the schematic. 2) Place a tag box by right depressing the mouse, dragging a box encompassing the objects that you want to select and then releasing the mouse. Note that after defining a tag box you are presented with handles allowing you to resize the box and thereby refine the selection to include or exclude objects.

Resizing the tagbox via the handles after placement. After creating a block selection the block icons will perform operations in the same way as in previous versions of the software.

The Block Operations icons. However, where a tagbox has been defined (method 2) you can left depress the mouse anywhere in the tag box and drag the objects to the desired location directly. This is both simpler and provides far more control as you can specify the pick-up point for the block according to where you depress the mouse.

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Dragging a block via the left mouse button. The mouse cursor will change to a hand with a pointed finger and a directional arrow to indicate when the objects can be moved by left depressing the mouse. Essentially though, this is anywhere inside the tag box.

Design Explorer
Introduction ISIS 7 provides a powerful tool for navigating and examining a schematic in the form of the Design Explorer. This is an extremely complex and versatile tool that is discussed in detail in the reference documentation but we will use this section to provide you with a flavour of the types of things it can be used for. Start by loading the ISIS tutorial circuit by default this will be located at : C:\Program Files\Labcenter Electronics\Proteus 7 Professional\SAMPLES\Tutorials\Isistut.dsn Now launch the Design Explorer from the Tools menu (default keyboard shortcut 'ALT+X'). The design explorer will launch in what is called 'Physical Partlist View' and display a listing of all the components used in the current sheet (displayed on the left hand pane). In our tutorial design we only have one sheet but in a larger design we could use the left hand pane to navigate through the sheets, viewing the component parts on the currently selected sheet. Navigation and Verification Straight away we can see that our switch has no package associated with it (the red text missing under the package column), which would be a problem were we to proceed to ARES for PCB Layout. A quick, visual check of the circuit to identify silly mistakes like this therefore takes a matter of seconds with the design explorer and can save considerable time at a later stage.

The Design Explorer launched on the tutorial design. We can use the design explorer to quickly locate a part (or indeed a net or sheet) via the find icon at the top of the explorer window. Try this now, locating the C4 Capacitor by typing in C4 in the find dialogue and then using the ISIS icon at the top of the explorer to zoom and navigate to the component.

Using the Design Explorer to locate and navigate to a component.

LABCENTER ELECTRONICS LTD. The design explorer is a top level, modeless window - it minimises to the system tray when you use it for schematic navigation to preserve screen real estate. You can, of course, maximise it again in the normal way and continue design verification/interrogation. We can also use the design explorer to check connectivity. Find and double click on part 'U3' on the right hand pane - the design explorer will change views as shown below, with a listing of all the pins on part U3 now displayed on the right hand pane, while a listing of all the components on the sheet is shown on the left hand pane.

The Design Explorer displaying all pins on part U3. If we now right click for example on U3-VIN the resulting context menu will allow you to Goto Schematic Net. This provides an excellent visual method of quickly verifying connections on a net.

Highlighting the net connected to VIN on the schematic via the Design Explorer. Note that, as well as via the ISIS icon, you can also navigate to the schematic part (or indeed the schematic sheet) via this context menu. Alternatively we can simply double click on the pin in question within the design explorer. This shortcut actually switches the design explorer from 'Physical Partslist View' to 'Physical Netlist View' and gives you a 'live' view of the connections on the schematic. Since we activated this from a pin on U3 what we see on the right hand pane is a list of connections on the net connected to that pin. An extremely simple and powerful way to examine connectivity!

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The Design Explorer displaying the connections on the net connected to the VIN pin of U3. It's worth taking a moment to summarise what we are seeing at present. The left hand pane displays a list of nets, where there are separate icons both for global nets and for single pin nets (extremely useful in itself). We are now in netlist view rather than partslist view meaning that we are looking at a list of nets rather than a list of parts.

The Design Explorer currently in Netlist View. The clever part here is that the pins are the common link between the netlist and the physical component. Double click on a pin in netlist view and you will switch to partslist view, with the right hand pane showing all the pins on that device. Try this now with the SW1-COM pin displayed in the right hand pane.

The Design Explorer currently in Partslist View. What we are looking at now is a listing of pins on the SW1 component in partslist view. Similarly, if we now double click on the SW1-NO pin we will see all pins connected to this pin in Netslist View.

