Tips & Tricks

This is just a page to keep me remember what kind of tricks I did at Latex, WinEdt, Latexinword, PDF check, JabRef, Git SVN ....

1. How to embed fonts in your pdf file using Winedtto pass the 'font not embedded' issues in IEEE PDF eXpress check

This question comes from the usual failure of IEEE PDF eXpress check for publication. The figures drawn by Matlab usually involves the Helvetica Font which is not included in the default Fonts in Windows. This leads to a failure 'Font Helvtica is not embedded', when check the compatibility of PDF created from Latex/WinEdt.

(1) Install the Helvetica font. Since Helvetica is not included in the Window's font library by default, we have to install the Helvetica manually.
      1a. Download the Helvetica font here and save it to your local disk, for example d:\
      1b. Select 'Control Panel'->'Font' to open the 'Font' window
      1c. On the File menu, click Install New Font.
      1d.   In Drives, click the drive you want.
      1e.   In Folders, double-click the folder that contains the fonts you want to add.
      1f.    In List of fonts, click the font you want to add, and then click OK.

(2) Configure WinEdt to create a PDF file with ALL fonts embedded, including Times, Helvetica, and Symbol
PDFLaTeX will embed (aka the Base-14 fonts) only if they are used in the document itself.

Open WinEdt
Select: Options, Execution Modes
Select ps2pdf

The Command Line Switches for gswin32c.exe are

-dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r600 -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4

Add the following switches to this line:

-dPDFSETTINGS=/printer -dMaxSubsetPct=100 -dSubsetFonts=true -dEmbedAllFonts=true

Save

From now on PS2PDF will embed all fonts. More details at this Link

2. SVN Version Control Git and TortoiseGit

1. How to ignore directories/folders/files in Git Windows
2. Use TortoiseGit to manage the Git repository

2.1. How to ignore directories/folders/files in Git Windows

The usual two mechanisms apply:

1. list directories, files or patterns in '.git/info/exclude' - this would be per repository
2. same thing but in a .gitignore file inside the repository itself - this could be committed and be per project, shared by all participants

Create a file named .gitignore in your projects directory. Ignore directories/files by entering the directory/file name into the file (with a slash appended for directories):
dir_1_to_ignore/ dir_2_to_ignore/ dir_2_to_ignore/ *.exe *.bin
In case if you cannot create .fitignore file in windows' explorer GUI, open a command window (Start->Run->enter cmd), type either ' edit .gitignore' or 'notepad .gitgnore' to create the .gitignore file.

More info here: http://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore

The git "directory" (.git) is where git stores all the information about your project, all the history, all the commits, and all the meta information about your repository, and what files and folders are included in that repository. There is only one ".git directory" per repository. A good tutorial in both git cmd and gui.
http://www.geekgumbo.com/2010/05/16/removing-deleted-files-from-your-git-working-directory/

2.2. Use TortoiseGit to manage the Git repository

As Git GUI is mainly about "allowing users to make changes to their repository by making new commits, amending existing ones, creating branches, performing local merges, and fetching/pushing to remote repositories", it is difficult to manage files through Git GUI (add, remove, untrack, difference comparison, browse files, etc).

TortoiseGit has a better graphical user interface and support many regular tasks like committing, showing logs. It also provide graphical interface for advanced operations, such as adding/removing files to/from version control, comparing difference between current version with previous version, switching between two versions, creating branches and tags. TortoiseGit can be downloaded at http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/ and the Screenshots.

1. removing file from version control but keep local copy: Right click->Delete (keep local)
2. How to show extended menu item: Press "shift" key, right-click
3.

3. Useful online resources (links) for electronic circuit design

(3.1) Free Freebyte's Guide to...Electronics Online

A collection of links/resources covering circuit simulation, schematic/PCB design tools, datasheets and connector&Pin-out reference, Resistor Calculator, references for vacuum tubes, CRT tubes, radio systems, microcontroller and embedded systgems, programming, FPGA, robotics, Electro Mechanics and various tutorials.

(3.2) 10 Free and Best PCB design software

URL: http://www.printedcircuitsboards.com/software/67/10-pcb-design-layout-software.html

KiCAD (URL: www.kicad-pcb.org)
Quick KICAD Library Component Builder
EAGLE PCB download page
PCB Projects from EAGLE users

4. EAGLE Sch/PCB Design

(4.1) DO NOT click the 'Drop' button in the ADD component dialog, EAGLE

25 July 2012

This disaster happened when I started using Eagle for my first schematic drawing. I tried to ADD a diode 1N4148 into my schematic. I found it by searching '*1N4*' in the ADD dialog and clicked 'Drop' button to drop the component into the schematic. It turns out that's the button to remove a set of parts from the libraries! If you select a component and do click the 'Drop' button accidentally, you remove the library that contains the component. The consequence is that the diode 1N4148 and the library disappear and I cannot find 1N4148 nor any 1N* diodes in the list.

Lesson: DO NOT click the "Drop" button in the Add dialog It's very misleading, I thought 'Drop' was to drop a part into a schematic. But all the 'Drop' button actually does is "disable" that particular library. Although I am not a native English speaker, I can see the word 'Drop' on the face of the button is the worst one. Any word of 'Forget' or 'Ignore' or 'Disable' would work better than 'Drop'.
Fixed: The Control Panel window that opens on startup allows you to re-enable that library. Just expand the "Libraries" and click the dot beside the library you disabled. See the follow screenshot where the 'diode' library was disabled by my clicking 'Drop' button.

(4.2) Automatically renumbering components in Eagle

To rename all components of a schematic sheet so the lowest name of components (R?, C?, IC?) always start from R1, C1, IC1, etc. and increases according some rule (e.g., left first, top first).


      run renumber-sch

User Language Programs (ULP) are executed by the RUN command from an editor window's command line.

5. Insert a VISO diagram into Powerpoint with a transparent backround

In VISO, right click drawing in background area where there is nothing. Select Format - Fill Pattern = None and set Transparency = 100%

In Power Point, 'paste as special', select Enhanced Metafile

6. Change local/remote home directories in WinSCP

(1) In the left-hand panel of the WinSCP Login screen, click on Environment->Directories.

(2) Right click at the title bar of your local directory panel or remote directory panel, select Open Directory/Book Mark. Alternatively, press Ctrl+O to open the 'Loccation Profiles' dialog box. Click Browse button beside the 'local directory' dropdown menu and select the directory that you want to be your home directory.