.\"
.\"                            COPYRIGHT
.\"
.\"  PCB, interactive printed circuit board design
.\"  Copyright (C) 1994,1995,1996 Thomas Nau
.\"
.\"  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
.\"  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
.\"  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
.\"  (at your option) any later version.
.\"
.\"  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\"  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\"  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
.\"  GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\"  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\"  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
.\"  Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
.\"
.\"  Contact addresses for paper mail and Email:
.\"  Thomas Nau, Schlehenweg 15, 88471 Baustetten, Germany
.\"  Thomas.Nau@rz.uni-ulm.de
.\"
.\"  RCS: $Id: pcb.man.raw,v 145.1 1997/07/26 13:12:05 nau Exp $
.\"
.TH PCB 1 \" -*- nroff -*-

.SH NAME
Pcb \- X11 interactive printed circuit board layout system

.SH VERSION

.P
The current release is: RELEASE

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B pcb
[\-option ...] [\-toolkit_option ...] [description file]

or

.B pcb
\-specialoption

.SH DESCRIPTION

.P 
\fIPcb\fP is a handy tool for the \fIX Window System\fP build to design
printed circuit boards. All coordinate units are 1/1000 inch.
It implements the most needed features like:

.IP
* A layout consists of lines, arcs, polygons, elements (lines, pins and arcs),
vias and text information seperated into several layers. Each of them
is identified by a unique name and color (if supported by your display).
SMD circuits are also supported.
.IP
* MAX_LAYER layers are supported in addition to a silkscreen layer.
Visibility of pins and SMD pads and vias is controllable.
.IP
* All files are 7 bit ASCII and can be preprocessed with any UNIX command
that writes it's results to \fIstdout\fP (\fIGNU m4\fP is required).
.IP
* The layout grid is anywhere in the range from 1/1000 inch up to 250/1000
inch. The maximum is defined at compilation time.
.IP
* Zooming is supported.
.IP
* A copy of the current data is saved temporarily in /tmp to
ensure that nothing is lost during critical sections of the program.
.IP
* An unlimited (depending on memory) undo operations
is supported. Also redo is available in case you change your made.

.P
Pcb is intended to be a simple tool without memory and time consuming
features like autorouter and autoplacement. It worked well for several
people on an \fIAtari\fP platform till it was ported to \fIX11\fP
in 1994. Most of the settings can be specified by resources, passed
in the command-line or changed at runtime. Layout related settings are saved
together with the data.

.SH OPTIONS

.P
Beside the toolkit options, Pcb recognizes some command-line options
with following syntax:
\-option switches it on, +option switches it off

