The PCB Design Professionals

PCB Inspector – 10

OK so I briefly mentioned the PCB Inspector in the find similar Find Similar post, I’ll go on now to talk about some of the things that we use the inspector for.

I should probably describe the basics of the PCB Inspector itself there are two main elements;

• The first is the include only option it’s the blue link text located just under the title bar. With this you can filter your selections to include just the items you want, e.g. Tracks and Arcs but not Vias and Pads. You can also get it to display all selected objects.

• The second area which is basically everything under the “Include only” text is the editable parameters of your selection.

OK so what can you use the PCB Inspector for?

Changing Track Widths.

Changing track width globally or local is quick and easy with the PCB inspector. Select your tracks (you can use “CTRL + H and “Find Similar” to make this quicker) then under graphical, change the width. One thing to be careful with is that if you have arcs in your track you will have to make sure that arcs are listed in the “Include only” section.

Changing Ref Des Size / Position.

If you want to globally change the size of your component references then Find Similar and the Inspector are your friends here. First select all you references using Find Similar then in your PCB Inspector you can firstly change the size by altering the text height and width under graphical and secondly you can auto position the references by adjusting the auto-position drop down box.

Those are just a few of the things that the PCB Inspector can be helpful for. Basically if you want to edit a group of objects then it will probably be the best tool for the job.

If you have any questions or you would like us to do a tips and tricks on a specific topic, post a comment or email us at blog@blackstick.co.uk