The Design Explorer in Netlist View showing all pins connected to SW1-NO. You can directly switch between netlist view and physical view at any point via the icons at the top left of the design explorer. In the examples to date we've started from a physical component and then used pins to examine connectivity (either in partlist view to see the pins on a device or in netlist view to view the connections to a physical pin). We can, in cases where we know the net (GND being the obvious example) bypass this and directly examine all the connections on a particular net. Simply switch the design explorer into netlist view, left click on the sheet to display all nets and then click on the GND net on the left hand pane. 9

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The Design Explorer in Netlist View showing all connections to GND. Cross Probing Cross-probing is a powerful technique for analysing and checking both your schematic and your PCB layout simultaneously. Essentially it allows you to take a schematic component and tag/zoom to the PCB footprint on the layout corresponding to that component. The Proteus design suite also enables you to look at a net on the schematic and highlight the same net on the PCB layout, thus allowing you to easily establish and check routing strategies and completeness. The following practical walkthroughs assume that you have both the schematic and the PCB Layout open and that they are synchronized. You may want to use one of the pre-supplied samples or an existing design / layout of your own. The name of the PCB Layout file must be identical to the name of the Schematic Design File e.g. fred.dsn and fred.lyt. To cross probe to a footprint in ARES : 1. Make sure that both ISIS and ARES are open, have the design/layout file loaded and that they are synchronised (that is, that all changes in ISIS have been netlisted through to ARES). 2. Launch the Design Explorer. 3. Make sure that you are in Physical Parts View - this is shown on the title bar of the design explorer.

The Design Explorer in Physical Partslist View. 4. The right hand pane should be displaying a listing of component parts on the current ISIS sheet.

A listing of components on the current sheet is displayed. 5. Right click on the schematic part of interest within this pane and you should get a context menu with an option to 'Go to PCB Part'. Select this menu option and ARES will both zoom to and highlight the footprint corresponding to the component you selected. 10

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Cross-probing to the footprint on the PCB Layout. If the 'Go to PCB Part' option is grayed out then either ARES is not open, doesn't have the layout corresponding to the open schematic loaded, or the schematic and PCB are out of sync (close design explorer, re-netlist to ARES and repeat from step 2 above). The Design Explorer is a top level window which means that it can be minimised to the system tray. It will automatically detect when the schematic has changed and will close. This is required to ensure that the information displayed in the design explorer is entirely consistent with that on the schematic. To cross probe to a net in ARES : 1. Repeat steps 1 & 2. 2. Use the net icon at the top left of the design explorer to switch into Physical Netlist View - this will be reflected on the title bar.

The design explorer in Physical Netlist View. 3. The right hand pane will now be displaying a list of nets used in the schematic.

A listing of nets is displayed. 4. Right click on the net of interest within this pane and you should get a context menu with an option to 'Go to PCB Net'. Select this menu option and ARES will both zoom to and highlight the footprint corresponding to the component you selected.

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Cross Probing to a net in the PCB Layout.

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PROTEUS VSM SIMULATION


Overview
Proteus 7 includes several exciting new features, both incorporated into the VSM core and also in instrumentation and model development. Of particular note are the introduction of trace modes or diagnostic messaging during simulation, the restructuring of the simulation advisor, the enhancements to the Oscilloscope and Logic Analyser instruments and the creation of the new PIC24 model family. These are discussed in brief below and expanded in some detail in the Proteus VSM online reference manual (Help Menu in ISIS Proteus VSM Help).

Diagnostic Messaging
Proteus VSM includes extensive support for diagnostic tools or trace modes, which are invaluable in fault finding and verifying system operation. This is a mechanism by which all specified activity is logged during simulation and displayed on the simulation advisor in a textual reporting format. The format of the message includes the time the message was logged, a synopsis of the message, the component issuing the message and optionally further information in the form of context sensitive help. Think of it as a way to 'lift the lid' on a part and examine internal behaviour, providing traceability of data through the part and across the system. Being a system level simulator, Proteus VSM includes diagnostic modes not only for microprocessors but also for appropriate peripheral models (LCD displays, I2C memories, temperature control devices etc.) and these trace modes can be enabled granularly via the configure diagnostic dialogue form. You can also control the level of messaging you want to see for each device. For example, you may want to examine full trace messaging on the onboard SPI peripheral of your microcontroller and also on the SPI EEPROM but may only be interested in receiving warning messages for other system components. Do note that, when enabled, diagnostic messaging will impact on system performance. This is unavoidable as it typically entails writing copious amounts of textual data to the simulation advisor. However, as it is normally used as a debugging aid to resolve a design or firmware problem, performance or speed of simulation is not an issue at the time you enable diagnostics. Configuring Diagnostics To configure a simulation with diagnostics enabled: Launch the Configure Diagnostics dialogue form from the Debug Menu.

