Changes from release 2.1.0.600 to 2.1.0.7000 2/1/2006
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This is a minor release that addresses following:
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New features added:
Cool Item- Added an automatic mechanical drawing generator. Under the Design/Tools menu, select Generate Mechanical Drawing.
This will generate the following objects:
-Alpha-numeric boarder
-Title block
-Drill chart showing drill symbol, size, qty, tolerance, and plated/non-plated
-Board stack-up drawing
-Viewing the drill drawing or mechanical layers will show drill symbols for the drill holes.
1. Added Convert To Arc command for polygon corners and segments. If you hover over a polygon segment and press the ‘A’ key or RMB and choose Convert To Arc, the entire segment will be converted to and arc which you can interactively drag to adjust. If you do the same thing while hovering over a polygon corner, you will be prompted for an arc radius. The arc radius dialog keeps a history of radii entered with the last one used the default.
2. Added Convert Arc To Segment for polygon arcs. If you hover over a polygon arc piece you can convert it back to a segment by selecting Convert Arc to Segment in the context menu.
3. Disconnect Pin From Net has been added directly to the context menus. You no longer have to be in the Add Connection tool to have access to this command.
4. Added Unroute Net, Unroute Track, and Unroute Segment context menu commands. In addition, if you simply hover over a route segment and press the ‘U’ key, it will unroute that segment. The Del key still unroutes the track as always.
5. Added Toggle Filled/Unfilled command to context menu when one or more polygons are selected.
6. New measuring tool. Pressing the ‘M’ key or selecting Measure from the Edit menu now invokes a modal measuring tool that has several convenient high-precision features. In Measure mode, PCB objects take on Snap Points such as centers, corners, and edges. You can easily measure object-to-object distances from a variety of reference points. Readouts are continuous while dragging and sticky after selecting second measuring point.
7. Added assignable net colors for ratsnets. Net connections can either use the default ratsnest color or some custom color. Useful for splitting planes or highlighting special nets.
8. New layer selection dialog for specific layer entry. Also uses shorthand layer names. To use: press the L key on the keyboard.
9. New Multiple Selection behaviors. If you have multiple objects selected and click the Right mouse button you will now have access to object-class-specific commands and global group commands.
10. Added group rotate. You can now select multiple objects and rotate the group centered about the cursor.
11. Added context command to reload selected parts from library. If you make a change to a footprint in a library you can simply select affected components and choose Reload From Library to update them.
12. Added context command to fanout selected components. Select one or more components and choose Fanout to automatically route from surface mount pins to a via.
13. Added polygon Rotate and Flip (vertical and horizontal) commands to context menu when one or more polygons are selected.
14. Added specific delete corner command for polygons. Just hover over a poly corner and press the ‘D’ key or RMB on a corner and choose Delete Corner.
15. You can now hover over a component and press the ‘R’ key to rotate it or ‘O’ to swap to the opposite side of the board without having to select the component.
16. Added Net Width, Track Width, and Segment Width to the context menu commands. This allows you to change the width of existing nets, tracks, and segments respectively. In addition, if you hover over a track segment and press the ‘W’ key, you can change the width of the segment.
17. Added a Do-Not-Autoroute net property. This is useful for nets that you know you are going to copper pour (flood fill).
18. Added more plated and non-plated hole sizes.
19. Added a history to the Change Grid dialog that allows you to choose recently used grids.
20. Added an additional toolbar for common global commands such as measure, Run DRC, and User Preferences.
21. Added informational tooltips for design objects. If you hover the mouse over an object you be presented with information about that object.
22. Added a Zoom Actual command that will set the zoom factor to the actual size of the board.
23. Added an All Visible and All Invisible button to the layers display pane.
24. Added warning about saving footprints into read-only libraries.
25. Added a history to the Width dialog that allows you to choose recently used line widths.
26. Added Open Template… to the File menu. This allows you to directly start a new design from a board template without having to go through the New Board Wizard.
27. Added a DRC summary dialog that breaks down DRC errors and warning by class and allows the user to selectively turn off classes of errors.
