Connecting Parts with Links


A link is a physical component that carries information from one part to another. Thus, a link can only be created with two existing parts at its ends. The end parts can be the same part in SansGUI, but it may be meaningless or disallowed in the particular simulator you are creating the Project Model for.

A link is attached to a part via a port that belongs to the part. Following link creations, the use of the Port Properties dialog to examine and change the port number of a part in a connection is explained in detail.

Preparing a Link Object

Similar to selecting a component object for creating parts, you need to select a link object before creating a link. The procedure, though, is a little different. Unlike the Object Toolbox for selecting component objects to create parts, all available link objects in the Project Model are listed in a drop-down combo box in the Build toolbar next to the New Link button. The name of the currently selected link object is shown in the combo box. There is always a Default link object created for the Project Model. You can add more link objects to the Project Model by using the same procedures described in the Creating Objects section.

To select a link object, you can either click on the link object from the component Tree View in the left pane, or from the drop-down combo box in the Build toolbar. The selected link object with the name shown in the combo box will be used for subsequent link creation.

Creating a Link

To create a link, take the following steps:

The beginning part and end part decide the direction of the link, from the beginning part to the end part. The direction, however, may or may not be meaningful depending upon the definitions from the simulator.

Naming a Link

The name of a link is similar to that of a part. It is a string of alpha-numeric characters and, possibly, with hyphens for clarity. Just like object names, all other characters will be turned into hyphens. To change the name, double click on the link line in the Canvas View or use the Properties menu item in the context menu to invoke the Link Properties dialog. Modify the name and click on the OK button to commit the change.

A new link is automatically assigned with a name, unique in the assembly, and a unique serial number in the Project Model. The initial name of a link is a number and an increasing-by-one series of numbers is used for subsequent links. You can start a new series by changing a link's name to a new starting number. For example, after changing the name of a link to 1100, the subsequent parts created will be named 1101, 1102, etc., provided that they are unambiguous in the same assembly. A non-numeric link name will be skipped in the name generation process.

Changing Values

Similar to part values, again, the values of a link can be modified with a link value overriding mechanism. It is described in the Overriding Values section.

Changing Port Identifiers

Sometimes, the generated port number may not be the desired one because there may be more than one choice. To modify the port identifier, do the following:

Port Properties Dialog Details

Depending on the simulator, ports in a part may be defined either implicitly or explicitly. When the ports are defined explicitly, a list of compatible ports are displayed. You can change the port number to any number in the list. When they are defined implicitly, there is a set of port number generation rules displayed in the Port Properties dialog:

There are some properties associated with the port:

 



C:\FH_Suite\htmlgifs\home.gif Creating Parts Overriding Values

SansGUI Modeling and Simulation Environment Version 1.2

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