Drawing Notes — User Guide

1Introduction

Drawing Notes is a productivity tool for Mentor Xpedition PCB designers. It builds the block of fabrication or assembly notes that appears on a drawing — the kind of notes that specify material, finish, hole plating, impedance requirements, silkscreen color, and so on — and places them directly onto the active drawing on a chosen user layer.

Instead of typing notes one line at a time, you start from a master library of pre-written notes kept in a notes template file. The tool can hold as many templates as you like — one per team, product line, customer, or fabrication house — and you pick the one you want from a dropdown at the top of the window, switching between them at any time. For each note you can switch it on or off, change the wording, pick from pre-built options where the note allows it, and tag it with a flag so it gets a numbered shape next to it. The compiled output updates in a preview window as you make changes, so you can see exactly what will appear on the drawing before you place anything.

The tool also includes built-in helpers for the things designers commonly add along with the notes block: it can scan the active board and produce impedance text describing every unique trace width / spacing / layer / dielectric combination it finds; it can place leader arrows with text or numbered flag callouts; and it can drop a flag shape around any existing piece of drawing text in one click.

2Requirements & Setup

Before launching Drawing Notes, the following need to be in place:

Mentor Xpedition PCB must always be running with your board database open. The tool reads board information from the Xpedition PCB database that the other host applications don’t expose (layer count, impedance scanning, layer stack-up), and Xpedition PCB also serves as the fallback destination for the placed notes when no other host application is open.
Optionally, a Drawing Editor session or a FabLink session can also be open for the design you want the notes placed onto. The tool picks where to send the notes by priority: if Drawing Editor is open, the notes go there; otherwise, if FabLink is open, they go into the FabLink design; otherwise, they go directly into the open Xpedition PCB design. Throughout the rest of this guide, whichever of these three is currently receiving the notes is referred to as the host application.
A valid ExactCAD license must be applied. If no license code has been applied to this user account, the tool will display a licensing error on startup and exit. Apply your license code using the ExactCAD Licensing tool before launching.
A setup file must exist in the install’s setup folder. The setup file (setup.txt) no longer holds the notes themselves. Its only job now is to point at the folder where your notes template files are kept, which it does with a single line of plain text. It is installed automatically with the tool, but you will want to edit it once so it points at the folder you intend to use — see Section 3.
At least one notes template file must exist in that folder. A template file is an XML file that defines a master library of notes and the visual settings the tool starts up with — the same content the XML setup file itself held in earlier versions of the tool. You can keep as many templates in the folder as you like; every one of them appears in the Notes Template dropdown at the top of the window. A sample template is installed automatically to get you started.
A flag data file must also exist in the setup folder. This file contains the geometry of the eleven flag shapes (hexagon, pentagon, square, triangles, circle, etc.) used to mark numbered notes. It is also installed automatically.

Note: On startup, the tool will ask whether you want to record a board Part Number and Revision. The two values are concatenated into a filename string (e.g. 123456-401_001.tgz) that any note in the template file can reference through the odb_filename database option — the supplied default fabrication-spec note uses it to call out the ODB++ data file. You can answer No and still proceed normally; the fields are only used by notes that reference them.

Warning: If you have more than one session of the same host application open at the same time, the tool will attach to the first one that was launched. If the layer you want to place the notes on does not exist in that session, the placement will fail. Either close the extra sessions, or open the session you want first so it is the one the tool attaches to.

3Setup File & Note Templates

3.1 How Templates Are Organized

Drawing Notes uses two kinds of file, and it helps to be clear on the split:

The setup file (setup.txt) lives in the install’s setup folder. It is an ordinary text file holding a single line: the path to the folder where your notes template files are stored. There are no tags or structure to get wrong — open it in any text editor and change the path. That folder can be anywhere you can reach, a local drive or a network share so a whole team works from the same set of templates.
The notes template files live in that folder. Each one is a complete, self-contained note library: the notes themselves, their default wording, their dropdown options, and all the appearance and placement settings. If you have used an earlier version of Drawing Notes, a template file is exactly what the old XML setup file was — the content and structure are unchanged, it has simply moved into its own file, and you can keep as many of them as you want.

When the tool starts, it reads the setup file, looks in the folder it names, and fills the Notes Template dropdown at the top of the window with the filename of every template it finds there. You then choose which one to work from.