Expand the 'trees' in the dialogue form to find the item(s) for which you wish to enable diagnostics.

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Left click on the item of interest to select and then change the trace level to full trace. You can also set both an 'arm' time and a run time to control the time interval for which the diagnostics will be active.

Repeat the process for any other items of interest and then exit the dialogue form.

When you run the simulation the configured trace diagnostics will become active at the arm time, run for the specified period and all results will be displayed on the simulation advisor. Enabling trace diagnostics imposes a considerable load on the simulation. However, as they are typically used to identify obscure problems and for debugging purposes, the fact that the simulation will not run in realtime is not an issue.

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The Simulation Advisor


The simulation advisor is the repository for all error, warning and diagnostics messages generated during a simulation run. It resides at the bottom of the ISIS application on the status bar next to the animation control panel. During a simulation run the status display will live update, indicating both the most severe type of message logged (errors, warnings, trace messages) and the number of such messages. You can launch the simulation advisor at any time during a simulation, or indeed after a simulation run (all messages are persistent!) by left clicking the mouse on the minimised display on the status bar.

Launching the Simulation Advisor from the status bar. The simulation advisor provides severity indicators beside every message as a visual indicator, navigation capabilities (both to a net and to a component on the schematic) where appropriate on messages and context sensitive help on common errors. Navigation to a device with the Simulation Advisor All messages originating from a physical component (pretty much everything except system messages) have an associated source column at the right hand side of the message. This serves to indicate the component on the schematic which generated the message and left clicking the mouse on the source link will minimise the simulation advisor and both zoom to and tag the source component.

Navigating to message source in the simulation advisor. This is extremely useful, particularly in more complex designs, where you want to examine the hardware design around a device to resolve a problem.

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LABCENTER ELECTRONICS LTD. Navigation to a net with the Simulation Advisor One of the most frustrating things about simulation errors is that some problems (net contentions, SPICE singular matrices etc.) are relevant to a net and not a specific component and it is therefore extremely awkward to isolate the offending circuitry on the schematic. The simulation advisor simplifies this task by including 'hyperlinks' where applicable on messages, which when clicked allow you to navigate the design. To navigate to a net from the simulation advisor: 1. Click on the 'net link' contained in the message of interest within the simulation advisor.

2. This will minimise the simulation advisor back to the status bar and launch the Design Explorer in ISIS, showing you a list of nets on the left hand pane and all the connections (pins) on the offending net in the right hand pane.

3. Right click on one of these pins and select the Goto Schematic Net option from the resulting context menu.

4. The net in question will now be highlighted on the schematic.

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Note that this method is not foolproof as, where a schematic part is modelled via equivalent circuits (that is, the functionality of the part is modelled in schematic form by wiring together parts which already have models) and the problem net exists within the model, it is not possible to navigate to the net. However, while this and other parasitic cases exist, the technique above will work in most all normal situations and provides a powerful analysis tool in such cases. The design explorer is discussed in detail both in the ISIS tutorial and in the ISIS reference manual. Context Sensitive Help in the Simulation Advisor Error messages which indicate common mistakes and/or design flaws include context sensitive help which details recommended solutions to the issue. This provides you not only with a clear indication of what has gone wrong but also with relevant suggestions for resolving the issue. You can launch the context sensitive help for an error message simply by left clicking the mouse on the help icon at the right of the message as shown below:

Using Context Sensitive help in the simulation advisor. The Context Menu Right clicking on the simulation advisor window produces a context menu with options to copy the contained data to the clipboard and/or to configure colours/grids and appearance of the window.

Navigating to message source in the simulation advisor.

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Virtual Instrumentation
Significant work has taken place on the core instruments with major upgrades to both the Oscilloscope and Logic Analyser devices. Oscilloscope The Oscilloscope Instrument is now a four channel scope including new functionality such as : Positional measurement cursors, One shot mode, Printing Mouse wheel navigation Invert functions for each channel A+B and C+D modes. X-Y mode for each channel

More information and a full functional description are available in the Proteus VSM reference manual.

The new Virtual Oscilloscope Instrument

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PROTEUS UPDATE GUIDE Logic Analyzer The Logic Analyzer Instrument is now a twenty channel analyzer with new functionality such as: One shot mode Positional measurement cursors Printing Mouse wheel navigation. Edge selection for each channel Scrollbar for buffer navigation.

