TinyCAD has built in several libraries of parts, whose artwork may be adapted to a Mason component. Many useful parts have already been created and placed in a library whose filename is “mason.mdb” and shows up in TinyCAD as the library “mason”.

Components (and control blocks like frequency and flags) are selected using one of three boxes.

• The upper box chooses a library from which to pick parts. The library "mason" contains control blocks like Ports, Ground, Variables, Calculations, Frequency, etc.
• The lower box allows for selection of a particular device in the library.
• The middle box will display the selected device-- click on the picture in the middle box to place the part.

Adding Libraries

Several default libraries are automatically installed when Mason is installed.  I have also included a few parts libraries you can install- please install parts libraries with Circuit Mason closed!  The installer sets some environment variables that will automatically bring the libraries into TinyCAD. 

If you need help adding libraries in TinyCAD, please reference the TinyCAD documentation.  Eventually I'd like to add more documentation on making libraries...

Constructing a Valid Library Device for Mason

The device must have particular parameters defined.

Parameter	Example	Description
Reference	TL?	The reference as it shows up in the schematic (TL1, TL2). The question mark is mandatory.
Name	Microstrip	A description of the device
Primitive _or_ File	microstrip/mline.xml	The (relative) location of the Primitive file or the Touchstone file, respectively
Argument (For Files)	Value = 1	Which file is used for this device (one-indexed!)
Argument (For Primitives)	eps__r = 3.48	The arguments for the primitive. *Note: The arguments in the library must be the same order as the arguments in the Primitive definition.*
Package	0402,SOT23, file:microstrip/mline.xml	Used for the PADS flow; if the device is a primitive which defines its own footprint, use "file: *", where * is the file containing a PCB definition.