The point of the split is that a single install can serve several different note packages side by side. One template for rigid boards and another for flex; one per customer, per product line, or per fabrication house; one that a particular design team has agreed on. Adding a new template is just a matter of dropping another XML file into the folder — it appears in the dropdown the next time the tool opens, with no reinstall and no change to the setup file.

3.2 What a Template File Holds

Each template file is divided into two sections: one for PCB fabrication notes and one for PCB assembly notes. Each section can hold any number of notes. For each note the file records:

A short name that identifies the note inside the tool (for example “MATERIAL” or “FINISH”).
The default text that will appear in the editor when the tool opens.
Whether the note is flagged by default. Flagged notes get a numbered shape next to them and can also be called out from anywhere on the drawing.
Optional dropdown choices. Any place in the default text where you want the user to choose from a list (for example, soldermask color: green / black / red / blue) is written as [option Choice Name]. The file then lists the choices that should appear in the dropdown for that option. Mark the default choice with a leading ! character.
Database options. Instead of a hard-coded choice list, an option can be linked to a live value from the PCB database. The tool currently supports three: layercount fills in with the actual number of conductive layers in the open board; impedances is filled in by the impedance scanner described in Section 9; and odb_filename takes the board part number and revision you supply at startup and joins them into an ODB++ filename string.

The template file also stores the global defaults: which font to use, default note text height, minimum and maximum text height, column width, column-to-column pitch, column height, the X/Y placement origin on the drawing, the gap between the note number and the note text, the default flag shape, and the line-width and arrowhead dimensions used by the leader actions described in Section 11. Because these live in the template rather than in one shared file, two templates can place their notes at completely different origins, in different fonts, at different sizes.

Note: The size values in a template file (text height, column width, column pitch, placement origin, and so on) can be expressed in any of four units — thousandths of an inch, inches, millimetres, or microns — as long as every value in the same section uses the same one. A separate note_unit entry near the top of each section tells the tool which unit was used, and the tool converts everything to the drawing’s current unit when it loads. The fabrication-notes section and the assembly-notes section can use different units if you want.

3.3 Note Text Markup

Inside a note’s default text, three pieces of markup are recognized:

Markup	Effect
[option NAME]	Inserts a dropdown for the option named NAME. The dropdown choices are listed under a matching `<option NAME>` block elsewhere in the note’s definition. The chosen value replaces the placeholder when the note is compiled.
@bullet	Marks the line as a bulleted item in the compiled output. A small filled dot is drawn at the start of the line and the line is indented one level. Use this for sub-points beneath a parent line of text. The bullet implies its own indent — you do not need to add `@indent` as well unless you want a deeper level.
@indent	Marks the line as indented one level. On its own (with no bullet), it just shifts the line right. Combined with `@bullet` as `@indent@bullet`, it produces a bulleted item indented one additional level deeper than a plain `@bullet` line — useful for nested sub-bullets.

Tip: Long notes that wrap across multiple lines do not need any special markup — the tool wraps text automatically to fit the column width you have set. Just use plain paragraph breaks where you want them.

3.4 Selecting, Editing & Reloading a Template

The Notes Template controls at the top of the window: a dropdown listing the available template files, an Edit Template File button, a Reload button, and the fabrication / assembly choice. — Figure 1. The template controls at the top of the main window.

All template handling is done from the strip at the very top of the main window:

The Notes Template dropdown lists the filename of every template file found in the template folder. Pick one and the editor panel and the compiled preview both rebuild from that template’s contents. You can change the selection as often as you like while the tool is open — there is no need to close and reopen to try a different template.
Edit Template File opens the currently selected template in whatever application your system uses for XML files, normally your default text editor. Make your changes there and save the file.
Reload re-reads the currently selected template from disk and refreshes the live data in the window. Use it after saving an edit so your changes take effect immediately — again, without closing the tool.

Warning: Selecting a different template — or pressing Reload — rebuilds the notes from the file on disk, which means any work you have done in the window is discarded. Wording you have typed, notes you have switched on or off, flags you have toggled, dropdown option choices, impedance data you have pushed into a note, and any reordering you have done all revert to that template’s defaults. Settle on your template first, then do your editing.

Tip: If you find yourself making the same manual edits every time you use a template, that is a sign the change belongs in the template itself. Use Edit Template File to make it permanent, press Reload, and it will be the default from then on.

4Window Layout

The Drawing Notes main window showing the setup-notes editor panel on the left, the compiled-notes preview on the right, and the action strip across the bottom. — Figure 2. The Drawing Notes main window.