Again, a full functional discussion takes place in the online Proteus VSM reference manual (ISIS Help Menu Proteus VSM Help).

The new Logic Analyser Instrument

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Model Development
In addition to the core work and instrumentation we have been extremely busy in the modeling front, both on CPU modeling and also peripheral modeling. Of particular note is the introduction of the new Microchip PIC24 family. As always, our models are exceptionally detailed and we have modeled all the on-board peripherals down to instruction level timing as follows : The entire instruction set Supports all port and other I/O pin operations. Supports all timers including watchdog timer, sleep mode and wake-up from sleep. Supports the Capture-Compare and PWM modules in all modes. Supports Parallel Master Port (PMP) module including legacy PSP modes. Supports all serial communication peripherals including SPI, I2C and UART. Supports the Real Time Clock including automatic initialization from the PC time. Supports Analogue-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) module including support for voltage reference pins. Supports Analogue Comparator modules including support for internal and external voltage references. Supports all interrupt modes including interrupt priorities. Support for extended instruction set for appropriate variants. At the time of writing the supported variant set for the PIC24 is as follows : PIC24FJ064GA006, PIC24FJ096GA006, PIC24FJ128GA006 (64 pin package) PIC24FJ064GA008, PIC24FJ096GA008, PIC24FJ128GA008 (80 pin package) PIC24FJ064GA010, PIC24FJ096GA010, PIC24FJ128GA010 (100 pin package) Note that the PIC24 family is a separately licenced product. We have also added new variants to the PIC18 family and additional work is planned for the other existing families in the coming months. In addition to the above, literally hundreds of new peripheral models are available, ranging from standard building blocks to advanced embedded peripherals.

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ARES PCB LAYOUT


Overview
The PCB Design software has been considerably evolved both in terms of user interface and in terms of functionality. We have incorporated modeless selection with the invention of the selection filter, enabled cross probing as discussed previously in the ISIS section and also added the 3D Visualization tool (PCB Design Level 2 and higher only). These changes are summarized in the following topics and discussed in more detail in the online reference manual (Help Menu in ARES ARES Help).

User Interface
The reworking of the user interface in ARES 7 was designed to be more intuitive, with right click context menus presenting actions localized to the selected object. We also wanted to provide visual indications to the user both when an object was primed for being acted upon and what the action would be when the mouse was left clicked on the object. Finally, we want to devise a scheme where selection could be layer independent, making it faster and more convenient to edit objects on the board. The breakthrough technology enabling this scheme comes in the form of the selection filter. Selection Filter The selection filter can be found at the bottom left of the ARES application window.

Selection Filter in the ARES Layout Editor. The purpose of the selection filter is simply to determine which object types are considered hot in any given mode. Importantly, the icon at the far left determines whether all layers or only the current layer are considered to be hot. By toggling these icons you can therefore have complete control over both which objects and which layers are hot at any given time. When the mouse is over a hot object a light dashed line will appear to provide instant feedback telling you what exactly the mouse is considered to be pointing at.

The mouse over a component in ARES Sophisticated algorithms are in place to cater for the cases where, for example, two tracks on different layers are placed in parallel. Whilst the obvious solution is to look for a point on the desired track which is visible on its own, the behaviour in such a case is prejudiced by the layer currently selected in the Layer Selector. You could therefore switch the layer selector onto the layer of the trace you want to select and then click on the track. It is extremely important to realise that context highlighting indicates only the object that will be acted upon when you click the mouse. It does not indicate what the action will be (selection, placement, etc.) indication of action is provided by the mouse cursor and is summarised below : Standard Cursor used in selection mode when not over a hot object. Placement Cursor placement mode will be entered on left click. Selection Cursor Object under the mouse will be selected on left click. Movement Cursor a left drag will move the currently selected object(s). The track segment can be dragged by left depressing the mouse and dragging it to the desired position. Using context highlighting together with mouse cursors provides an extremely intuitive method for both knowing what object the mouse is over and also what action will be performed when you left click the mouse on that object. 21

LABCENTER ELECTRONICS LTD. Typically, you will find that the selection filter is required rarely and that the default settings are appropriate and adequate for working without modification. However, while considerable time has been given to choosing a sensible default selection set for each mode in ARES you can override it if you decide that you prefer to operate in a different way. Default selection filters on a per mode basis can be configured via the Set Selection Filter command on the System menu.

