Libraries

In this chapter you will learn how to create your own libraries. The basics of libraries are explained in "Projects and Libraries".

Manage libraries

The main menu File  Libraries…​ leads you to the Antares library management window.

The table shows all libraries available on your computer. These include the "Basic" and "Standard" libraries provided by Antares, as well as your own user libraries. The lock icon in the table indicates the type of library: User libraries (in the example "Test") show an open lock, while the built-in libraries, which you cannot change, are shown with a closed lock.

After selecting a library, the description of the library is displayed below the table.

Open

Opens the selected library. This action is useful if you want to create a new project based on the selected library afterwards.

New

Creates a new library. Besides the name of the new library, an already existing library can be selected to be added (to be a base of) the new library.

Delete

Deletes the selected library. This action cannot be undone. If you have projects based on the deleted library, these projects will no longer be usable.

Export

Exports the selected library to a .acl file (Antares Circuit Library).

Import

Imports a library from a .acl file. Importing can fail in one of the following situations:

• Invalid: The imported .acl file is invalid, i.e. it was probably not created by an export from Antares.

• Name already exists: Since the name of a library must be unique, Antares rejects the import of a library with an already existing name.

Note

Starting with version 1.3, you can also import an .acl file when starting Antares. If you associate .acl files with the Antares application on your operating system, you can double-click on an .acl file to import it automatically when Antares is started.

Change properties

With the context menu Properties on the library in the workbench you can change the name and description of a library.

Both texts are internationalized, i.e. you can enter texts in all languages supported by Antares. The description is mainly used in the "Libraries" window.

Ownership

The property "Owned by me" indicates whether the current project is owned by you. This is true for all libraries and projects you’ve created by yourself. You can only edit projects and libraries (and the circuit contained in them) that are owned by your. This prevents you from accidentally altering imported libraries and projects, since your changes would be overwritten once you re-import the library.

However, there are situations where you want to change an imported library or project nonetheless. In such a case, you can select the "Owned by me" checkbox, and Antares will transfer ownership of your local copy of this library/project to you.

Note: If a library/project is already owned by you, the checkbox is not enabled. There is no way of "giving up" ownership of a library/project, since Antares wouldn’t know to whom ownership is supposed to be transferred.

Edit library

The context menu Edit library opens the window shown below.

The "Edit Library" window allows you to add more components from all existing libraries to the currently open library. The window displays the source library to the left (the library from which components are fetched) and the destination library to the right (the library to which components are added).

Select the source library from the "Source" drop-down list. Open the directories in the source library, select the component to be added, and press the button between the two windows to copy the selected component. The component will be copied to the directory selected in the "Destination" library.

In the example above, the "Half Adder" of the Standard library has been copied to the "Arithmetic" directory of the current "Test" library.