Suggestion: Auto-increment net name

[Anonymous]

If I draw a bunch of wires, every time I click the "NET" tool, it shows me the default name of that wire.

Which is good, yes, but if I have to put in DATA[0..31], it gets annoying every time.

Store the last input value; if it ends in a number, auto-increment the number - it's  a sane default.

[rachaelATWH4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I draw a bunch of wires, every time I click the "NET" tool, it shows me the default name of that wire.

Which is good, yes, but if I have to put in DATA[0..31], it gets annoying every time.

Store the last input value; if it ends in a number, auto-increment the number - it's  a sane default.

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Yes I think having an auto increment feature available on the NET command could be useful but it could also be dangerous if it wasn't done correctly. For example, somebody could end up with a all their nets named DATA<number> if they forgot to cancel the command after they drew their data bus! Maybe if you could specify the range so it finishes automatically that would help.

I think I might actually prefer it as a feature to the NAME command as I often draw lots of nets, add net labels so I can visually see the net name and then rename them.

This isn't a completely replacement for the feature you are requesting but you can achieve quick naming of nets of you create busses and then rip the nets from the bus to name them. So for example you'd create a bus and name it something like

MCU:MCU_ADDR_[0..15],MCU_DATA_[0..31],MCU_RD/!WR,MCU_!CE[0..7],MCU_!WAIT,MCU_!INT

Then when you connect nets up to the bus you can select all those names and the individual bits from ADDR, DATA and !CE. You can then copy that bus segment elsewhere in the schematic and rip the signals out to connect up to another component, thus ensuring you get the correct net names across your design and things are connected as expected.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[Anonymous]

And I wanted to make a signal LED[R,G,B[0..4]] and the command isn't accepted either. But I don't recall if there was an ULP that picked the NEXT unconnected wire when connecting buses... it was long ago. I believe I clicked on the bus and an appropriate item was selected next in the list, but it could have been a coincidence of the orientation of the items in the list with the CPU.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi trayres805,

Thanks for your suggestion. The NET tool can get close to what you want, and with a small enhancement would likely give you exactly what you want.

Here's what you can do now:
1. Click on the NET command.
2. Before drawing a NET type 'Nameoffirstsignal' and press the enter key on your key board.
3. Now the net that you draw will have that name. Finish the Net.
4. Before drawing your next Net press the up key, this will bring up the last name adjust and hit enter.
5. Rinse and Repeat.

I agree with Rachael that there should be a bounds on this. So the implementation I'll recommend is as follows.

Enter the name with special characters to show the range(maybe we can't use brackets for some reason that's why I'm being general).
The net names will be consumed in order until you have used them all, once you do it reverts to N$ names.
If at any point in the process you cancel out of the NET command completely then that's it. Next time you click the NET command it will start with N$ names unless you specify otherwise.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Best Regards,

[rachaelATWH4]

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@jorge.garcia wrote:

So the implementation I'll recommend is as follows.

Enter the name with special characters to show the range(maybe we can't use brackets for some reason that's why I'm being general).
The net names will be consumed in order until you have used them all, once you do it reverts to N$ names.
If at any point in the process you cancel out of the NET command completely then that's it. Next time you click the NET command it will start with N$ names unless you specify otherwise.

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I propose the syntax is just:

NAME MyNet[0..15]

This is consistent with how a net range is specified in the BUS syntax so shouldn't cause any issues.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[Anonymous]

SkyNet[0..255]