The Schematic Frame

The best way to have a border around a circuit is drawing a rectangle
around it.

Instructions:
-------------
1.
Just take a text editor and write a LTSPICE circuit file consisting
of only that rectangle. See the following three lines. 

Version 4
SHEET 1 0 0
RECTANGLE Normal 0 0 2256 1600

Save it into a file "myframe.asc". 

A size of 2256, 1600 is good for A4 landscape and a size of 
1600, 2256 is for portrait format. The ratio between x and y 
direction is about 1.41 . 
The next paper size increase both values by factor of sqrt(2)=1.41 . 

Use only size numbers which are multiples 8, because this is the 
coarse grid distance in the LTSPICE schematic. 

2.
Open this file "myframe.asc" with LTSPICE and draw small rectangles
for the info fields you like at the lower right corner. Fill in these 
rectangles with comments(information) like date, author, company
and more. Save it as your personal template.

Now you can either start a drawing with this frame or you can 
copy this frame over an existing drawing with LTSPICE copy/paste.

Use the fine drawing mode when you have to create a company
logo for your info fields. You get this mode if you keep the 
<Ctrl-key> pressed while you move or stretch a drawing object.

You can see a real eye catching info block in the example from
"analogspiceman". 

I have already done some frames of size A3, A4, A5 for portrait 
and landscape format. See the files in this folder.
Files->Lib->Schematic Frames

If you don't like the file name printed below your schematic,
then export the schematic to a .wmf File and use another program
to print this .wmf file.

Maybe all the wires and lines of your printout look too thin. 
I experienced this with a 600dpi laser printer. I have got 
a better printout after I enabled "draw thick wire" in LTSPICE,
but it is only useful for printing. The only drawback is that the 
junctions of wires are then printed too big.

Control Panel->Drafting Options  mark "Draw with thick lines" 

I got the best results at 600dpi, when I set the color of wires
and component body to black and changing the halftone setting in
the laser printer setup to black and white only.
Control Panel->Drafting Options->Color scheme

One more idea is setting the printer to a lower resolution, e.g. 300dpi.

Helmut

New feature for Frames and title blocks in LTSPICE version 2.10v and higher
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LTSPICE has now a special symbol type named MASTER . The main feature is that 
you can still draw inside a MASTER symbol on your schematic. 
Be aware that if you try to move components inside of a MASTER symbol, the 
MASTER symbol could be unintentionally selected and moved. This drawback makes 
it impossible to reach some components in specific areas within the symbol. 
If this is a problem then you have to switch on/off the visibilty of the MASTER 
symbol in the Control Panel.
Control Panel -> Drafting Options -> Show Title Blocks

Instructions:
-------------
Take your text editor and change the first line in the frame file
"myframe.asc" from 

Version 4
SHEET 1 0 0
RECTANGLE Normal 0 0 2256 1600

to

Version 4
SymbolType MASTER
RECTANGLE Normal 0 0 2256 1600

Save this file now as "myframe_m.asy"! LTSPICE will treat it now as a symbol, 
because of this extenstion .asy .

Helmut


Original text from the LTSPICE author Mike Engelhardt:
------------------------------------------------------
Also, it occurs to me that there may be an
undocumented feature that might be of some use.
You can make a title block symbol that includes
the title section and outline of a size that
looks scaled right for the component grid. You
could place it on a schematic and draw inside
the boundry drawn by this symbol. Also, you can
selective display it or not with the command
Tools=>Control Panel=>Drafting Options=>Show
Title Blocks.

For a symbol to act like a title block, it must
have (i) zero pins and (ii) a SymbolType attribute
of MASTER. You can't edit the type in the symbol
editor, but with notepad, you can edit the symbol
to read

Version 4
SymbolType MASTER
LINE Normal -796 -168 -1224 -168
LINE Normal -1224 -176 -796 -176
.

 
