Wiring Basics¶

Wire Components

Wires can be used either to make logical connections between a single signal source with one or more signal destinations or as a drawing tool for aesthetics.
Wires consist of two or more wire nodes with more sequential line segments connecting them.
The width of the line segments can either be one, two or three pixels as set in the preferences.
Wire nodes at the end of a wire will always be visibly represented with a small square.
Wire nodes in the middle of a wire will be invisible unless selected, or if any node on the wire is currently being drawn or edited.
When visible, wire nodes in the middle of a line will be represented with a small ball.
When selected a visible wire node will be red, otherwise it will be black.
When a wire node is actively being edited, gray crosshairs will appear radiating from each selected wire node.
A wire node can be selected by clicking on it.
A wire node can be unselected by clicking on it with the "Ctrl" key pressed.
When selecting a node, all other selections will be lost unless the "Ctrl" key is held down when the left mouse key is pressed.
A wire's line segments are red when the wire nodes at both ends of a given segment are selected.
Clicking on, or within five pixels of a wire’s line segment will select the wire modes on both ends of the segment.

Hot Spots

Hot spots are the small open squares drawn on objects and used to indicate that a wire is commonly connected to the object at that point.
Hot spots do not necessarily imply that a logical signal connection is to be made within the Symetrix hardware.
The Hot spots on modules, super-modules, bus sends, and bus returns always imply a logical connection can be made.
The Hot spots on units, pictures, and external hardware icons never imply a logical connection can be made.

Wire Drawing

The drawing of a wire can be initiated by clicking on the hot spot of any object that has hot spots.
The drawing of a wire can be initiated by right clicking on open screen area in a configuration view, design view or super module view and selecting the "Start Wire" item from the menu.
The drawing of a wire can be initiated by right clicking on an existing wire anywhere but at the ends of that wire and selecting the "Start Wire" item from the menu.
The drawing of an existing wire can be continued by right clicking on the end nodes of the wire and selecting the "Continue Wire" item from the menu.
When drawing a wire, the last wire node at the active drawing end of the wire will be selected.
When drawing a wire, the last wire node at the active drawing end of the wire will move with the cursor without the mouse button being pressed.
When drawing a wire, the selected node can be dropped at a specific location and a new selected node be added to the end of the wire by left clicking with the mouse at the desired location.
When starting a new wire where a node does not already exist, a new node will be made on that existing wire.
When drawing a wire, the crosshairs will disappear from the selected node while the mouse button is pressed to promote proper user operation.
The exact placing of new wire nodes will be aligned to a 10 x 10 grid if the "Snap to Grid" option is selected in the "Tools" menu.
The exact placement of new wire nodes is limited to an orthogonal direction from the previously placed node if the "No Diagonal Wires" option is selected in the "Tools" menu.

Terminating Wire Drawing

The drawing of a wire can be terminated by right clicking with the mouse.
The drawing of a wire can be terminated by hitting the "Esc" key.
The drawing of a wire can be terminated by changing the window focus to a different window.
When the drawing of a wire is terminated, the last node actively being moved will be deleted.
When the drawing of a wire is terminated, wires with only one node will be deleted.

Completing Wire Drawing

When the active node at the end of a wire being drawn is placed at a hot spot of an object, the node is first fixed at that location and wire drawing is terminated.
When an active node at the end of a wire being drawn is placed at any node or within five pixels of any line segment, the node is fixed at that location and wire drawing is terminated with the node remaining.

Logical Connections

Logical Connections are the implication that an actual signal in hardware will be connected by the presence of a wire connecting a single signal source to a single signal destination.
Wires only make logical connections in a unit's design view of or a Super-module's view.
Wires can be used for aesthetic purposes in configuration views or, design views or Super-module views.
If two signal sources are graphically connected by a wire, no logical connection will be made, and no wires that connect to this wire will result in a logical connection.
The presence of wires, which connect two signal sources together, will show as errors when the Analyze feature in the "Tools" menu is used.
If two signal destinations are graphically connected, no logical connection will be made, unless an additional wire connects from this wire to a signal source.
The presence of wires, which connect two signal destinations together, and are not connected to a signal source through an additional wire, will show as errors when the Analyze feature in the "Tools" menu is used.
Only one logical connection can be achieved with a single wire.
Additional wires are required if a signal source is to be connected to multiple signal destinations.
Two wires are only logically connected if they meet at the end of one of the wires.
Since the end of a wire is indicated with a square symbol, it is easy to see where logical connections are being made.
The actual logical connections made by all wires in a site can be displayed using the "Update and View Netlist" item in the "Tools" menu.
When a wire end is logically connected to another wire through drawing or editing, where there is not already a wire node, a new wire node will be created at the junction.
Logical connections will not actually be implemented until the design is downloaded to hardware.

Editing Wires

Line segments of wires can be edited by selecting the nodes at both ends of the segment.
A single wire node can be edited.
Any combination of wire nodes in one or more wires along with other objects can be simultaneously edited by multiply selecting as desired.
To edit one or more wire nodes, the nodes are selected and dragged with the left mouse button depressed.
The selected wire nodes will show crosshairs while being dragged to aid in placement.
When a wire node is dragged within five pixels of a line segment, a new node will be created on the line segment and located at the new edited position of the dragged node, consistent with the current snap setting.
An entire wire can be deleted by right slicking anywhere on the line and selecting "Delete Wire" from the menu.

Changing Wire Color

All on screen wires can be individually set to display in any color.
Select a wire, right click, and open the Wire Properties dialog box.
You can change the color of the selected wire only or, if you wish, change the selected wire and all newly placed wires going forward.
From the Wire Properties dialog box choose Change Selected Wire Color... if you wish to change the color of an individually selected wire only.
From the Wire Properties dialog box choose Change Wire Color... if you wish to change the color of an individually selected wire and all newly placed wires going forward. Be sure to click the Save Colors button if you wish to keep the color scheme you have selected.
After using Trace Signal Path, you can change the colors of the selected wires by right-clicking on the wire, and selecting Multiple Wire Properties.

Trace Signal Path

This will trace the signal path through all connected modules, taking into account mutes, matrix and selector settings and Network I/O transmit and receive modules.