Creating and Modifying Toolbars

From version 5, SIMetrix allows the complete customisation of toolbars. You can modify the definitions of existing toolbars and buttons, as well as create new toolbars and new tool buttons. This section explains how.

In this topic:

Modifying Existing Toolbars and Buttons

You can rearrange the button layout of existing toolbars by modifying the 'Set' option variables that define them. In the case of the schematic component buttons, this can be done via a simple GUI. See menu View|Configure Toolbar... .

For other toolbars use the command Set to reassign the buttons. The following table shows the name of the 'Set' variable to use for each one.
'Set' Variable Name Toolbar
ComponentButtons SimetrixSchemToolBar
SIMPLISComponentButtons SimplisSchemToolBar
SchematicMainButtons SimetrixSchemToolBar and SimplisSchemToolBar
SchematicFileButtons SimetrixSchemToolBar
SchematicFileButtonsSIMPLIS SimplisSchemToolBar
SchematicProbeButtons SimetrixSchemToolBar and SimplisSchemToolBar
GraphMainButtons GraphMain
SymbolFileButtons SymbolMain
SymbolMainButtons SymbolMain
The 'Set' variable should be set to a value consisting of a semi-colon delimited list of valid button names. For a list of pre-defined buttons, see Pre-defined Buttons.
To determine the current definition, use the GetOption function with the 'Set' variable name as described in the table above. For example: 
Show GetOption('SchematicFileButtons')
will display in the message window the current definition for the SchematicFile tool bar.

You can then use the Set command to add a new button.

You can also use UnSet command to restore a toolbar to its default setting. E.g. 
Unset SchematicFileButtons
will restore the schematic file toolbar to just three buttons without the new schematic button.

Any changes made using the Set command will not take place until you restart SIMetrix/SIMPLIS. If desired you can force a rebuild of the toolbar for each window type by executing the following built-in scripts:

Schematic update_schematic_toolbar
Symbol editor update_symbol_toolbar
Graph update_waveform_toolbar

Redefining Button Commands

You can change the command executed when a button is pressed using the command DefButton. This is useful if you want to change the symbol placed for one of the component buttons. For example if you wanted to change one of the NMOS buttons, you could do something like: 
DefButton NMOS4 "inst /ne my_nmos"
redefines the four-terminal NMOS button to place a symbol with name my_nmos.

You can redefine any of the pre-defined buttons. See Pre-defined Buttons for a complete list.

Defining New Buttons and Editing Buttons

You can define completely new buttons with your own graphic design and add them to an existing toolbar. The same method can also be used to redefine the graphics for existing buttons.

This is done using the command CreateToolButton. These are the steps to take:
  1. Create a graphical image for the button. This should be in a windows bitmap (.bmp), portable network graphic (.png) or JPEG (.jpg) format. You can use almost any paint application to do this. But, if you want to define a mask - that is you wish to define transparent areas - then you must use an editor capable of creating 'portable network graphics' (PNG) images.

    You can make your graphic any size, but we recommend using 64x64.

    When you have created your image, you should save or copy it to the images directory. This is located at simetrix-root/support/images, where simetrix-root is the top level directory in the SIMetrix tree.
  2. Execute the command CreateToolButton. As with menu and key definitions, the definitions created by this command are not persistent that is they will be lost when SIMetrix exits. To make permanent definitions, you should place the commands in the start up script. See Startup Script for more details.

    CreateToolButton will not add the button to any toolbar nor does it assign a command to be executed when it is pressed. These operations are described in the following steps.
  3. Define a command to be executed when this button is pressed. This is done using the command DefButton. Again, this should be place in your startup script.
  4. Add the button to a toolbar. See Modifying Existing Toolbars and Buttons to find out how to add this to an existing toolbar. If you wish to create a new toolbar for the new button, see Creating New Toolbars.
For example, suppose you created a symbol for a diffused resistor and wanted to assign this to a toolbar button that is distinct from the regular resistor button. These are the steps:
  1. First you would create a graphical image called, for example, diffres.png. Copy this to the images directory as described above.
  2. Execute (or place in startup script): 
    CreateToolButton /class component diffres diffres.png
"Place Diffused Resistor"
    (This must all be on one line)

    This will create a button called 'diffres' that we will refer to in the following steps. The switch /class component identifies the button as one that places a component and so will be listed in the GUI based system to edit component toolbars. (See schematic menu View|Configure Toolbar...) . This will make adding the button to a component toolbar a simple operation.
  3. Execute (or place in startup script): 
    DefButton diffres "inst /ne diffressym"
    where diffressym is the name of the schematic symbol created for the diffused resistor.
  4. To add to the button to a component toolbar, simply select schematic menu View|Configure Toolbar... You should see 'Place Diffused Resistor' on the left hand side. Select and press Add to add to the toolbar, then use the up down buttons to choose a suitable position.
Its a little harder to edit non-component toolbars as there is currently no GUI to perform the operation in step 4 above. For pre-defined toolbars you can obtain the current specification using the GetOption function and then add your new button to the resulting value at an appropriate location. Then use the Set command to redefine the toolbar. See Modifying Existing Toolbars and Buttons for more details.

Creating New Toolbars

To create a completely new toolbar, use the command CreateToolBar. This will create an empty toolbar.

To add buttons to a new toolbar, you must use the command DefineToolBar. You can add both pre-defined and user-defined buttons to a custom toolbar.

Pre-defined Buttons

The following table lists all the buttons that are pre-defined. All of these buttons may be redefined if required.

The bitmaps are embedded in the SIMetrix binary, but can also be found on the install CD in the directory script/images.

