These two features are available in Windows 8.1:

Quiet Hours to Disable Notifications
A new feature of Windows 8.1 is the option to turn the notifications off or set a period of time for which the notifications may appear. During the Quiet Hours you will not receive alerts from IMs, texts or basic apps. To do this, go to Change PC settings, click on Search and Apps, select Notifications, and configure the relevant options.

Configure Automatic App Updates
Unlike Windows 8, app updates in Windows 8.1 will be automatically installed by default without the user’s consent. To stop this from happening, open Windows Store and access the Settings Charm menu – the charm must only be activated once in the Windows Store or else it will not display the required menus. In the Settings Charm menu, select Settings and navigate to App Updates. Enable or disable the option to automatically update apps.

Now that Xpedition flow is supported on Windows Server 2012 you may be considering that platform for your Remote Server Configuration Manager and/or xPCB Team Server host. If so, be aware of a new system default setting in Server 2012 that prevents the system from responding to a ‘ping’ from a remote computer. Not being able to ping the server it makes troubleshooting a bit more difficult if you have problems connecting to it.

You should verify your IT policy first, and then if you determine that the default setting is more security than you need and your IT policy allows you to enable a ping response, you could use one of the methods below to enable it.

The first thing you need to know is that this policy is enforced through a firewall rule, and to change the behavior you’ll need to modify the rule. Of course if you plan on completely disabling the Windows firewall anyway, then you’re already done.  Once you turn the firewall off there is no need to do any of the steps below.

Method 1: Windows Power Shell

If you have Windows Power Shell installed you can enable the rule from the shell window with the following commands:

PS C:\> Import-Module NetSecurity

PS C:\> Set-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName “File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In)” -enabled True

Note: To use this method the rule must already exist. If you need IPv6 ping, then you must also enable the rule called ‘Echo Request – ICMPv6-In’.

Method 2: Graphical Interface

To use the graphical interface to change the rules follow these steps:

1. Open the Control Panel and select System and Security
2. Select Windows Firewall
3. Select Advanced Settings
4. Under Windows Firewall with Advanced Security, select Inbound Rules
5. Locate the rule called File and Printer Sharing (Echo Request – ICMPv4-In)
6. Right click on the rule and select Enable Rule
7. Verify that a green check mark appears next to it when you look at the Inbound Rules

Done! There is no need to reboot the system. It should respond to a ping from a remote system now.  This works for Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012R2.

Note: If you need IPv6 ping, you can use the same procedure to enable that rule.

There may be cases where a driver update can have unintended consequences. On occasion you may back rev the driver to restore functionality, but then later find that Windows Update has dutifully updated the driver for you again the next time it detects an update is available.

Turning off automatic updates would prevent the problem, but your IT policies may require Windows Update be set to automatic. Fortunately, there is a distinction made between device driver and OS updates so you can leave automatic updates enabled for the OS updates and disable them for device driver updates..

To disable device driver updates, do the following (procedure applies to Windows 7):

1. Open the Devices and Printers folder by pressing the Start button, right clicking on Devices and Printers, and selecting Open.
2. In the top row of the window you should see a computer icon that has your systems name on it. Right click on it, and select Device Installation Settings.
3. Select No; Let me choose what to do, then select Never install driver software from Windows Update.
4. Select Save Changes, and close the window.

OS updates will continue to install automatically, but device driver updates will not. You still have the option of installing these by running Windows Update manually and selecting the drivers you want to update, just be careful not to pick the one that breaks your system.

This setting applies to all device drivers. There does not appear to be a way to target a specific device driver and prevent it from updating while allowing others.

Now that VX releases can run side-by-side, it can be tricky to determine the active/current release. For example, if you double-click a .pcb which version of Xpedition or PADS Layout will it launch in?

Further below is a short batch script that will report the currently configured SDD release, based on the file association for .pcb (can be configured for other file extensions). Copy the contents into a file that end with ".bat", and double-click to get a popup like the one shown below.

Note:

The script assumes the target install folder is one level deep, for example: 'C:\MentorGraphics'. If you've installed 2 or more levels deep, for example: 'C:\Program Files\MentorGraphics', simply increment the "E" in "%%E" near the end of the last line in the script, one letter for each additional level. For example: %%E for one-level deep (C:\MentorGraphics), %%F for 2 levels deep (C:\Program Files\MentorGraphics), and so on...

Script contents:

:### set the extension type to check for. Some examples:

:  .pcb for Xpedition or PADS Layout.

:  .prj for xDX Designer.

:  .sch for PADS Logic

:###

set extension=.pcb

for /f "tokens=1,2 delims==" %%A in ('assoc %extension%') do for /f "tokens=1-6 delims=\" %%C in ('ftype %%B') do msg * "Currently configured release is %%E"

It is sometimes helpful to find out which processes are running with elevated permissions. Follow these steps to determine the UAC Virtualization status:

Open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
Click on the Processes tab, and click on the 'Show processes from all users' button.
If prompted by UAC, click Yes.
Click View on the menu bar and click Select Columns.
Check the User Account Control (UAC) Virtualization box, and click OK to add that column to the Task Manager.
You can now look in the UAC Virtualization column to see if a process in the Image Name column is running elevated or not.
If the column entry shows Not Allowed, then the process is running as administrator (elevated).

