Preview Image

The CircuitWorks preview image is a graphical representation of the ECAD data.

To display the preview image:

Open an ECAD file.

The preview image displays in the middle panel of the CircuitWorks application.

When you change the ECAD data, such as applying filters or editing feature properties, CircuitWorks immediately updates the preview image.

CircuitWorks displays items with defined heights as solid objects and items without heights as outlines.

Selecting an entity in the preview image selects it in the Components node of the tree view and updates the display of the object's properties if they are visible.

Select multiple objects by doing one of the following:

  • Press Ctrl while selecting.
  • Drag a selection box around the objects.

Preview Shortcut Menu

When no components are selected in the preview image, the following view controls are available:

Zoom to Fit Zooms in or out so you can see the entire preview image.
Zoom to Area Zooms to an area that you select by dragging a bounding box.
Zoom In/Out Lets you zoom in or out to see the desired amount of detail.
Pan Scrolls the preview image.
Top View Shows the board from the top view.
Bottom View Shows the board from the bottom view.

When you select a preview object, additional controls appear on the preview shortcut menu:

Zoom to Selection Zooms the preview to the selected object.
Select Other The pointer changes to and lets you toggle between objects of a similar type that overlap each other.
  Filter In Restores the selected object if it has been filtered out.
  Filter Out Filters out the selected object.

The object is shown as unavailable in the tree view and preview image.

  Properties Displays the selected object's Component Instance Properties panel.
  Build Model Builds the SOLIDWORKS part model for the component that contains the selected objects.
Build Model is unavailable from the shortcut menu if the selected component has multiple instances and only one is selected.