Configuring Custom Default Selection Filters. Object Placement Placement of objects is slightly different from older versions and works as follows : 1) Select the desired mode (e.g. component mode) in the normal way. 2) Select the desired object from the Object Selector in the normal way. 3) Left click the mouse once. This will enter placement mode and a preview of the object will then appear (and follow the mouse). 4) With most objects (footprints for example), you can move the mouse at this stage to reposition the object, use the + and - keys on the numeric keypad to rotate the part and use the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. With 2D Graphics and polygonal zones you can move the mouse to define the shape of the graphic (the initial left click acting as an anchor) and use the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. 5) When the object is positioned correctly click the left mouse button again to commit placement and exit placement mode. Object Selection Selection of objects is now largely modeless and now has the following simple rules: 1) An object must be hot to be selected. When the mouse is over a hot object you will see a visual indication (a light dashed line) indicating that the object is primed. If this does not happen you simply adjust the selection filter to make that object type hot. 2) When the mouse is over a hot object a right click will both tag the object and present you with a context menu of options for actioning on the object. Alternatively, if the mouse cursor is the selection cursor (this is typically mode dependant) a left mouse click can also be used to tag the object. 3) The cursor type will tell you what action is performed on a hot object when the left mouse button is clicked see previous discussion on cursor types. This scheme is both simple and elegant the layer that the object is on isnt really significant and you can always identify when the mouse is over a particular object via the visual indicators provided. Route selection in particular has seen some refinements and is worth specific mention. To re-route, delete, edit or copy a section of tracking requires that you first tag it. In a similar fashion as discussed above, you can do this by clicking right on it when it is indicated as hot which will both tag the route and present you with a context menu with a listing of actions that can be performed on the route. There are however additional refinements for traces allowing you to select partial areas of a given route

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PROTEUS UPDATE GUIDE Right clicking on the track will select the entire trace and produce a context menu with four options for refining the selection.

Selection Refinement Options on the Context Menu for a Trace . The first three options are fairly self-explanatory but the last option, Trim Manually may need some explanation. Selecting this will first of all anchor one end of a manual selection at the point on the track at which you clicked the mouse. A green arrow will follow the mouse allowing you to specify the other endpoint for the selection clicking the left mouse elsewhere on the trace will select the area of track between the two endpoints.

Manually selecting a portion of a track. As with object editing, pointing at nothing and clicking left deselects the tagged route. Block Operations Block selection works as previously in as much as you drag a tagbox out with the right mouse button. However the selection filter again allows you to refine your selection. In the simple case below weve tagged the entire board and then used the selection filter to adjust which objects are tagged.

Default Selection Filter

Ratsnest On and Packages Off.

As mentioned previously we can also reduce the selection to only the layer specified in the layer selector as shown overleaf:

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Default Selection Filter in Package Mode

Current Layer Only Selected.

In the case where the entire board is not tagged the trace bounds selection icon on the selection filter provides additional control. When toggled this switches between fully enclosed (tracks must be entirely bounded by the tagbox to be selected) and partially enclosed (tracks that are partially bounded by the tagbox will also be selected) modes.

Fully Bounded Tracks Mode

Partially Bounded Tracks Mode.

For obvious reasons this icon is only enabled when the trace selection icon itself is enabled. Finally, you can resize the selection area at any time simply by dragging the green handles at the boundaries of the tag filter.

Dragging a tagbox to limit the selected objects. 24

PROTEUS UPDATE GUIDE Block operations have also been enhanced in Proteus 7. After creating a block selection as previously discussed a block move can be actioned simply by depressing the left mouse button inside the tagbox and dragging the mouse to the new location (note that the mouse cursor will change to be the movement cursor to indicate the mouse action when the left button is depressed). The important change here is that you specify the pick up point according to the point inside the box where you left depress the mouse, giving you far more control over the operation. Similarly, All the block operations are also available via the right hand context menu. Again, the pick up point for move, copy and rotate operations is the point inside the box where you perform the right click operation.

Block operations via the right hand context menu.

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3D Visualisation
Overview ARES 7 includes a 3D Visualisation engine in the Advanced Feature Set (Level 2 and higher), allowing you to examine the board as it will appear in real life prior to prototyping. This not only assists with layout design but also provides information on height clearance. With simple, mouse driven navigation it is now the matter of a couple of mouse clicks to launch and examine your design in three dimensional space. It is important to realize that rendering complex boards in 3D is a highly CPU intensive task and can take some time to complete. However, status updates are provided on the status bar in the 3D Viewer and the board is rendered in phases in order that you can still navigate whilst the silkscreen/tracks are being computed. Basic Navigation The following discussion is based on the trivial sample design PPSU.LYT which can be found in the ../Samples/Tutorials/ directory of your Proteus 7 installation. After invoking the autorouter to quickly route the layout the 3D engine is invoked from the Output menu.