I've spent much of my week answering questions about what functionality PADS license feature names authorize. While this can become a complex subject, much of this information is documented in the manuals under "License File Options". Search the PADS Layout or Router User manuals for this information and you may just find exactly what you're looking for.

https://supportnet.mentor.com/docs/201504002/docs/htmldocs/mgchelp.htm#context=padslayout_ref&id=12&Sword=license%20file…

https://supportnet.mentor.com/docs/201504002/docs/htmldocs/mgchelp.htm#context=padsrouter_user&id=444&Sword=license%20fi…

VX releases (for example: PADS VX.1.1) set very few environment variables as compared to pre-VX releases (PADS 9.5 and earlier). The only environment variables that get set are the MGLS_LICENSE_FILE and WDIR_<release>. For more details refer to Tip of the Week: Setting the WDIR in VX releases.

As a result of this change, any script that depends on the SDD_HOME (or similar) environment variable should use the 'mglaunch.exe' wrapper program to launch under the new Mentor command shell (SDD_HOME is available in this environment). Another alternative is to alter the paths in the script to no longer depend on the variable (i.e. use full paths).

Sample command using 'mglaunch.exe' (%SDD_HOME% path will resolve):

mglaunch.exe "C:\scripts\myMentorScript.bat"

I am new here and would like to share new method.

Necessary tool is just a FontCreator ( it costs $69 now)

By using this FontCreator, make a true type font and save and install Windows.

Below is the font on MSWORD.  Now your work is finished with few click.

You can put this Logo into PADS, by just using a text box.  The result is below.

Good things are no stress and size free out of one font !

As of right now, Vplan process had the report for number of feeder in SMT auto session but in general sense.  There is no report contain information of how many feeders for each top and bottom side.

Hello,

I'll try to be brief.  I am new to this Company Microwave Innovations, they brought me in to Lead and Start PCB Design inhouse.

How ever, I used pads from its start till about 1996.  I have come into a bit of a mess.   What I have is several boards and schematics

done in PADS PCB and PADS Logic  (Why DXDesigner wasn't used ...??) .  the SCH's and Boards have NO cohesiveness and the library ?

Well there isn't one.  What my immediate need is ,  a way to verify the land patterns he put on these boards with the Data Sheets?

I plan on setting up DXDesigner with PADS PCB flow and a central Lib.... but right now I need to verify a few designs ...  Any help?

Martino Aquaro

www.mi-telemetry.com

m.aquaro@mi-telemetry.com

The lmstat command will report the quantity of a particular feature with the -f option. However, if you have multiple versions of a license feature, they're rolled up into a single count by default. For example:

Z:\>lmutil lmstat -c 1717@lic_server -f qhsimvl

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2011 Flexera Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Flexible License Manager status on Fri 10/31/2014 14:09

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]

License server status: 1717@lic_server

    License file(s) on lic_server: C:\MentorGraphics\License_Files\lmstat_test.txt:

lic_server: license server UP (MASTER) v11.11

Vendor daemon status (on lic_server):

     mgcld: UP v11.11

Feature usage info:

Users of qhsimvl:  (Total of 10 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

This might leave you with the impression that you have more features available for the version of the application you're running than you really do.

Note:Every Mentor Graphics application requires a minimum version of a license feature, usually tied to the build or release date of the application.

Fortunately, adding the -i option to your lmstat command will break down the overall count of a feature into separate counts for each version of that feature. For example:

Z:\>lmutil lmstat -c 1717@lic_server -f qhsimvl -i

lmutil - Copyright (c) 1989-2011 Flexera Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Flexible License Manager status on Fri 10/31/2014 14:09

[Detecting lmgrd processes...]

License server status: 1717@lic_server

    License file(s) on lic_server: C:\MentorGraphics\License_Files\lmstat_test.txt:

lic_server: license server UP (MASTER) v11.11

Vendor daemon status (on lic_server):

     mgcld: UP v11.11

Feature usage info:

Users of qhsimvl:  (Total of 10 licenses issued;  Total of 0 licenses in use)

NOTE: lmstat -i does not give information from the server,

      but only reads the license file.  For this reason,

      lmstat -a is recommended instead.

Feature                 Version   # licenses    Expires         Vendor

_______                 _______   __________    _______         ______

qhsimvl                 2014.030              5         10-nov-2014     mgcld

qhsimvl                 2015.100              5         10-nov-2014     mgcld

In this example, I could run up to 10 simultaneous Verilog simulations using a version of Modelsim that requires a qhsimvl with a minimum version of 2014.030 or older (2013.110 for example). However, I could only run 5 simultaneous simulations using a version of Modelsim that requires 2014.040 or newer.

Keep the -i option in mind if you ever suspect you're not able to use the full count of a particular feature.