CircuitWorks Options - IDF Import

Set options that affect how CircuitWorks interprets IDF files.

To display CircuitWorks Options - IDF Import:

From the CircuitWorks Options dialog box, click IDF Import .

To display the CircuitWorks Options dialog box, do one of the following:

  • From CircuitWorks, click the CircuitWorks application menu , then click Options .
  • From SOLIDWORKS, click Tools > CircuitWorks > CircuitWorks Options.
Swap part name and part number By default, CircuitWorks derives the names of component models it generates from the part names in IDF files. Select this option to generate part names using part numbers instead.
For example, an IDF file contains the following placement entry:
"15K0/B" "L14006" R4
139,6 59,4 0 0 TOP PLACED
  • If this option is not selected, CircuitWorks names the part 15K0B. Note that / is not valid in SOLIDWORKS file names so is removed.
  • If this option is selected, CircuitWorks names the part L14006.
When reading IDF 2.0 and 3.0 files

Determines how CircuitWorks cross references components between the board (typically *.emn) and library (typically *.emp) portions of IDF 2.0 and 3.0 files. Choose the option appropriate for the ECAD system that created the IDF files:

  • Link Board and Library file by component name only - Use this option if part numbers in the board and library files do not match.
  • Link Board and Library file by component name and part number - Use this option if part numbers in the board and library files match.
IDF file encoding Selects the character encoding for IDF files. Select one of the following:
  • ASCII
  • Western Europe (Windows 1252)
  • Japanese (Shift_JIS)
If characters do not display properly in CircuitWorks, you might have the wrong encoding selected for your region.
Component rotation

Selects ECAD systems for which to rotate underside components in the opposite direction.

Some ECAD systems misinterpret the IDF specification when rotating components on the underside (bottom) of the board. Some systems rotate components clockwise while others rotate them counter-clockwise.
CircuitWorks builds the list of ECAD systems from systems it has encountered.