28. Added copper pour isolation DRC check. If a pin is tied to a copper pour area but ends up being isolated because of cutouts in the pour, a DRC marker will now be generated. NOTE: this check is on a pour-by-pour basis and does not yet look at entire net topology.
29. Added an XML version of the Neutral Library Format (NLF) for board templates and saved selections. We decided to do the right thing before the old proprietary NLF format came into widespread use. The XML NLF version is now the default version used by the system. The proprietary version can still be read in. Moving to an XML format allows for easy future extensibility and for anyone with XML knowledge to easily script or write parsers to and from the format.
30. Added full net data to the NLF file format. Entire designs can now be saved in the NLF file format. This greatly facilitates design reuse where entire routed sections of designs can be saved to an NLF file and later imported into other designs. Net name conflicts are automatically resolved by auto-generating unique instance names derived from the original name.
31. Added a native TinyCAD netlist importer.
32. Footprint descriptions are carried through to component instances.
Fixed:
1. Fixed occasional board extents problem in 3D viewer that caused the board to rotate off center.
2. Fixed component-attached text and copper rendering in 3D viewer.
3. Fixed a very rare problem where certain polygons could not be deleted. (polys that were incorrectly hand-edited in a board template).
4. Ctrl+Click now correctly toggles selection state of objects.
5. User now asked about making line width changes when converting from 1oz copper to 2oz copper.
6. New, more accurate object picking routines.
7. Clicking on arc spans of polygons invokes the Move Arc command. Note: endpoints are not modified.
8. Fixed automatic layer change when routing from a fanout via. If you start routing a connection from a fanout it will track the current layer, not the layer preceding the fanout. This is greatly beneficial when routing busses or patterns on inner layers.
9. You can now hover over a route segment and press the ‘L’ key or select Layer from the context menu to change the layer of a segment.
10. Fixed annoying Minimum Annular warning when creating fine-pitched SMD devices.
11. Fixed minimum line width warning for text on non-copper layers of 2oz copper weight boards.
12. Fixed Toolbar check states in the View menu.
13 Fixed annoying problem where a change in User Preferences was not realized if the dialog was dismissed by pressing the Enter key.
14. Fixed weird problem when changing the net assignment of an existing polygon through the polygon context pane.
15. Removed Flash widget from the left pane. On rare occasions it caused problems on machines running Windows2K with certain service packs installed. The Microsoft-recommended fix was too painful.
16. Now asks to overwrite Board Templetes with the same description (and hence same file name).
17. Fixed text mirrored checkbox state in left text context pane.
18. Fixed occasional incorrect printing of complex copper pour regions.
19. Fixed zoom extents problem when pasting components that have no pins.
20. Fixed several undo problems where the user would have to undo several steps that should have been one step.
21. Fixed problem with library alias file where certain embedded characters were not parsed correctly thereby not always finding the alias.
22. Fixed phantom DRC errors being reported on some circle and arc objects.
23. Fixed DRC errors sometimes NOT being reported involving non-plated holes.
24. Fixed erroneous DRC warning about pad annular ring being too small on vias used in multilayer designs.
25. Improved the resolution of footprint names from non-PCB123 netlists.
26. Adjusted route corner picking to do the right thing near fanout vias.
27. Adjusted default autorouter grid from 0.0125” to 0.025”. NOTE: existing boards and old user preferences may still contain the 0.0125 grid.
Changes from release 2.1.0.400 to 2.1.0.600 6/27/05
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This is a minor release that addresses following:
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Cool Item:
New user manual, over 100 pages of great technical information on PCB123 V2 layout. Available under the help menu.
New features added:
1. Added plane-layer knowledge to the connectivity system.
2. Added a new user preference that allows you to display copper pour as hollow on the screen. This greatly speeds up painting and reduces flickering on boards with complex copper pours.
3. Rewrote Auto-ECO to minimize the disturbance of existing routing while performing the changes.
Improvements to existing functionality:
1. Fixed annoying footprint binding problem when loading some netlists. It now correctly remembers footprints after being told once.