When the tool opens you will see a single large window divided into three regions:

A control strip across the top. On the left this holds the notes template controls — the template dropdown, Edit Template File, and Reload — described in Section 3.4, together with the choice between fabrication notes and assembly notes. On the right it holds the output layer for the placed notes, the font name and font size for the compiled output, and the flag style selector.
An editor panel on the left. One scrollable card per note. Each card lets you edit the default text, toggle the note on or off, toggle the flag, and pick from any option dropdowns the note defines. Cards can be dragged up or down to reorder the notes.
A live preview panel on the right. This shows what the finished notes block will look like when placed on the drawing, including the note header, the numbered (and optionally flagged) notes, bullets, indents, and column wrapping. It updates as you edit.

Across the bottom is a strip of action buttons (add a new note, open the impedance helper, place the notes on the drawing, flag a selected piece of drawing text, add a leader, delete previously placed notes) and the note column width field.

Note: The compiled preview shows the layout, but uses a screen-friendly font size scaling. The actual size on the drawing is governed by the font size value you enter in the top control strip, expressed in the drawing’s current units (mils, inches, mm, or microns).

5Editing the Notes

Most of the work you will do in the tool happens in the editor panel on the left. Each note appears as its own card, and the cards are stacked in note-number order from top to bottom.

5.1 Note Cards Explained

Every card carries the same set of controls:

Element	Purpose & Behavior
Card header(label)	Shows the note number and the note’s short name. If the note has been switched off, the header changes to show that the note is unused and the number is cleared.
Inclusion toggle(checkbox just above the text box, on the right)	Tick this to include the note in the placed output. Untick it to drop the note from the compiled list without deleting it from the library — useful when a particular board doesn’t need a note that’s normally always present. Notes that are switched off are skipped in the preview and in placement, and the remaining notes renumber automatically.
Flag toggle(checkbox next to the inclusion toggle)	Tick to have the note’s number drawn inside a flag shape. Untick for a plain number. The shape used is whichever flag style is currently selected (see Section 8). The preview updates immediately.
Default note text(multi-line text box)	The wording for the note. You can edit it freely — type, paste, delete, the usual. Any change you make is reflected in the live preview as you type. The text box grows automatically as you add lines.
Option dropdowns(one per option in the note)	If the note’s default text contains placeholders, one dropdown will appear for each placeholder below the text box. Pick a value and the placeholder is replaced with your selection everywhere it appears in the text. Options linked to live board values (number of layers, impedance summary) show those values automatically and do not appear as user-editable dropdowns.

Tip: You don’t need to retype boilerplate wording each time you start a new project. Put your standard wording into the template file once; from then on, the tool will load it as the default every time it opens.

5.2 Reordering & Renumbering

You can change the order in which the notes appear in the placed output simply by dragging a card up or down in the editor panel. Press and hold the left mouse button anywhere on the card’s background, move the card to its new position, and release. The cards behind it shift to make room, and every card is renumbered top-to-bottom in the new order. The preview redraws immediately to match.

Notes that have been switched off keep their place in the stack but do not contribute a number — the numbering jumps over them. If you re-enable a switched-off note later, it picks up the next available number at its position in the stack.

5.3 Switching Note Sets

Every template file contains two separate note libraries: one for PCB fabrication notes and one for PCB assembly notes. A pair of choice buttons in the top control strip, immediately to the right of the template dropdown, lets you flip between them at any time. The editor panel and preview both reload to show whichever set is active. You normally work on one drawing at a time, so you set the right mode at the start and leave it there until you switch drawings.

Note: The fabrication / assembly choice applies within the selected template — each template supplies its own pair of libraries. Changing the template dropdown reloads both libraries from the new file and resets any edits, as described in Section 3.4.

6Adding a New Note

The selected template gives you a starting library, but you can also add a brand new note on the fly without editing the file. Pressing the add-a-note action at the bottom-left opens a small dialog with two fields:

Field	Purpose & Behavior
Short name(single-line text)	A name that identifies the note inside the tool. Use something brief and unique (for example, “CUSTOM RoHS”). It is shown in the card header but does not appear in the placed output. The name cannot be blank.
Note wording(multi-line text)	The actual text of the note — this is what will be drawn on the drawing when the note is placed.
Confirm(button)	Adds the new note to the current session’s editor panel as a new card. The new note is automatically switched on and flagged, and it is given the next available note number. The dialog then closes.

