Displaying Unicode and Complex Fonts in UltiboardPrimary Software: Electronics Workbench>>UltiboardPrimary Software Version: 10.1 Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A Secondary Software: Electronics Workbench>>Multisim
Problem: I am trying to display Greek symbols in Ultiboard as part of the part value. So, for instance, I want to see a capacitor with a 1 µF value. The Greek small cap letter Mu (µ) displays as a ? character. How can I fix this? Solution: In Ultiboard, it is possible to display Greek, Asian, and any other complex character set that uses Unicode in Windows. By default, Ultiboard will use the Line Font to display characters in the Silkscreen Layer, this Line Font is not capable of displaying such complex characters. To display Unicode characters, you need to change the font of the attribute to a Windows Font. The following steps walk you throug the simple process of changing the font to Windows Font: 1. Let's start with the graphical example of what we want to do. In Multisim, you set up the component values as follows: 2. As you can see in the image, you have a 50 kΩ resistor and a 1 µF capacitor. Transfer your design to Ultiboard and this is what you get:
Typically, the RefDes is all you need for PCB design, however, in some cases designers wish to add the part value. The most common way is not to specify the units but instead just the value, like 50k and 1u. There are some times in which a designer wants to customize their PCB furthermore, and they want to display the units or other characters. In this example, the Ω symbol and the µ symbol are going to be added. 3. Select the component you want to modify, let's do C1 for this example, double-click the component to access the Part Properties dialog.
4. The highlighted row, VALUE, is the one that we want to make visible. Click Change. 5. In the Attributes dialog, select the Value radio button in the Visibility section, this makes the attribute visible. See the preview.
6. As you can see in the image above, the Greek symbol µ was replaced by a ? mark. This is because Line Font is the default font selected in Ultiboard. Click the Windows Font radio button and see the difference.
7. Click OK twice to go back to the PCB layout area, and move the new attribute so it is positioned correctly. The image presented next, shows how the R1 and C1 values look like after changing to Windows Font. (The example only shows C1, the same process applies for R1)
Important Notes Note 1: Please be aware that using Windows Font will impact the performance (speed and size) of the exported Gerber file, DXF or Printing, since the application needs to render a more complex shape in terms of Gerber commands. We advise that you test this approach with your design to get a better understanding on how it impacts your project. Note 2: Users of NI Circuit Design Suite 10.1 should download the 10.1.0.1 update that improves the performance for Windows Font. Higher versions do not need this update. Related Links: Drivers & Updates: NI Circuit Design Suite 10.1.0.1 Update Attachments:
Report Date: 12/30/2008 Last Updated: 05/27/2009 Document ID: 4STF56XL |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
