Changing the Structure's View

You may change the view to your structure at any time by some simple commands that will be explained in the following section.

The view will change whenever you drag the mouse while holding the left button pressed, depending on the mode selected. The mode may be selected either from the Ribbon by choosing View: Mouse Control  Zoom/Pan/Rotate

View: VisibilityView Options

The drop-down box includes a collection of several convenient tools:

• Show/Hide Axes: Displays a coordinate system onto the PCB.

• Show/Hide Grid: Displays a rectangular grid in addition to the coordinate system.

• Show/Hide Legacy Viewer: Enables switching between Default viewer and Legacy viewer. There are two different 2D-layout viewers available: the default viewer is based on a fast rendering engine. Its advantage is to be very fast even for very complex boards. The legacy viewer was originally intended for smaller boards. It enables the user to edit structures on the board using mouse operations (see Edit trace geometry by mouse).

• Acceleration Mode Full Acceleration: Default Mode for highest speed on the PCB Layout viewer. The maximum number of graphic card features will be requested.

• Acceleration Mode Basic Acceleration: If the user experiences any graphic card compatibility issues or graphic artefacts it is recommended to change the acceleration mode to Basic or Software. If this still does not help it is recommended to switch to the Legacy Viewer (see above).

• Acceleration Mode Software: see Basic Acceleration.

• Selection Outlined Section: If the Default viewer is active this function allows to switch between two different display modes. Activating the Outlined Section means full colors and a bright picture. Switching the mode off reduces the picture's quality but also the memory requirement by a factor of 2.

• Text Properties Font...: Allows the user to select a special font, in a certain style (plain, bold, italic) and certain size.

• Text Properties Color...: Allows the user to assign a special color to the font.

View: Visibility Hide/  Show All

The two buttons include functions to quickly hide or unhide selected/unselected objects

• Hide Selected: Enables the user to hide all objects (e.g. nets, components, ...) which are selected.

• Hide Unselected: Enables the user to hide all objects (e.g. nets, components, ...) which are not selected.

• Hide Unselected Nets: Enables the user to hide all nets which are not selected.

• Show All: Enables the user to display all objects

View: Visibility Object Spy Frame

Displays an additional window in the upper right corner of the Main View. The window includes information on the corresponding object the mouse curser is currently touching.

View: Visibility Pin Names

Displays the pin names of all components.

View: Mouse Control

• Selection: The mouse pointer can be used to select objects interactively

• Zoom: The mouse pointer can be used for zooming. A rubber-band rectangle will be defined by dragging the mouse. After releasing the left mouse button, the zoom factor and the view location will be updated so that the rectangle fills the screen.

• Pan: The mouse pointer can be used for shifting the PCB in the screen plane.

View: Change View

• Reset view: Resets the view in order to display the whole PCB

• Reset  view to Selection: Fits the view in order to display the selected objects (e.g. nets, components, ...) completely.

View: Units

In contrast to other applications in the CST STUDIO SUITE, CST PCB STUDIO doesn't allow to change the size of an existing PCB by a simple change of the unit. It only allows the user to display and handle the PCB with different units by keeping the actual size of the PCB. The appropriate unit can be chosen by this pull-down menu

View: Color

• Color Mode: The most important objects a PCB consist of are its layers and its nets. The nets themselves can be sub-divided into different net classes. With Color Mode the user can decide whether the available colors are used to distinguish between Layers, Nets or Net Classes. A quick change of the Color Mode can be done by using this pull-down menu. The function is useful when evaluating a complex PCB with many layers and nets (see View Options).

• Black Background: Switches between the background colors black and white. Important function for printing the Main View.

Main View Window: Drop down menu via right mouse click

All functions available via the View ribbon are also available by showing the corresponding drop-down menu via a right-mouse click in the Main View Window: