Windipoles. Help file. (version 4.8.0)

Notes of interest.

Menus.

File menu.

Edit menu.

View menu.

Data menu.

Overlap menu.

• Files are saved in plain text file format with the extension .wdp
• Editing, outside Windipoles, a saved file may damage the file.
• When opening a previously saved file, the "open" option will load the file in the current "Tab".
• "Open new tab" will append a new "tab" and will load the file to this new tab.
• Graphics can be saved as image files.

• The last "Edit" menu option is an "Undo" / "Redo" action list. Also, CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y keys are valid to UnDo and ReDo actions. There is a different list for each circuit placed in a different Tab.

• In the "View" menu, the "Lock" option freezes/unfreezes the upper design window. It's a good idea to "Lock" a network when finished the design, so components will not move from the target position avoiding execution errors that would cause the graphic not to appear.
• When an execution error occurs, graphic stops the layout. To resume, first, review the network for errors (unplugged wires highlighted in red, components with a zero value, e.g,, Q=0 in an inductor, etc.), and eventually repair. Then, click the "Redraw" button on the buttons bar (or click the "View/Redraw" menu option).
• Double click over the graphics' panels is a shortcut to pop out the Markers dialog.
  In the markers dialog click the "add" button for a new marker.
  Be sure to mark a check box in the green ones and another in the red ones. Also check Display. If Freq. is checked, write the value in the Frequency column.
  

• After changing a value (of Start frequency, Stop freq., Q or maximum Zin/out) in the data menu, you must update the new value by pressing the "Enter" key in the same editing box where value has been changed.
• When changing, in the data menu, Q to a new value, all existing inductors in the network will set their Q value to this new value.

• Having two or more "tab" pages (i.e. more than one current circuit), there is the possibility to see overlapped graphics by checking the corresponding option in the "Overlap" menu.

Context menus.

• Mouse right-click brings up one of the two context menus depending on whether there is or not an element present below the mouse pointer.

  Context menu A

  
  
• If there is an element (C, L, R, connector) there will be the posibility to convert into another element or -the other two 'shift' options- bring all the elements at the right side from the mouse pointer to the right/left some distance (equal to the length of a C, L, R or connector).
  

Context menu B



• Changing source or load options switches between a single component for source/load and parallel branches.
• Mouse right-click over a text label will show the following context menu:
  
  Here we may edit the text of the text label, change the text's font or else delete the label (caution: there is no confirmation, although we may undo the action).

Selection of components.

• Mouse down over a component will select it and will be drawn in red.
• This selection will allow to move the component before the mouse button is released.
• Selected components may be moved dragging the mouse or pressing arrow keys. Pressing Shift or Control while pressing arrow keys will move the selection farther.
• To mantain a component selected, as in multiple selection, after releasing mouse button press Shift key while pressing down the mouse button over another component.
• Shift key will shift a selected component to non selected and viceversa, but other components will not loose their selection (if there are selected). This may be useful to add or remove components to an existing selection.
• To move a selection: :
• To delete selected components (drawn in red) just press the 'Delete' keyboard key.
• In order to select more than one component at a time, you may press left mouse button and drag surrounding the components to select.

Copy and Paste.

• To duplicate components:
• 1) Select the components to duplicate (for example by dragging the mouse sourrounding them):
  
• 2) Bring the mouse, for example, near the selection, and press keys Control+C. Let's call this position POS1.
• 3) Move the mouse a distance equal to the distance to move the new componets, let's call this POS2.
• 4) Press keys Control-V: the new duplicated componets will appear at position = POS2 - POS1.
  
• It is also posible to duplicate components from one tab (network) to another tab (network).



Design (upper window).

• By clicking the +/- image of a component, the component's value is incremented/decremented (a unit for low values, or a 1% of the component's value for values >150).
• Holding the left mouse button pressed over the +/- images increments/decrements the value repeatedly.
• By double-clicking over a component's value a pop-up window will appear in order to change the component's value,
  
• In the upper design window, there are two context menus (right button).
• If the mouse is not near a wire/component the first context menu will let us add wires/components or labels (for resonance frequency).
• Near a wire or component a second context menu converts from/to wires/components .
• When a wire/component is drawn horizontal (or vertical) and selected (highlighted in red color), pressing the keyboard's space key will change the orientation to vertical (horizontal)
• Important: always keep wires connected to both ends, never in the middle or inside (take special care of this when managing with wires).
• If there are wires/components with connections left out, the graphics will not show.
• Existing connections are always numbered, starting from 0, in blue color.
• In order to close a tab (close a network), first click in the tab so that that network is selected and, then, right click the tab (context menu will be shown) and choose the "close" option. Previously, remember to save the file, if that is the case.
• Adding a label (to view a resonance frequency), one can drag the label. Right click will show labels' context menu with Edit, Font and Delete options.
• Double-click over a resonance label will cause the resonance frequency dialog box to appear.
  
• In the first field, write the numbers of the two nodes that surround an inductor (node numbers at both ends of the capacitance) , with a slash "/" between both numbers.
• Similarly, write in the second field the numbers of nodes surrounding a capacitance (e.g. 10/11) . If the entered data so far is Ok, the L and C fields will display the components' values.



Miscellaneous.

• Scrolling the mouse wheel over a graphic zooms in or out. Clicking the "Redraw" option in the "View" menu restores the graphics default values.