PADS PowerPCB 3.0 for Windows NT

General Information

Before installing a new version of PADS it's important to remove any existing setup for any earler version of the application. This can be done by going to the 'Control Panel' / 'Add-Remove Programs' menu, selecting the PADS entry and deleting it. It may be necessary to remove the Programs Folder entry by hand.

Version 3.0 of Power PCB no longer has the translator contained in version 2.0.1. The translator allowed one to bring in .job files from PADS Perfect on UNIX. The procedure now has to consist of opening version 2.0.1 first, opening the desired .job file and saving it as a .pcb file. This file can then be opened in version 3.0.

The basic idea for running the application is to invoke PADS from the CAE netdrive NT environment under AFS. For those who do not yet have the AFS client software for NT, refer to installing AFS Typically your local 'S' drive is used to mount the SLAC AFS area as a netdrive.

Once you have the AFS client software, which houses all the electronic CAE applications, you can proceed to the installation.

The PADS PowerPCB ver 3.0 setup location on the AFS netdrive is:

S:\package\pads\nt\ppcb_30\pc_setup\

• Double-click on the 'AUTORUN.exe' icon.

• In the following menus:

  Select 'Install PowerPCB' menu option

  Enter your name and company info

  'Yes', you agree to the licensing requirements.

• Select floating license option. The next screen reminds you that the security installation should have taken place previously, which is the case.

• You are prompted to specify the security server. Enter:

  7508@area51

• On the next screen you are prompted to select from among three choices for whether to preserve various default items. You may choose to preserve settings if you have had a previous version of PowerPCB with configuration settings you would like to keep.

• Select custom install, since we do not have the Specctra router.
  On the same menu, select the "Destination Folder" in which you would like local files related to the setup of PowerPCB on your machine to go. This will typically be a local working directory.

  On the menu list, de-select only the Specctra translator.

• On the custom options menu, (only) select:
  • change default user file directories.
    Note: Since we are not selecting "Use executables on network..." the installation procedure *will* actually install the executables on the local disk. This is necessary in order for CAM-related operations to work.

• Then you are prompted to specify the local directories that will include files that *you* create. File types that you only use from the installation directory do not need to be specified here. File types that you create definitely include:

  Design Files

  Select any other categories of files you think you will be *creating*, such as Library and CAM Output files as well as of course using from the installation directories. You can change what you specify here later on, by editing your copy of the C:\winnt\PowerPCB.ini file appropriately and possibly copying the relevant directories from the default installation directory to your working directory.
  For each category you selected you are then prompted for the local directory to sustitute for the default installation directory.
  

• Add to Program Folder as you wish. I always recommend including the version number in the Program Folder name.

• You can go ahead and reboot the machine

• Log in as the local Administrator.

• Get to the area: start/settings/control panel

• Double-click on the 'system' icon.

• In the control panel select tab 'environment'.

• Set system variable 'LM_LICENSE_FILE' to include an entry for the PADS license as follows:

• If the variable is already set, add the following entry to the end of the other entries, preceded by ';', otherwise initialize the list of values with:

  7508@area51

• If there is a user variable called 'PADS_LIC_FILE', set to 7508@area51, you can go ahead and remove it, since it is essentially redundant now.

• Click on 'Set', then on 'Apply', then on 'OK'

• It may be useful to transfer the Program Folder entry for PowerPCB from its current location in the Administrator Profile to that of "All Users", so anyone logging in to your PC has access to the application. This change requires Admin privileges. The Program Folders for various users are in folder c:\winnt\Profiles\.
  The desired destination folder is "All Users\Start Menu\Programs".
  Drag to that location the PADS entries that are initially in the Administrator or other related user's folder.

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Bob Boeninger
Last updated: June 8, 1999