Button name Description Bitmap
AsciiFileEditorClose Close Ascii File close.png
AsciiFileEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
AsciiFileEditorOpen Open Ascii File open.png
AsciiFileEditorSave Save Ascii File save.png
BiasV Place Bias Marker biasv.png
CalcAveragePower Display Average Power/Cycle avg.png
CalcFall Display Fall Time falltime.png
CalcHighPass3db Display -3dB Point (High Pass) 3dbhighpass.png
CalcLowPass3db Display -3dB Point (Low Pass) 3dblowpass.png
CalcRise Display Rise Time risetime.png
CalcRMS Display RMS/Cycle rms.png
Capacitor Place Capacitor capacitor.png
Copy Duplicate copy.png
Delete Cut cut.png
DeleteAllCurves Delete All Curves deleteall.png
DeleteAxis Delete Axis/Grid delgrid.png
DeleteCurve Delete Curve delete.png
Detach Detach detach.png
Diode Place Diode diode.png
Flip Flip flip.png
GraphClose Close Graph fileclose.bmp
GraphNew New Graph filenew.png
GraphNewCurve Add Curve newcurve.png
GraphNewFourier Add Fourier Spectrum Plot newfourier.png
GraphOpen Open Graph fileopen.bmp
GraphSave Save Graph filesave.bmp
Ground Place Ground ground.png
HideCurves Hide Selected Curves hide.png
IGBT Place IGBT igbt.png
Inductor Place Inductor inductor.png
IProbe Place Current Probe iprobeplaced.png
IProbeInteractive Probe Pin Current (interactive) iprobe.png
ISource Place Current Source isource.png
LogicDefinitionEditorClose Close Logic Definition close.png
LogicDefinitionEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
LogicDefinitionEditorOpen Open Logic Definition open.png
LogicDefinitionEditorSave Save Logic Definition save.png
Mirror Mirror mirror.png
MoveCurve Move Curve to Selected Axis/Grid movecurve.png
NetlistEditorClose Close Netlist close.png
NetlistEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
NetlistEditorOpen Open Netlist open.png
NetlistEditorSave Save Netlist save.png
NetlistRun Run SIMetrix Netlist run.png
NewAxis New Axis newaxis.png
NewCurve Add Curve newcurve.png
NewFourier Add Fourier Spectrum Plot newfourier.png
NewGrid New Grid newgrid.png
NJFET Place N-channel JFET njfet.png
NMOS3IC Place 3 term N-channel MOSFET nmos_ic3.png
NMOS4 Place 4 term N-channel MOSFET nmos_ic.png
NMOS Place N-channel MOSFET nmos.png
NPN Place NPN Transistor npn.png
Opamp Place Opamp opamp.png
PJFET Place P-channel JFET pjfet.png
PMOS3IC Place 3 term P-channel MOSFET pmos_ic3.png
PMOS4 Place 4 term P-channel MOSFET pmos_ic.png
PMOS Place P-channel MOSFET pmos.png
PNP Place PNP Transistor pnp.png
Print Print print.png
PSU Place PSU psu.png
Redo Redo redo.png
Resistor Place Resistor (Box shape) resistor.png
ResistorZ Place Resistor (Z shape) resz.png
Rotate Rotate rotate.png
SatInd Place Saturable Inductor sat_ind.png
SatTx Place Saturable Transformer tx_sat.png
SchemClose Close Schematic close.png
SchemFind Search find.png
SchemNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
SchemOpen Open Schematic open.png
SchemSave Save Schematic save.png
SchemSaveAll Save All Schematics saveall.png
SCR Place Thyristor scr.png
ScriptEditorClose Close Script close.png
ScriptEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
ScriptEditorOpen Open Script open.png
ScriptEditorSave Save Script save.png
ScriptRun Run Script run.png
ShellNewSchem New Schematic filenew.png
ShowCurves Show Selected Curves show.png
SIMextrixOptions Options options.png
SimPause Pause Simulation pause.png
SIMPLISOptions SIMPLIS Options simplis_options2.png
SimRunSchem Run Schematic run.png
SymbolClose Close Symbol close.png
SymbolCut Cut Selected cut.png
SymbolDetach Detach Selected detach.png
SymbolDuplicate Duplicate Selected copy.png
SymbolFlip Flip Selected flip.png
SymbolMirror Mirror Selected mirror.png
SymbolNew New Symbol filenew.png
SymbolOpen Open Symbol open.png
SymbolRedo Redo redo.png
SymbolRotate Rotate Selected rotate.png
SymbolSave Save Symbol save.png
SymbolUndo Undo undo.png
SymbolWireMode Segment Mode pencil.png
SymbolZoomBox Zoom to Rectangle zoomrect.png
SymbolZoomIn Zoom In zoomin2.png
SymbolZoomOut Zoom Out zoomout2.png
TextEditorClose Close Text close.png
TextEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
TextEditorOpen Open Text open.png
TextEditorSave Save Text save.png
TitleCurve Change Curve Name curvetitle.png
TL Place Transmission Line tl.png
Tx Place Transformer tx.png
Undo Undo undo.png
UndoZoom Undo Zoom undo.png
VerilogAEditorClose Close Verilog-A close.png
VerilogAEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
VerilogAEditorOpen Open Verilog-A open.png
VerilogAEditorSave Save Verilog-A save.png
VerilogHDLEditorClose Close Verilog HDL close.png
VerilogHDLEditorNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
VerilogHDLEditorOpen Open Verilog HDL open.png
VerilogHDLEditorSave Save Verilog HDL save.png
VProbe Place Voltage Probe vprobeplaced.png
VProbeInteractive Probe Voltage (interactive) vprobe.png
VSource Place Voltage Source vsource.png
Waveform Place Waveform Generator vsig.png
WebBack Back back.png
WebForward Forward forward.png
WebNew New SIMetrix Schematic filenew.png
WebReload Reload reload.png
WebSIMextrixOptions options.png
WebSIMPLISOptions simplis_options2.png
WebStop Stop stop.png
Wire Wire Mode pencil.png
Zener Place Zener Diode zener.png
ZoomFull Zoom to Fit zoomfull.png
ZoomFullGraph Fit Window zoomfull.png
ZoomIn Zoom In zoomin2.png
ZoomOut Zoom Out zoomout2.png
ZoomRect Zoom Box zoomrect.png
ZoomXAuto Fit Width zoomwidth.png
ZoomYAuto Fit Height zoomheight.png

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