Note: Notes you add this way live only for the current session — they are not written back to the template file. If you want a custom note to be available every time you open the tool, add it to the template file directly (see Section 14).

7Appearance & Output Settings

Four settings control how the notes look on the placed drawing and where they go. They are all available without opening the template file.

Setting	Purpose & Behavior
Note font(dropdown, top right)	Picks the font face used to draw the notes on the drawing. The dropdown lists every font installed on the current computer. The default loaded from the template file is shown as the initial choice. If the font named in the template file is not installed on this PC, you will be warned on startup — install the font, or pick a different one here.
Text height(text field, top right)	The height of the note text in the drawing’s current units. The unit is shown in a small label next to the field (for example, “th” for thousandths of an inch, or “mm”). If you enter a value outside the minimum and maximum range set in the template file, you will be asked to confirm before the value is accepted.
Column width(text field, bottom right)	The width of one column of notes, in the drawing’s current units. Text in the preview and on the drawing wraps to fit this width. If a single column would be taller than the configured column height, the tool starts a new column to the right when placing.
Output layer(dropdown, bottom)	The user layer that the placed notes, flags, leaders, and callouts will be drawn on. The dropdown lists every user layer in the active document of the host application. The default loaded from the template file is shown as the initial choice. You can switch to any other user layer in the document; subsequent placements go to the new layer.

Warning: The output layer dropdown only lists layers that exist in the host application session the tool is connected to. If the expected layer is missing, check that you connected to the right session, and create the layer in the design if it does not yet exist.

8Choosing the Flag Style

Drawing Notes ships with eleven flag shapes for marking numbered notes and call-outs: a hexagon, a pentagon, a rounded-corner square, a sharp-corner square, six triangle variants (a rounded and a sharp version for each of the three directions — pointing left, pointing right, and pointing up), and a circle.

Pressing the small action button to the right of the font controls opens a flag selection dialog.

The Select Flag dialog showing previews of all eleven flag shapes alongside a labelled radio button for each one. — Figure 3. The flag selection dialog.

The dialog shows previews of all eleven shapes alongside a labelled choice for each one. Pick the style you want; the small preview swatch in the main window updates immediately to match, and any flagged notes in the live preview and on subsequent placements will use that shape.

Tip: Some flag shapes (the directional triangles) point the leader arrow in a specific direction. If your leader callouts are biased to one side of the board, choosing a directional flag of the matching orientation gives the cleanest look.

Once the dialog is closed, the chosen style is remembered for the rest of the session. The default style for a fresh session is set in the template file.

9Impedances From the Board

Most fabrication note packages include a list of every controlled-impedance trace on the board, broken down by trace width, spacing (for differential pairs), routing layer, and dielectric stack above and below the trace. Maintaining this list by hand is tedious and error-prone. Drawing Notes can build the list for you by scanning the open PCB.

The impedance helper is opened with the Get Impedances button in the action strip at the bottom of the main window.

The Impedance helper window, with the differential and single-ended impedance tables empty and the status bar showing traces being loaded. — Figure 4. The Impedance helper window showing trace data collection in progress.

It is a separate window with two tables — one for differential-pair impedances and one for single-ended impedances — and a small set of controls above them.

9.1 Scanning the Board

Two controls at the top let you set the rules for the scan:

Control	Purpose & Behavior
Set Output Units(dropdown)	Picks the unit (mils, inches, mm, or microns) in which trace width, spacing, and dielectric heights are reported. Changing this re-scales any value already shown.
Min Trace Length(text field)	Any trace shorter than this length will be ignored during the scan. This filters out tiny stubs and fanout segments that don’t carry signals far enough to matter for an impedance specification. The value is given in the current output units.
Load Traces(button)	Reads every trace in the open PCB design, looks up the surrounding dielectric heights and dielectric constants from the layer stack, and adds a row to either the differential or the single-ended table depending on the trace type. Progress is shown on a status bar below the tables, and the status line tells you when the load has finished.

The two tables show the relevant parameters for each unique impedance signature found:

Trace width — the finished conductor width in the chosen unit.
Differential spacing — for differential rows only, the edge-to-edge spacing between the two traces.
Dielectric heights (h1, h2) — the thickness of the dielectric layer above and below the trace.
Dielectric constants (h1 ER, h2 ER) — the relative permittivity of those same dielectric layers, from the stack-up.
Layers — the routing layers on which this combination was found.
Impedance — the impedance in ohms for this row. This is the one column the tool does not fill in for you: you type the value yourself, for each row you intend to use. The scan reports the geometry it finds; the impedance target that geometry is built to is yours to state.