.TP
.BI \-alldirections,+alldirections
Enables or disables lines in any direction. Overrides the resource
\fIallDirectionLines\fP.
.TP
.BI \-backup " <value>"
Time in seconds between two backups. Overrides the resource
\fIbackupInterval\fP.
.TP
.BI \-c " <value>"
Number of characters per output-line. Overrides the resource
\fIcharactersPerLine\fP.
.TP
.BI \-fontfile " <filename>"
The default font is read from this file. The file is, together with a path,
passed to an external program. The path is defined by the resource
\fIfontPath\fP wheras the command uses \fIfontCommand\fP.
Overwrittes the resource \fIfontFile\fP.
.TP
.BI \-lelement " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
Sets the command to be executed when an element is loaded.
The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p
which is replaced by the element search-path. The command must write it's
results to \fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIelementCommand\fP is overwritten.
.TP
.BI \-lfile " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
Sets the command to be executed when an layout file is loaded.
The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p which is
replaced by the search-path. The command must write it's results to
\fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIfileCommand\fP is overwritten.
.TP
.BI \-lfont " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
Sets the command to be executed when an fontfile is loaded.
The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename and %p which
is replaced by the font search-path. The command must write it's results to
\fIstdout\fP. The resource \fIfontCommand\fP is overwritten.
.TP
.BI \-lg " <layergroups>"
This option overwrites the resource \fIlayerGroups\fP. See its description
for more information.
.TP
.BI \-libname " <filename>"
The default filename for the library. Overwrites the resource
\fIlibraryFilename\fP.
.TP
.BI \-libpath " <path>"
The default search path for the the library. Overwrites the resource
\fIlibraryPath\fP.
.TP
.BI \-llib " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
Sets the command to be executed when an element is loaded from the library.
The command may contain %f and %p to pass the requested filename
and the searchpath to the command. %a is replaces by the three arguments
\fItemplate\fP, \fIvalue\fP and \fIpackage\fP. The command must write
the data to its standard output. The related resource is \fIlibraryCommand\fP.
.TP
.BI \-llibcont " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
The command lists the contents of the library.
The command may contain %f and %p to pass the library filename
and the searchpath to the command.
The related resource is \fIlibraryContentsCommand\fP.
.TP
.BI \-loggeometry " <geometry>"
Determines the geometry of the logging window.
.TP
.BI \-pnl " <positiv integer value>"
Defines the maximum length of a pin name to be displayed in a pinout
window. Overwrittes the resource \fPpinoutNameLength\fI.
.TP
.BI \-pz " <positiv integer value>"
Sets the zoom factor for pinout window according to the
formula: scale = 1:(2^value). The resource \fPpinoutZoom\fI is
overwritten.
.TP
.BI \-reset/+reset
If enabled, all found connections are reset after an element has been scanned.
This setting is only used while scanning connections to all elements.
Overrides the resource \fIresetAfterElement\fP.
.TP
.BI \-ring/+ring
Overrides the resource \fIringBellWhenFinished\fP. If enabled, the bell
on the keyboard is rang when connection searching has finished.
.TP
.BI \-s/+s
Enables/Disables the saving of the previous commandline. Overrides the
\fIsaveLastCommand\fP resource.
.TP
.BI \-save/+save
Overrides the resource \fIsaveInTMP\fP. If enabled all data is saved
in a temporary file in the directory \fI/tmp\fP instead of being lost.
.TP
.BI \-sfile " <\fIUNIX\fP command>"
Sets the command to be executed when an layout file is saved.
The command may contain %f which is replaced by the filename. The command
must read it's data from \fIstdin\fP. The resource \fIsaveCommand\fP is
overwritten.
.TP
.BI \-size " <width>x<height>"
Overrides the resource \fIsize\fP which determines the maximum size
of a layout.
.TP .BI \-v " <\-100..100>"
Sets the volume of the X-speaker. Overrides the resource \fIvolume\fP.


.P
In addition to these 'normal-work-options' you will find additional
special options, \fI\-copyright\fP, \fI-help\fP and \fI\-version\fP,
which print out the GNU COPYLEFT notice, a usage message and the current
version.


.SH X11 Interface

.P
There are several resources, actions and menus available.
For a detailed description see the GNU info file or the printed manual.


.SH SEE ALSO

X(1), Xlib Resource Manager documentation, Xt resource documentation,
Athena Widget Set

PCB manual.


.SH COPYRIGHT

PCB, interactive printed circuit board design,
Copyright (C) 1994, 1995, 1996 Thomas Nau

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.


.SH AUTHOR

Thomas Nau, Thomas.Nau@rz.uni-ulm.de

Schlehenweg 15, 88471 Baustetten, Germany


.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

harry eaton (haceaton@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu) for many new features
and bug fixes.

Bernhard (Bernhard.Daeubler@physik.uni-ulm.de) and Harald Daeubler
(Harald.Daeubler@physik.uni-ulm.de) for helpful hints, testing and
a neverending stream of new options and ideas.

Roland Merk (merk@faw.uni-ulm.de) for his help during the hard days of
learning X11 programming.

Erland Unruh (Erland.Unruh@malmo.trab.se) for alpha and beta testing of
the early releases.

Many, many others who donated some of their time for developing new
circuit-files, did testing and came up with several bug-fixes and
improvements. Thanks to all of them.
