Parent page: Working Between the Schematic and the BoardĪs the design builds up it quickly becomes dense and detailed - the schematic busy with wiring and the board a maze of connection lines and routed nets. To help bring clarity and visibility, the designer can apply color to the schematic wiring, and also to the PCB connection lines and routing. This ability to selectively override the color of specific nets is known as Net Color Override. The image below shows a complex high-speed design using net color to help the designer easily identify groups of critical nets.Ĭolor can be applied to schematic nets and those color settings transferred to the PCB, or color settings can be applied directly in the PCB editor.

Further down the page there is an image that shows the same board with and without color on the routed nets. Net Colors have been applied to groups of critical nets on both the schematic and the board (image courtesy FEDEVEL Open Source, Toggle Net Color Override on or off in each editor with the F5 shortcut key. Applying Color to the Schematic NetsĪ highlight color can be applied to a net or a bus in the schematic editor using the commands in the View » Set Net Colors sub-menu, as shown in the image below.Ĭlick on a pin, wire, bus or net identifier (net label, sheet entry, port, power port or offsheet connector) to apply the selected color to that net (or all the nets in a bus). The command remains active after clicking on the first net, ready to color subsequent nets in that same color, if required. When a color is applied to a net or a bus, it overrides any previous color setting. Note that net color settings cannot be undone, to remove a color setting use the Clear Net Color command, or the Clear All Net Colors command ( View » Set Net Colors sub-menu). The color is automatically applied to all sections of the net, on all schematic sheets in the project. This occurs automatically when the background compiler updates the connectivity of each sheet, if it does not, recompile the project ( Project » Compile PCB Project). To include color on a net or bus that connects two sheet symbols, include a net label on the net/bus running between the sheet symbols.Ĭolor is not applied to a component pin or a power port, drag them apart to add a wire if there is no color showing on that section of net. Where are the Color Settings for the Schematic Stored? The connectivity created by the objects placed on the schematic sheets is not stored within those objects on the sheets, it is established by compiling the project. Because a net is a compiled object, determined from the current arrangement of wiring and net identifiers, the color setting for a net is not stored with the various objects placed on the sheets.

Netshade for unix