Cross Probing Between Two or More EDA Files

The Cross Probe option lets you select entities in the schematic drawing or the PCB design to highlight in all the open files.

Open an EDA file to cross probe.

From the Analysis menu, select Cross Probe.

The Cross Probe dialog box appears.

Note: From the AutoVue toolbar, you can also click Cross Probe .

Click Add File.

In the Open dialog box that appears, enter the file name or browse to locate the file you want to cross probe, then click Open.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each additional file that you want to cross probe.

Click OK.

Each file you select appears in a new window. A dialog box appears for each new window which lets you changed the view or page for each file. Each dialog box has the Automatic option selected by default. When the Automatic option is selected for each dialog box, you see different behavior depending on the files you cross probe. For example:

If you cross probe a schematic and PCB, one window automatically displays a 2D PCB and the other window displays a schematic. The same is true if either file contains a PCB and a schematic. Whereas, if files A and B contain both a schematic and a PCB and they are cross probed, one of the files displays the schematic page and the other displays the 2D PCB.

If you cross probe two PCBs, one window automatically displays a 2D PCB and the other window displays a 3D PCB.

If you cross probe two schematics, both are set to schematic.

To change the view of a file in a window, do the following:

Deselect the Automatic option in the dialog box for the window you want to change.

From the Type list, select Schematic, PCB, or PCB 3D View. These options are available in the Type list only when the views are present in the file.

The view of the file changes in the window.

To switch between multiple occurrences of a selected component, do the following:

From the Navigation Panel, select a component in one file that has multiple component occurrences in the other file.

From the dialog box of the file with multiple component occurrences, select one of the components from the Occurrences list or click Next

or Previous

to switch between component occurrences.

Select any entity in the schematic drawing.

The same entity is highlighted in the PCB designs.