An Introduction to TinyCAD
Welcome to TinyCAD!
You can get the latest news, release and source code from the Sourceforge site. Go to http://tinycad.sourceforge.net.
TinyCAD is an open source schematic capture program. Use TinyCAD to draw your own circuit diagrams.
You can lay out circuit diagrams using the supplied libraries. Alternatively, there is a component library editor built into TinyCAD – so you can easily create your own symbols. You may also find more libraries on the Yahoo group that other users have drawn for you.
Once you have drawn your design, you can use the special functions to automatically add symbol references, check your design against rules of correctness and create a parts list. TinyCAD can also export a netlist for import into a PCB layout program.
Once you have your design you can copy and paste it into other packages such as Word (or better still OpenOffice). You may also print your design to any supported Windows printer. If your design is larger than a single page then it can be either scaled to fit on a single page or printed across many pages.
Changes since version 2.50.00
Welcome to TinyCAD version 2.60.00. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New features:
Homogeneous and
Heterogeneous symbol support
Show power pins on a symbol
New pin shape with the name above
instead of at the end of the line
Bug fixes:
Improved handling
of delete so it should crash less!
Internally switched to a Unicode
application for better handling of international character sets
Better placement of symbols so that
they should remain in the same place after saving and reloading
Changes since version 2.10.00
Welcome to TinyCAD version 2.50.00. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New features:
Hierarchical
drawing support
Conditional statements in SPICE files and a new error listing file
Improved drawing system with higher resolution to remove rounding errors in
drawing
Three new labels shapes
Text display for exported files
Improved UI look and feel on Windows
XP
Bug fixes:
Better XML
compliance now includes the charset that the file is
written in and it now defaults to UTF-8.
Improved thumbnail printing of libraries
Improved multi-sheet support of
design rules checker
Fixed bugs with Spice generation and
multiple-sheets
Improved font rendering for
different scaling factors
Changes since version 2.00.00
Welcome to TinyCAD version 2.10.00. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New features:
SPICE file
generation (but no SPICE libraries at the moment)
New library selection in the symbol fetch dialogue
Insert bitmaps, (from BMP, EMF, PNG or JPEG files)
Save as an EMF file as well as PNGs
Create Parts Lists as CSV files and include all symbol information in the parts
list
“Reload symbols” has been replaced by a new “Replace symbol” option on the
symbol’s right-click menu
Bug fixes:
Sheet to sheet
copying has been tidied up
Selecting junctions is much easier
Copy & paste to word now includes junctions
Import now works better with auto-junction placement
Block rotate and flip has been tidied up
Snap to pins now works with re-sized symbols
Changes since version 1.95.20
Welcome to TinyCAD version 2.00.00. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New features:
Each single drawing
file can now be made up of multiple sheets (just like Excel).
Screen re-drawing has been improved to reduce flicker
Save as a black & white bitmap and select the scaling factor
Autosave every “n” minutes
New library editing features:
Library Symbols can
now have multiple names
Export and import single library symbols or the entire library into an XML file
Right click on a symbol in the thumbnail view to get direct access to the
symbol's properties
Multi-sheet tabs make multiple part per package symbols easier to draw
Changes since version 1.90.00
Welcome to TinyCAD version 1.95.20. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New features:
Change the colours of the drawing items such as pins and wires
A new “Windows” menu option to navigate between your open windows
“Make horizontal” & “Make vertical” menu options for wires
Increased zoom on drawings
Integrate more easily with
other programs
TinyCAD now loads and saves it's files in an XML file format
Save as a PNG file for sharing your designs with others
Output a netlist for common PCB programs, including PADs and Protel
Improved symbol & library editing:
Copy symbols from
one library to another
New context (right-click) menu on library thumbnails for faster library editing
Pins have even more options to make them look better
Improved features:
The Undo/Redo has
been completely re-written to make it more robust
The dragging of wires and symbols has been re-worked at length to improved ease
of use
.. and numerous bug fixes to improve stability and make TinyCAD easier to use!
Changes since version 1.80.00
Welcome to TinyCAD version 1.90.00. Here is a quick summary that has changed in this release:
New symbol picker tool
The most obvious change to TinyCAD when you fire it up is the new symbol picker that
sits on the left hand side of the screen. This replaces the old way of fetching
symbols from the libraries.
New library format
The Libraries are
now stored in Microsoft Access database format. This means all new libraries
will have an extension of .mdb and can be opened by a
copy of Access. This change to a more standard format for storing libraries will
make it much easier to add new features to the libraries in future, and will
enable 3rd parties to write their own tools to read/modify the
symbols.
The
first new feature with the new library format, is that
you are able to select the default orientation of symbols when they are picked.
This fixes a long running bug in TinyCAD that symbols
were drawn one way round, but always extracted from the libraries rotated.
To convert your libraries to the new format, use the new “Upgrade” button in
the library dialogue box.
Lots of bug fixes
In line with all
new releases I have been busy fixing bugs. There are a few crashes fixed and
some tiding up of the way editing drawings work.
Changes since version 1.60.10
Welcome to TinyCAD version 1.80.00. So much has changed since the last release that this is just a summary of what has changed.
New wiring tools
Automatic snap to
symbols and other wires
Automatic junction placement
New symbol components
Unlimited number of attibutes
associated with a symbol
Make attributes hidden by default in the library
New editing tools
Re-size symbols
Drag wires out
Bring to front/send to back
Select multiple objects using the Ctrl key
Right-mouse button context menus
New annotations
Filled polygons,
rectangles and ellipses
Resize text in any direction