2. Fixed lengthy startup time on systems that are network connected but not internet connected.
3. Fixed .014 Pad Annular DRC warning. Anything using a 0.014 drill is now assumed to be a via and therefore can have a smaller annular.
4. Fixed problem where you could potentially route on a plane layer.
5. Fixed an Arc picking problem.
6. Fixed the File/Save problem once and for all. It doesn’t get cute or clever; it just saves the file to wherever it was opened from.
7. Fixed problem with non-orthogonal pad rotations in mirrored parts. Non-orthogonal component rotations were fine, only strangely rotated pads inside components were affected.
8. Fixed subtle netlist format differences generated from some CAD packages. The netlist readers are now tolerant of these small formatting differences.
Changes from release 2.0.0.6300 to 2.1.0.400 4/15/05
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This is a major release that addresses following:
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New features added:
1. Added offline help
2. Added a running count of DRC errors on the status bar.
3. Added 3-D view.
Improvements to existing functionality:
1. ECO process no longer defaults to the Designs folder when looking for a netlist.
2. Load netlist now correctly resolves explicit part library path.
3. Protel and Tango netlist importers are now tolerant of commas or hyphens being used as a component pin delimiter.
4. Entering negative text rotations no longer complains. It performs a clockwise rotation.
5. Reconnect is run upon file load now.
6. New connectivity engine handles and detects connectivity through copper.
7. Print artwork now displays a print setup dialog that allows you select a printer and paper orientation.
8. Pasted copper pour is now correctly net instanced.
9. Drawing now defaults to the silkscreen layer in the part editor.
10. Non-plated holes are now shown in Print Artwork.
11. When moving a reference designator, a line is now drawn from the designator text to the center of the component if belongs to.
12. No longer adds multiple copies of reference designators when manually adding new components on the back side of the board.
13. When creating a new library, the name of the library is now selected as the default library to save a part into.
14. Editing an existing component on the back of the board no longer swaps the silkscreen layers.
15. Text inside copper pour is properly cleared out.
Refresh all now updates objects in the left pane.
16. DRC is no longer performed on objects that are not on a routing or plane layer.
17. Silkscreen-Over-Pad violations are no longer reported on boards that do not have a silkscreen.
18. It is no longer possible to draw a self-intersecting copper pour.
19. Resetting user preferences to factory default no longer disturbs the fab settings for the current board.
20. Freestyle routing can now end in a via by pressing “v”.
21. It is so longer possible to start a freestyle route on a non-routing layer.
Fixed:
1. Fixed problem with Cut and Paste, when a group was used as the source for a copy operation multiple times it was potentially reusing new net instances and therefore creating rat lines between copied instances. All paste operations are unique now.
2. Fixed board stats to include board-level pins in the count.
3. Fixed ECO crash when number of pins in a modified footprint is less than the original footprint and the deleted pins were tied to a net.
4. Fixed .199in Non-Plated drill crash.
5. Fixed DRC marker crash.
6. Fixed erroneous rat lines being display during group move.
7. Fixed erroneous arc problems in DRC.
8. Fixed problem with loading a netlist with ampersand ‘&’ characters in the part name or footprint name.
9. Fixed annoying Drill Size message when changing between plated and non-plated holes.
10. Fixed erroneous Trace-Stops-On-Wrong-Layer DRC marker.
11. Fixed backside Silkscreen-Over-Pad checking.
12. Fixed bizarre scientific notation coordinate display for unusual grids.
13. Fixed crash when copying objects from one board to another are the source document is closed.
14. Fixed crash when closing from Windows taskbar while minimized.
15. Fixed problem with the Find operation when a net had the same name as a component. It would find the net and not the component.