9.2 Cleaning Up the Table

Each row in either table has a Use? checkbox at its left edge. It does double duty: it marks rows for the two clean-up actions below, and it decides which rows get sent to the notes when you are finished. Two buttons act on the ticked rows:

Action	Purpose & Behavior
Delete Selected(button)	Removes the ticked rows from whichever of the two tables they belong to. You will be asked to confirm before the deletion goes through. Useful for dropping impedance lines that aren’t actually controlled on this board.
Combine Selected(button)	Merges two or more rows into one. Use this when the same trace geometry appears on multiple layers but you want to express it as a single line in the fabrication notes (for example, “5 mil traces, layers 3 and 6, 50 ohms”). See the next sub-section for details.

9.3 Combining Equivalent Rows

When you combine rows, a small follow-up window appears that shows the selected rows again and asks you to pick exactly one row to keep as the “master”. The layer numbers of the other selected rows are merged into that master row’s layer list, and the other rows are removed from the main table. If the rows you picked do not have matching trace widths or matching spacings, you will be asked to confirm before the combine goes through — usually this is a sign that you have selected unrelated rows by accident.

Tip: Combining is especially useful on boards that route the same impedance on many layers. Without it, you would get one impedance line per layer in the notes; with it, you get one line for the whole group.

The Impedance helper with both tables populated after a scan. Four rows are ticked and outlined, two in the differential table and two in the single-ended table, each with an impedance value typed into the last column. — Figure 5. Both tables populated, with the rows to be used ticked and their impedance values filled in.

The figure above shows the state you are aiming for before pushing anything to the notes. Four rows have been ticked in the Use? column — two differential and two single-ended — and each of those four has had its impedance value typed into the last column by hand. The untouched rows have been left in place: there is no need to delete rows you aren’t using, because only the ticked ones are collected. Deleting is simply a way to reduce clutter if the tables are long.

9.4 Pushing to the Notes

The destination for the impedance data is any note whose text contains the [option impedances] placeholder. Until the data arrives, the placeholder sits in the note card exactly as it was written in the template file, holding the spot where the summary lines will go.

The Note 8 IMPEDANCE note card before the update, with the text [option impedances] visible on its own line between the impedance guidelines heading and the TDR testing line. — Figure 6. The impedance note card before the update, showing the `[option impedances]` placeholder.

When the tables look right, press Update Notes. Every ticked row in both tables is turned into a line of text describing that trace geometry — width, spacing for differential rows, the layers it applies to, and the impedance value you entered — and the whole set replaces the placeholder. Rows that are not ticked are ignored, whether or not you deleted them.

The same note card after the update, with the placeholder replaced by four lines of impedance text, alongside the compiled preview panel showing note 8 as it will appear on the drawing. — Figure 7. The same note card after the update, with the compiled preview alongside.

The change lands in both places at once. The note card on the left now holds the generated text in place of the placeholder, so you can edit the wording further if you want to. The preview panel on the right shows the note as it will be placed in the host application — correctly numbered, wrapped to the column width, and sitting in sequence with the notes above and below it.

You can close the impedance helper at any time; it does not need to stay open for the values to remain in the notes.

Note: If a note contains the placeholder but nothing appears after the update, check that you actually ticked the rows you wanted in the Use? column and that each ticked row has an impedance value typed into it.

10Placing Notes on the Drawing

Once the editor and the preview show what you want, pressing the action to place the notes draws the compiled note block onto the active drawing. The notes are placed at the X / Y origin specified in the template file, in the chosen font and text height, on the chosen user layer.

Placement is wrapped in a transaction, so if anything fails partway through, the drawing is left unchanged. If a single column would run past the column height set in the template file, the placement automatically wraps to a new column to the right.

Each note that is marked as flagged gets its number drawn inside the chosen flag shape. Each line of note text is placed as a separate piece of drawing text so it can be edited individually later in the host application.

Note: The tool tags every piece of geometry it places with an identifying property. That tagging is what lets the “delete the placed notes” action (see Section 13) clean up the previous run without disturbing anything else on the drawing.

Warning: If you place notes a second time without deleting the previous set first, you will end up with two overlapping copies of the notes block. Always delete the previous notes (or place once, on a fresh drawing) to keep things clean.

