Projects and Designs > Designs > Design-Wide Objects

Merging Non-Shared Objects

You can merge two non-shared, non-design-wide objects to create a design-wide object. You can merge a non-shared, non-design-wide object into a design-wide object to create an instance of the design-wide object. You can merge a design-wide object into another design‑wide object so that all its instances become instances of the other design-wide object.

A device placed as a symbol can be merged with a parameterized device so that one instance is a symbol and one is not. Devices represented by different symbols can be merged so that a device has multiple instances with different symbols for different instances.

Objects can only be merged into other objects of the same type. For example, you cannot merge a plug into a jack.

The Merge Into action can be used, for example, to build up relay devices by incrementally adding switch blocks to an existing coil block. At the end of the process, you can select a library part that has a matching set of pins.

Note

The Merge Into action is not available for splices, shield terminations, multicores, or overbraids.

Procedure

For inlines:Select both the plug and the jack of the inline to merge into another object, and then press the space bar and enter Share or right‑click the inline and select Merge Into.

For other types of non-shared object: Select the object to merge into another object. Press the space bar and enter Merge.

Right-click the object to merge into another object and select Merge Into.

Note The object that you are merging into another object is referred to as the “source object”.

The Merge Into Dialog Box is displayed.

From the Select tab, select the object (the “target” object) to merge the source object into.If any property or attribute values in the source object conflict with those in the target object, the Resolve tab is activated.
From the Resolve tab, select each object in the tree in turn and choose the values to retain in the Attributes list and Properties list, or click Source or Target in the Choose Results From section.
Click OK.

Results

In the Design Browser, all instances of the design-wide object are shown as child nodes of the design-wide object node.
If the “Disallow pin/port duplication within a design” project preference is cleared, any pins with the same name in the source object and target object are merged.
Properties and attributes on the objects are merged: If the source object or target object has properties or attributes that the other object does not have, they are retained on the merged object.

If the source object has property or attribute values that conflict with values on the target object: For Analysis-related attributes (such as Analysis Model) and for the Assembly attribute, the value on the target object is retained and the value on the source object is discarded. See also “Attaching Component Models” in the Capital Analysis User Guide.

For other attributes and properties, the values selected in the Resolve tab are retained and the other values are discarded. Note Any new property, when not present on the target object, is automatically propagated but not reported on the Resolve tab in the Merge Into Dialog Box.

Part Number attributes and all attributes that are sourced from library parts are not populated.

In the Output Window, the Resolution tab is displayed. The table on the Resolution tab lists any property or attribute values in the source object that were in conflict with those in the target object, and shows how those conflicts were resolved. Properties / attributes that may require adjustment (such as when the value of the Analysis Model attribute was changed) are identified by the value “Warning” of the Type field.

If merging two wires results in more than two terminations for a single wire, the source wire connections are disconnected.
If the design abstraction assigned to the design has the “Auto create harness connectors” option selected, the source object or target object has a library part assigned that has a harness connector footprint, and the other object has pins with the same names as those that are mated in the footprint. Harness connectors are generated automatically.

Examples

Consider the following when running a Merge Into (or a Share Into) action on a device: DEV1, that has device side connectors DC1 at Pin1 and DC2 at Pin2 with a target device of DEV2, that has device side connector DC3 at Pin1 and Pin2. If both DC1 and DC2 have the same property: Prop1, but different values, for example Value1 and Value2. After the action is ran, only Prop1= Value1 is transferred. Sorting is done on the name of device side connectors; therefore, the value of Prop1 on the target device connector DC3 is Value1 determined by the source device connector DC1.
A second consideration in Figure 9 plug P1 has pins PIN1, PIN2, and PIN3 and plug P2 has pin PIN4. Merging P2 into P1 creates a design-wide object (named P1) that has pins PIN1, PIN2, PIN3, and PIN4.

Figure 9: Merging Non-Shared Object Example

Parent Topic:

Design-Wide Objects