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Libraries |
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A new library can be created with the New Library command of the File menu. This new library will have no facets in it. When there are multiple libraries, you can switch between them with the Old Library command.
The Open Library command of the File menu brings a new library into Electric from disk. These disk files are binary encoded representations of the Electric database.
Besides Electric libraries, it is possible to read circuit descriptions that are in other formats with the Import command of the File menu. A readable dump is a text format that is slower to read and larger to store, but can be transferred between machines more reliably and can be edited if necessary. Electric can also read CIF (Caltech Intermediate Format), Calma GDS II, and Autocad DXF files. Note that these formats do not always contain as much information as is in the Electric database (for example, they typically lack connectivity). When reading these files, it is important that the current technology be set to the one in the file so that proper layer conversion can be done (use the Change Current Technology command of the Technology menu). See the section on I/O Specifications for more information.
Writing libraries to disk is done with the Save Library command of the File menu. If the library was read from disk, it is written back to the same file. If, however, you wish to write the library to a new file (making a copy and preserving the original) then use the Save As command.
Electric can also write external format files with the Export command of the File menu. It is possible to generate CIF (Caltech Intermediate Format), Calma GDS-II, DXF (Autocad), L (the GDT language), PostScript (printer format), HPGL (printer format), or readable dumps (the ASCII format with all of the information in the binary files). Note that the CIF, L, HPGL, and PostScript outputs write only the current facet and any hierarchy below it, whereas the other options save the entire library. Some of these external formats have options that can be controlled with the IO Control commands of the Technology menu.
To delete entire libraries, use the Close Library command of the File menu. This removes only the memory representation, not the disk file. Note that library changes are too vast to be tracked by the database-change mechanism and so are not undoable.
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