11Leaders & Callouts

Below the live preview is a small column of three leader-placement actions. They differ only in what they add at the tail end of the leader line.

Leader Type	What It Does
Plain leader(arrow + line only)	Click once on the feature you are calling out (the arrow tail). Move the mouse to where you want the leader to terminate; the arrow, leader line and a short horizontal stub at the end follow the cursor. Click again to place. Nothing is drawn at the end of the stub.
Leader with text(arrow + line + text)	Same workflow as the plain leader, except that you are prompted first to enter the text you want at the tail. The text is placed at the end of the stub, on the correct side automatically (left or right) depending on which way the leader is pointing.
Leader with flag callout(arrow + line + numbered flag)	Same workflow as the leader with text, but instead of plain text you are prompted for a number. The number is drawn inside the currently selected flag shape, again on the correct side of the stub automatically.

While the rubber-band leader is following the cursor, the line, arrow, and (where applicable) text or flag are all shown as motion graphics so you can preview the placement in real time before committing.

Note: The geometry of every leader the tool places — the line thickness, the arrowhead length and width, the length of the horizontal stub at the tail, and the gap between the stub and the text or flag — is controlled by five values in the template file. If your leaders look too thick or too thin, or the arrowheads are too big or too small for your title-block style, edit those values, save, and press Reload. The arrowhead dimensions also scale automatically with the chosen note text height, so a single template works across a range of drawing sheet sizes.

Cancelling a Leader in Progress

If you start placing a leader and decide you don’t want it after all, the dedicated cancel action will terminate the in-progress command and clear the on-screen rubber-band graphics. Use this rather than the host application’s own cancel, which can sometimes leave the motion graphics on screen.

12Flagging Existing Text

Sometimes you have a piece of text already on the drawing — for example, a hand-placed reference number — that you want to wrap in a flag shape after the fact. The flag-this-text action does exactly that.

In the host application, select one or more pieces of text on the drawing.
Switch to Drawing Notes and press the flag-this-text action.
The tool draws the currently chosen flag shape around each selected piece of text, sized to match the text’s height, on the currently chosen user layer.

Tip: The flag’s size scales with the height of the text you have selected, so the same action works for big sheet-title text and small reference numbers without you having to adjust anything.

13Removing Placed Notes

The clean-up action at the bottom right of the window deletes every piece of geometry that the tool has previously placed on the active drawing — the notes block header, every note number, every note line, every flag drawn around a note number, and any flag drawn around drawing text by the flag-this-text action.

Use it before placing a fresh copy of the notes after editing, or to clear a placement that landed in the wrong spot.

Note: The clean-up only removes geometry that carries the tool’s identifying property. Anything you have added by hand in the host application — including hand-drawn callouts, hand-typed text, or geometry from other tools — is left alone.

Warning: Leaders placed with the leader actions described in Section 11 are tagged as notes too, and so will also be removed by the clean-up. If you have manually adjusted any leader and want to keep it, either move it onto a different user layer, or untag it inside the host application before running the clean-up.

14Editing Template Files

For larger or more permanent changes — adding a new note, changing the default wording of an existing note, modifying the column origin, changing the default flag style, adjusting the minimum and maximum allowable text heights — you edit the template file directly. Select the template you want in the dropdown at the top of the window and press Edit Template File; it opens in your system’s default application for XML files, typically a text editor.

The file is plain XML and is self-documenting: every parameter is labelled inside angle brackets (for example, <note_size>, <note_column_width>, <notes_header>) and every note appears inside its own <note> block. Save the file, switch back to Drawing Notes, and press Reload — the new contents are read straight away, with no need to close and reopen the tool.

Comments inside the file use a leading apostrophe (') at the start of the line — the same convention as Visual Basic source code. Anything on a line after an apostrophe is ignored by the tool, so you can freely annotate the file to remind yourself what each block is for.

To create a new template, copy an existing template file within the template folder, rename the copy, and edit it. It will appear in the dropdown alongside the others the next time the tool starts. Nothing else needs to change — the setup file points at the folder, not at individual files, so it never needs updating when templates are added or removed.

Warning: Always make a backup of a template file before editing it, and remember that a template on a network share may be in use by other people. A malformed XML structure can leave the tool unable to load any notes from that template at all.

Warning: Pressing Reload discards any unsaved work in the window and rebuilds the notes from the file. Place your notes on the drawing first if you are mid-session and don’t want to redo your choices — see Section 3.4.

