Pins

Select Pins Table

The Select Pins table is displayed in dialog boxes to select pins to place onto objects in a design. You can customize the columns to display extra pin property and attribute information, as well as properties and attributes of connected conductors and multicores, and also library information such as footprints. You can filter and group pins using this extra information to aid pin selection and placement.

Note

Which pins are displayed in the Select Pins table depends on factors such as whether the As Reference check box is selected, whether the “Disallow pin/port duplication within a design” project preference is selected and whether the current design is in the active build list. See Place Pins Dialog Box [Non-Shared Objects] and Place Pins Dialog Box [Shared Objects].

The following descriptions apply to the Select Pins table in dialog boxes where you can select pins for devices and connectors, but do not apply to the Select Pins table in the Place Pins Dialog Box [Blocks].

Figure 84: Select Pins Table

Adding Columns to the Table

The first three columns (the pin icon column, Pin Name column and Conductor Name column) are fixed columns and cannot be removed from the table. Other columns can be added or removed to suit your current workflow. You can add other columns by clicking the Add new column button () and selecting an item from the menu cascade that is displayed, as in Figure 85. The menu contains different items depending on the dialog box you have opened. Attributes are shown for pins, conductors, and multicores. For pins, Reservation Type (Automatic, Reserved, or Unrestricted) is shown for shared objects only. (See “Pin Reservation Status” in the Capital Project Manager User Guide). For conductors, Destination shows the object and pin which the other end of the conductor is connected to. Properties are shown if properties have been added to pins/conductors on the object. Footprint is shown only for objects with library parts with footprint definitions.

Figure 85: Column Display Menu

You can click and drag a column header to move it to a different position in the table and you can click a column header to toggle the sort order.

Column

Filter Popup

You can use the column filter popup to filter the table rows based on the values in the fields in a specific column. To display the column filter popup, right-click a column header.

Figure 86: Column Filter Popup

The popup has the following fields:

Remove Column - Only displays for columns you have added. Click to remove the column from the table.
Hide Column - Only displays for columns you have added. Click to hide the column. Hidden columns are indicated by a thicker line between column headers. In Figure 87, there is a hidden column between the Pin Assembly and Pin Design columns. Figure 87: Hidden Column
Unhide Adjacent — Select to show a hidden column. Only displays when an adjacent column is hidden.
Select Column — Closes the popup and selects all the items in the column that are currently displayed. Only applicable to the Manage Connections Dialog Box.
Filter — Enter a search criteria to dynamically filter the names in the panel below.
Individual Row Names Filter Panel — Configure the rows to display by selecting or clearing check boxes in this panel.
Select All — Selects all the rows in the panel.
Clear All — Deselects all the rows in the panel.
OK — Select to apply the filter configuration.

Cross-highlighting

For objects that have associated symbols, the Symbol View or Connector View is displayed adjacent to the Select Pins table. If matching cavity datums have been specified on the symbol, the rows in the table and cavities on the symbol are cross-highlighted when you select a row in the table or a cavity on the symbol.

Figure 88: Cross-Highlighting

Useful

Column Configurations

If you are using assisted placement after importing connectivity or deleting connectivity objects using Ctrl+Delete, you can display the Conductor Destination column. For example in Figure 90, pins PIN1 - PIN11 are connected to conductors that are connected to device DEV1. When those pins are placed on a design they will automatically be connected to their respective conductors. Figure 89: Conductor

Destination Menu Figure 90: Conductor Destination

If you place a device from the ICD tab, it is useful to display the ICD Connected Pins column, which shows which ICD pins share connectivity with ICDs already placed in the design. Figure 91: Add ICD Connected Pins
Figure 92: ICD Information

Loading

Shared Details

In dialog boxes that display the Select Pins table for shared objects, by default not all columns are populated for pins placed on designs other than the current design. This is to aid performance when there are a large number of pins. You can select the “Load shared details” check box to populate additional columns.

When “Load shared details” is cleared, certain conductor-related columns (such as Conductor Name) and certain mating-related columns (such as Pin Device Connector Pin) are only populated for pins placed in the current design, and, if there is an active build list, the Pin Design column is not populated for pins placed on designs that are not the current design and are not in the active build list.

When “Load shared details” is selected:

If there is no active build list: All columns are populated for all pins in the table.
If there is an active build list: For pins in the current design and pins placed in designs in the active build list, all columns are populated.

For pins placed on designs that are not the current design and are not in the active build list, all columns are populated, with the exception of certain conductor-related columns (such as Conductor Name).

Figure 93: Load Shared Details - Cleared

Figure 94: Load Shared Details - Selected

Parent Topic:

Pins