16. Fixed crash in Left pane after document is closed.
17. Fixed Autorouter crash when attempting to route a tiny segment inside of a pad.
18. Fixed Text layer display in left pane.
19. Fixed various manual routing crashes.
20. Fixed print problem with oddly-rotated pads.
21. Fixed printing problem with arcs.
22. Fixed situations where a visually routed net still shows rat lines.
23. Fixed file-transfer hanging problem.
24. Fixed problem with the Paste operation placing objects off-grid.
25. Fixed part search dialog clipping problem with large system fonts.
26. Fixed a copper pour problem that involved track segments spanning multiple copper pours from different nets.
Changes from release 2.0.0.5796 to 2.0.0.6300 1/31/05
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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User preferences:
1. We have added User Preferences to the View menu. You can load and save preference sets as well as set your default preferences for new designs.
2. Display positive Soldermask(s): You can now toggle the polarity of your Soldermask(s), either positive or negative.
3. Display negative power planes: You can now toggle the polarity of power planes. Viewing a power plane as a negative allows you to draw your split lines with ease.
4. Per-layer display: If you set Hi-Contrast’s lo-color to invisible you can quickly cycle through and view individual layers while in Hi-Contrast mode.
5. More powerful spacing rules for Design Rule Check. Besides a global minimum spacing value, you can now specify spacing on a per-layer basis and spacing on a per-net basis. Copper pour will obey these spacing rules too!
6. Additional autorouter controls: You can now specify the preferred routing direction for each layer, and the cost of routing on a layer. You can also now specify the cost of adding a via including no vias at all!
ECO Changes:
1. ECO now detects net renames: When running ECO, a node-by-node comparison is now done on nets to see if a simple rename (or series of renames) on a net will result in a correct match against the master database without disturbing any existing routing. It will handle circular renames such as:
NET1 -> NET2
NET2 -> NET3
NET3 -> NET1
2. ECO finally handles part type changes: If the only change you made to your schematic was changing a part from one type to another, ECO would not implement that change. Now it does.
Bug Fixes/improvements:
1. Print Artwork: Mirror now works Thermal reliefs on plane layers now print correctly and arcs now print correctly.
2. Pad geometries in libraries are now fully honored when instantiating them on a board. This also means a new DRC check was added that checks for minimum pad annular ring greater than the drill size. If you perform a gross technology change such as switching from 1oz copper to 2.5oz copper then the software will ask you if it should go ahead and automatically meet the required minimum annular pad sizes for manufacturing. In short: no more mysterious pad size changes!
3. Freestyle routing incremental change: you can now merge two nets together in freestyle mode. If you start drawing a new trace from an existing net object and then click a corner over an object from a different net, you will be prompted to merge the two nets.
4. Fixed the polyline picking problem.
5. Fixed editing multiple pins. The values will stick now. (To whom this affected: I’m really sorry about this bug. It must have been a real pain.)
6. Fixed the proxy problem.
7. Updated board qty and lead time.
8. Added Expedite Order feature.
9. Silkscreen over vias not reported anymore.
10. Fixed errant hole-to-hole (blowout) violations.
11. You can now change pin shapes to square without stupid message.
12. Better color swatch in design pane.
12. Tango netlist importer now more tolerant of net name position (IVEX emitted).
14. Fixed coordinate readout problem. No longer uses scientific notation on strange numbers and will always be accurate up to 4 decimal places regardless of unit type.
Changes from release 2.0.0.5018 to 2.0.0.5796 11/19/04
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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New/Improved features
1. New part search facility. Finding part is now much simpler and more flexible. Incorporating a much simpler default interface, a search will hit on part type names, footprint names, or the description fields of either. Matching hits are displayed in a list that shows the number of pins and the pitch between pins. Even on your own parts! Try it! There is also an advanced search that is library-centric, allowing you to look at the contents of a specific library or specify library filters.
2. Design templates through the New Board Wizard. Creating new designs just became much simpler with the New Board Wizard. In one place, you can specify the board technology, what netlist (if any) to use, and whether to use one of our pre-defined board templates or one of your own! We (and you) have taken a giant step toward design reuse!