Tip: The tool comes pre-loaded with a template file that covers a typical PCB fabrication note package. Use that file as your starting point — copy an existing <note> block, edit the name and text, and you have a new note that follows the same structure.

15Typical Workflow

For a brand new drawing, a typical session looks like this:

Open the board in Xpedition PCB Layout. Optionally, open the design in Drawing Editor or FabLink if you want the notes placed there instead of on the Xpedition PCB sheet directly. Make sure the user layer you want the notes on already exists in whichever application will receive them.
Launch Drawing Notes. Answer the board part-number / revision prompt if your notes use those fields; otherwise dismiss it.
Choose the notes template you want to work from in the dropdown at the top of the window. Do this before anything else — changing it later resets your edits.
Pick the right note set at the top of the window — fabrication or assembly.
Walk down the editor panel. For each note, turn it off if it doesn’t apply to this board, toggle the flag if needed, edit the wording if needed, and pick the right value for each dropdown option.
If your notes need an impedance summary, press Get Impedances, load the traces, combine equivalent rows across layers, tick the rows you want in the Use? column, type an impedance value into each of them, and press Update Notes.
Drag note cards into your preferred order; the numbering follows automatically.
Confirm font, text height, column width, and output layer in the control strip.
Press the place-notes action. Verify the placement in the host application.
Place any leaders or callouts you need around the board using the leader actions.
If you need to revise the notes later, edit them in the Drawing Notes window, remove the previously placed notes, and place them again.

16Tips & Troubleshooting

The tool exits immediately after launch. A licensing problem is the most common cause. Apply your license code using the ExactCAD Licensing tool, then retry. The other common cause is that Xpedition PCB Layout is not running with a board open — some board data the tool needs is not available from Drawing Editor or FabLink alone, and Xpedition PCB is required even when one of those is the host application receiving the notes.
A warning appears that the configured font is not installed. Either install the font named in the template file on this PC, or pick a different font from the font dropdown for this session and edit the template file to make the new font the default.
The output layer dropdown is missing the layer I want to use. The dropdown only lists user layers that already exist in the active document of the host application. Create the layer in the host application first, then re-open Drawing Notes.
Placement reports that it could not find the layer. You likely have more than one session of the host application open, and the tool attached to one that does not contain the layer. Close the other sessions, open the right one, and re-launch the tool.
Notes show up at the wrong location on the drawing. The X / Y placement origin is set inside the template file. Edit it there to suit your title block, then save and press Reload. Alternatively, place the notes, then move them in the host application as a one-off.
A note’s dropdown shows the wrong choices. Each note’s option choices are defined inside the template file, in the same <note> block as the note text. Edit the file to add, remove, or reorder the entries.
An impedance line is missing from the notes. The most common cause is that the row was never ticked in the Use? column, or was ticked but left without an impedance value — only ticked rows with a value are collected by Update Notes. If the row is absent from the table altogether, either no trace on that signature exceeds the Min Trace Length filter, or the row was deleted. Lower the filter and press Load Traces again; otherwise check that the trace exists in the database and is tagged with the expected net class.
The leader rubber-band stays on screen after I cancel. Use the dedicated cancel action in the bottom strip of the main window — it removes any leftover motion graphics that the host application’s own cancel may have missed.
The clean-up action removed something I wanted to keep. Any geometry placed by this tool is tagged for clean-up. To preserve a hand-edited leader, either move it onto a different user layer or remove the property tag in the host application before running the clean-up.
Edits to a template file don’t appear in the tool. Press Reload after saving the file. Reload re-reads the template that is currently selected in the dropdown — if you edited a different template, select that one first.
The Notes Template dropdown is empty, or a template is missing from it. The tool lists the XML files it finds in the folder named by the setup file. Open setup.txt in the install’s setup folder and check that the path on its single line is the folder you expect, that the folder is reachable (particularly if it is a network share), and that the template file is actually in it. Templates added while the tool is open are picked up the next time it starts.
All my edits disappeared. Changing the template selection or pressing Reload rebuilds the notes from the file on disk and resets note text, on/off states, flags, dropdown choices, pushed impedance data, and note order to that template’s defaults. Choose your template before you start editing.
Two templates place their notes in different spots. That is expected — the placement origin, font, text height, and column settings are all stored per template. Edit the template in question if its origin doesn’t suit your title block.