Paths for File Selection

For most models, the File Open window is the initial screen. This topic provides details of file pathnames common to all model imports.

The PersonalLib (personal library) folder is located at <Project Directory>/PersonalLib ; the userlib (user library) folder is located at <Installation Directory>/userlib ; and the syslib (system library) folder is located at <Installation Directory>/syslib, where <Project Directory> is the location you specified for your Electronics Desktop projects, and <Installation Directory> is the directory into which Electronics Desktop was installed during setup.

If you select Use path, type the name of the file in the File Name area, or click the Look in field to navigate to the file and record its name. Note that components or libraries imported with Use Path may not be portable when the project is moved to another machine.

When In project folder is selected, references to the file in the design are relative to the directory where the project resides. In this case, the path is saved in the project .aedt file as a variable (e.g., .lib '$PROJECTDIR/x_113854.lib').

The variable $PROJECTDIR are expanded to the current location of the project when the design is converted to a netlist and run by an analysis tool. Otherwise, an absolute path is saved. If you move a project and its library files together to a new directory, you can preserve the file references by selecting the Project Folder option.