3. Load/Save selections to disk. You can now select some objects and save them to disk. These saved objects can then be loaded into a design at any time. How did we do this? By creating the PCB123-Neutral-Library-Format. This is a human readable file that allows for data to be imported/exported to/from the PCB123 layout software. We have decided to publish this format (all you busy code-writing beavers, have at it!)
4. Revamped the ECO (Engineering Change Order) process to more correctly recognize existing parts in default libraries.
5. Introduced new code to optimize the loading speed of existing libraries.
6. Over 100 reported bugs/annoyances have been eliminated.
Changes from release 2.0.0.4677 to 2.0.0.5018 09/03/04
PCB123 Build 5018 introduces several new and exciting areas and improves on many existing features.
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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1. Freestyle routing. What many of you have been asking for is finally here. Point and click routing without a netlist.
2. Edit footprints in place. You can now right click on a part to edit its footprint and have that change immediately be reflected on your board (even all instances of that footprint if you desire).
3. Online help. With this release we are introducing a new online help system that will grow virtually everyday.
4. Improved printing. Print Artwork mimics what your board will look like.
5. Adjustable global spacing. DRC spacing used to be set to our minimum manufacturing requirements (adjusted for copper thickness). You can now specify what you want your DRC spacing to be down to 5 mils (.005 inches).
6. Line width can now be adjusted down to 5 mils too.
7. More accurate picking around vias.
8. Insertion of text is much easier.
9. Many annoying bugs and quirks have been eliminated.
Over 150 user submitted issues have been resolved with this release
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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1. Unused nets are not saved in a design once written to disk. The nets have to be completely empty for them to be purged. If you create unused nets in any one session, they will be available for the duration of the session.
2. When searching for a footprint in the Add Component dialog, you now have to enter your search string and click on Go (or hit Enter) for a search to be initiated. This speeds overall response time from the old Filter-As-You-Type method and simplifies things for novices to PCB123.
3. Pin Properties now work as expected. You can assign/reassign the net attribute of a pin without confusion.
4. There is a new, native netlist format that is emitted in Reports. This is a human readable partlist-netlist format that the system can also read in.
5. The Escape key (Esc) will trigger a screen refresh in addition to canceling modes.
6. Ending traces on the wrong layer of a SMD device is now prevented and a check is performed for that situation when running a Design Rule Check.
7. Goto from Object hierarchy now works correctly for traces and even entire nets.
8. It is now impossible (as best as we can tell) to create duplicate net names.
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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1. Fixes a few frequent and annoying bugs while moving/editing components.
2. Fixes registry entry issue for power users that cause a crash after install or during a“save as”.
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This is a general maintenance release that fixes the following:
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1. There where a whole group of crashes attributed to the real-time DRC markers. There was nothing wrong with the DRC engine itself just the management of the display markers – in particular the removing of already removed markers
2. When performing fixups upon file load from older version databases. It was possible that nets assigned to power planes were not fully regenerated if certain changes were enacted upon them. This was easily fixed by temporarily unassigning them from the power plane and then optimizing the nets, but is now done automatically and correctly.
The vast majority of crashes as we detect them are fixed by item #1.
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Known Issues
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The following issues are in the process of being fixed and will be available shortly.
1. The autorouter will choke on a zero-length connection. This can happen when there is a connection going from one surface mount pin to another that are on different sides of the board.
2. There is an inaccuracy in the silkscreen-over-solderable –surfaces DRC check. Arcs and circles may result in phantom DRC warnings.
These should be simple fixes but are not important enough to hold up this release.
Changes from release 2.0.0.3520 to 2.0.0.4380
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Enhancements:
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1. Added Real Time DRC during manual routing.
2. Software now associates *.123 file with the PCB123.exe layout application.
3. Added library manager. (Ability to copy, paste, move and delete footprints among all libraries)
4. Added Keyboard accelerator map in to the Help menu.
5. Added Ctrl+F key accelerator, will allow you to snap a named object to your cursor (i.e. U1, R12)
6. Added ECO Process (Engineering Change Order) Existing layout designs can now be compared and updated against an updated Schematic netlist.