An initial 3D View of our routed PPSU Layout. The first thing we can do is view the board from different preset angles. Five preset views are supplied: top view, front view, back view, left view and right view and these are accessible via any of the following methods: Menu options on the View menu in the 3D Viewer From the navigation toolbar at the bottom of the 3D Viewer From keyboard shortcuts F8 through F12 whilst in the 3D Viewer.

The 3D Navigation Toolbar. Now that we can look at the board from a number of angles the next thing is to be able to look at it at a specific zoom level. Again, there are numerous ways to zoom in and out of the board: Roll the middle mouse wheel in and out (recommended) Menu options on the View menu From the icons on the Navigation Menu From keyboard shortcuts F6 (zoom in) and F7 (zoom out) Whilst it is very much a matter of personal preference we envisage most users changing views via the navigation toolbar or keyboard shortcuts and using the middle mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

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PROTEUS UPDATE GUIDE Custom Views The next logical step is to be able to customise the view. This works conceptually by attaching the mouse to the camera such that as you move the mouse the camera moves to the area of the board that you are interested in. You can invoke the Navigation mode either from the View menu, the crosshairs icon on the Navigation toolbar or simply by clicking the left mouse button.

The mouse cursor when navigation mode is invoked. You will know as soon as you are in Navigation mode as a crosshair cursor will appear over the mouse and your view of the board will change as you move the mouse. Using this together with the middle mouse wheel zoom will allow you to both fly pass the board and to easily zoom in to closely examine a particular area of the board. Exiting navigation mode is as simple as right clicking the mouse. For example, if we start in Front View (use the F9 keyboard shortcut) and we want to examine the resistors on the right we might proceed as follows: 1) Left click the mouse to enter navigation mode. 2) Move the mouse over the resistors. 3) Roll the middle mouse button to zoom in as required. 4) Right click the mouse to exit navigation mode. The final necessary piece to completely customise the view is to allow users to spin or orbit the board. This is done in navigation mode by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse. Essentially this will spin the board as you move the mouse when you release the mouse button the camera will follow the mouse around the current view of the board as normal. Remember that, if you are struggling to get the view you want you can use the keyboard shortcuts or navigation toolbar to return to one of the preset views. You should find however, that with only a little practise you become quite proficient at navigation. To summarise: Left click enters navigation mode. Camera follows mouse around the board in navigation mode. Using the middle mouse wheel (or shortcut keys) allows you to zoom as you move the camera. Left depressing the mouse in navigation mode allows you to spin/orbit the entire board. Right click of the mouse exits navigation mode. Applying to Existing Designs When you invoke the 3D Viewer command on a layout you have created in an older version of the software or containing footprints that you have created yourself you will see that some (or most!) of the 3D footprints are colored red. This indicates that a 3D model is not present for a given footprint and that a simple extrusion of the silkscreen has been used to provide basic 3D capabilities.If the board has been created in an older version (pre Version 7) of the software you can automatically apply the 3D model data to the board via the Update Visual Models command on the File menu in the 3D Viewer. This action will do the following: 1) Apply 3D data from the library parts to the footprints in the ARES Layout. 2) Import the layout back into the 3D Viewer. 3) Refresh the 3D Viewer to display the new footprint models.

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Applying Visual Data from the Libraries to a Legacy Layout Naturally, this affects only those parts for which 3D models exist in the libraries (all pre-supplied footprints and any custom footprints for which you have created 3D models). Parts which have no 3D data associated with them will still appear in red and you must create a 3D model for them. Customising Parts It is of course possible to remake your own parts to include more detailed 3D information for rendering in the viewer, either providing 3D information inside ARES itself or importing a 3D model file (in the standard *.3ds format) from another package. This is conveniently handled via the 3D Visualisation command on the context menu of a footprint (and is also accessible from the Make Package dialogue form) but the syntax is beyond the scope of this document. These techniques, together with a syntax guide and some practical examples, are detailed in the 3D Visualisation section of the online reference manual (Help Menu in ARES ARES Help) or from the help menu within the 3D Viewer itself. It is important to realize that rendering complex boards in 3D is a highly CPU intensive task and can take some time to complete. Status updates are provided on the status bar in the 3D Viewer.

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