7. Added Copy/Paste functionality to the library footprint editor - Pasted pins will duplicate arrangement, but sequential ordering may not match.
8. File/Open dialog now remembers previously used folder location.
9. Added the ability to generate an HTML Catalog of selected libraries.
10. Multiple selected objects can now be moved at the same time in the footprint editor.
11. Pin properties will no longer allow a pad size that is smaller than the drill size plus a minimum required annular ring of 8 mils (0.008").
12. Modified grid to a single entry instead of multiple entries, you can still enter a variable grid if needed i.e. (.025,.050)
13. You can now delete objects from the project panel by selecting the object and right clicking and selecting delete
14. Many visual improvements have been made to the painting routines.
15. Multiple dialogs cleaned and simplified.
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Bug Fixes:
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1. No-drill (SMD) pads will remain visible when moved in the footprint editor.
2. Changes to the grid setting are now instantly updated, no longer requires that an object be selected first.
3. Net length now shows only 4 digit decimal accuracy and the leading whole number portion is no longer obscured.
4. New Package and Load Package selections no longer appear in the File menu of the library footprint editor.
5. If an attempt is made to open a non-existent file from the Recent File list the application will remain open and issue a message stating the file does not exist instead of crashing.
6. Reference designator text for bottom side component no longer moves to the top layer silkscreen when the component is rotated.
7. Routing priority has been disabled in this release.
8. Only relevant layers are listed in the drop-down list when changing polygon properties.
9. M Key (accelerator) measurement tool no longer obstructs view and works correctly in the part editor.
10. Minimum viewable grid is now limited to prevent a potential slow down at low zoom levels
11. Added the ROBOEX32.DLL to the install path for the schematic help system.
12. Fixed the DRC engine's accuracy when reporting silkscreen on solderable surfaces.
13. Multiple small crashes have been fixed.
Changes from release 2.0.0.2865 to 2.0.0.3520
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Enhancements:
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1. Added Tango netlist import.
2. Added Protel netlist import.
3. Can now unroute entire net, not just point-to-point connections.
4. Added some statistics to the library browser.
5. Line widths can now be controlled at the net level, track level, and segment level. Use the W key while drawing will allow you to quickly change widths.
6. After running a DRC, you can press the 'N' key to go to the next error. In this way, you can cycle through all the errors and it will run another DRC at the end of the list.
7. Added a fanout router for automatically escaping surface mount parts. It's not working yet for BGA devices. Only SMT pins with nets are eligible for fan out. This is accessible from the Design Menu.
8. Added a manual Fanout. Just right click when routing and select Fanout Via, or press the V key. (Only works while routing) If the net is assigned to a plane the via will automatically get e thermal relief.
9. Added a via reduction pass to the autorouter.
10. The autorouter works on a finer grid now resulting in a greater completion percentage and fewer DRC errors.
11. Libraries can now be placed in subdirectories and these subdirectories can then be filtered in the part browser. When you save a new or existing part the dialog will default to Custom/Custom.slb.
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Bug Fixes:
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1. Fixed printing bug with white objects.
2. DRC now reports unrouted connections as an error.
3. Grid is now broken out as Routing Grid, Place grid, and Display Grid. All are Explicitly set in the Grid Dialog.
4. The router now displays a "To Go" count that ticks down to zero as the router completes attempts in lower toolbar.
5. Print now properly outputs square/rectangular pads.
6. Fixed crash when deleting multiple components.
7. Fixed crash when minimizing net lengths of nets with ring connections.
8. Fixed a DRC problem with degenerate oblong pads (round instead of oblong)
9. The database now allows footprints and components to have multiple pins with the same name as long as the name is empty. (Un-named pins)
10. Fixed the scrollbar thumb tracking.
11. Fixed printing issue with reference designators.
12. Reference designators now move properly under all component rotations and mirroring.
13. Connectivity through plane layers has been fixed.
14. The DRC error markers don't obscure the error they are reporting.
15. Many painting glitches fixed.
16. Routed segments of plane-connected tracks are now pickable.