As the veil between the digital and spectral worlds thins, the Zuken support team returns with another chilling edition of Halloween Tricks and Treats.

Whether you’re navigating haunted formboards, decoding cursed schematics, or banishing phantom errors from your PCB designs, we’ve conjured a cauldron of eerie insights to help you survive the season. So, grab your flashlight, steady your cursor, and prepare to explore the haunted halls of design… if you dare.

E3.series Halloween Tricks and Treats

Hauntingly Easy Wire Group Creation

As the moon rises and shadows stretch across the formboard, the E3.series library grows ever larger… but lurking in the depths of the Component database is a task that has haunted users for ages: creating wire groups.

Many brave souls have been trapped in a labyrinth of dropdown menus and endless manual entries. But fear not! A time-saving trick has emerged from the crypts of engineering wisdom — and it’s frighteningly effective.

Before you fall victim to the slow and spooky method of entering wire names and physical data one by one, conjure your table in Excel. There, in the safety of rows and columns, you can manipulate your data with ease. Once your spell (er, spreadsheet) is complete, simply copy and paste it into the Component Wizard dialog for wire groups.

This magical shortcut banishes the need to click through menus or enter data line-by-line. It’s a workflow exorcism that saves time and sanity.

A Ritual to Revive and Transform

All it took was one reckless action and the Table Symbol for the connector was brutally destroyed from the formboard, instantly turning the assembly guide into a gaping void. The critical instructions—pin assignments, signals, wire colors, and conductors became a ghost, invisible to the eyes of manufacturing. Though the harness data still lurked as a ghost in the vast dark database, its absence on the drawing meant chaos and costly errors on the floor.

But not all was lost. A soul emerged and took control of the engineer to invoke the ancient ritual: Place Table Symbol. In an instant, the ghostly data reappeared, restoring order to the drawing. But this was no ordinary resurrection. With a few deft clicks, the engineer transformed the table’s contents, adapting and revealing exactly the attributes for all to see.

They say the soul comes from time to time to replace these Table Symbols and maintain the balance needed. The engineers speak of themselves as possessed, grateful for the soul that rescues them from the darkness.

Banish Naming Chaos with this Spell

Chaos abounds in the haunted halls of electrical design. Wires bore cryptic names. Devices whispered in unfamiliar tongues. The schematics, once clear scrolls of truth, became riddles, confusing those who dared read them.

But deep within E3.series, a forgotten incantation stirred: the NA Standards spell. When cast, it swept through the project like a cleansing wind, aligning wire names and device IDs to North American conventions. No more manual renaming, only order, summoned with a single click.

Fear not and cast out the haunting fog of inconsistency. Invoke the NA Standards spell and restore clarity to your design. The ritual is simple, the results magical, and your schematic scrolls will once again speak with unmistakable clarity.

Summon the Wire Charts

The branches and connectors have been formed, but something is eerily missing. Harness Builder 2025 creeps in with a hauntingly powerful feature that conjures wire charts onto formboards with eerie precision: Automatic Placement of Wire Charts.

This spectral tool proves especially useful when resurrecting formboards from the shadowy depths of 3D Transformer… or when wire charts have mysteriously vanished and must be summoned back—swiftly and efficiently. In this chilling Tech-tip, we’ll uncover the secrets of this new feature… if you dare.

CR-8000 Halloween Tricks and Treats

Echoes of Approval: Rule Check feature Inherit OK Flag

Deep within the shadows of the CR-8000 Design Gateway, a mysterious feature lurks in the Rule Check command… the Inherit OK Flag. Legend has it, this spectral flag can possess the results of a Sheet Rule Check, whispering its approval into the depths of the Circuit Rule Check… and back again.

When the OK Flag is marked, it’s as if a ghostly hand reaches across the design layers, ensuring that what was once deemed safe in one realm remains protected in another. But beware—if the flag is not inherited, inconsistencies may rise from the grave, haunting your circuit validation forevermore!

Use this feature wisely, lest your design be cursed with errors that refuse to die…

Vigilance Against Ghostly Specter of the Past

Beware, designers! A mysterious new feature has crept into Design Forceto keep you safe from the hauntings of accidental edits. With the flick of a switch, you can now disable the ominous [Edit Internal Component] option when a command is terminated, shielding you from the ghostly specter of unintentional modifications.

To awaken this eerie capability, simply click on [Edit Internal Component] in the status bar and alter your internal component. But tread carefully! Once you have finished your modifications and the shadows of confusion fade, you must remember to click **[Edit Internal Component]** again, lest you remain trapped in this haunting mode forever.

Safeguard your design from the restless spirits of disruption in future sessions and set **[Disable [Edit Internal Component] on Command Exit]** to **[ON]** in the dropdown menu.

This chilling enhancement ensures that the ghosts of your past mistakes do not haunt your present work, especially if that ominous option is left unchecked on the status bar. Stay vigilant, for even the smallest oversight can summon dark and unintended consequences!

Terror in the Traces: Ball Map Output with Net Color

In the dark corridors of PCB package design, a chilling innovation has emerged: the ability to export ball maps to Excel with net colors. What once was a lifeless grid of data now pulses with spectral energy—revealing the hidden horrors of your design.

Why Color-Coding Nets is a Matter of Survival:

• Visual Clarity from the Crypt: Power nets bleed red. Ground nets vanish into black voids. High-speed signals flicker like lightning in a storm. With each cell colored, the map becomes a haunted mirror of your design’s soul.
• Escape the Madness: Complex ball maps are like cursed tomes—dense, arcane, and dangerous. Color-coding is your lantern in the fog, guiding you through chaos before it consumes your sanity.
• Trace the Signal of the Damned: Follow the glowing trails of cursed nets as they wind through the layers of your package. Each color is a whisper from the beyond, revealing paths no mortal eye could see alone.
• Unmask the Errors That Lurk Beneath: Misassigned nets, shorts, and misplaced pins hide like phantoms in the shadows. But with color, they scream into view—no longer able to hide in the darkness.
• Debugging the Undead: When your board rises from the grave with unexplained behavior, color-coded nets help you dissect the horror and banish the glitching ghouls.
• Collaborate with the Coven: Share your cursed map with fellow engineers, layout necromancers, and silicon warlocks. With color, your warnings are clear, your intentions unmistakable.
• Save Your Sanity: Staring into a monochrome abyss for hours can drain your soul. Color brings relief—like sunlight through a crypt door—restoring your focus and your will to continue.

A color-coded Excel ball map is more than a tool; it’s a ward against the unknown. It transforms a lifeless list into a living, breathing artifact of design, ready to reveal its secrets… if you dare to look.

The Signal That Never Slept

In the quiet town of Westford, nestled between rustling trees and forgotten factories, there was a small electronics lab known for cutting-edge PCB designs. But among engineers, it was whispered that one workstation—Desk 7—was cursed.

Years ago, a brilliant designer named Eliot worked late nights at Desk 7. Obsessed with high-speed signal integrity, he believed he’d discovered a revolutionary meshing technique to reduce EMI without compromising impedance. Before he could publish his findings, he vanished. All that remained was his open project file… and a single note:

“Never mesh above Layer 4.”

The lab shut down for a time. Eventually, new engineers arrived. One of them, Brian, was assigned to Desk 7. He didn’t believe in ghosts. He reopened Eliot’s file. Everything looked fine, except Layer 4 was untouched by the meshing algorithm.

Ignoring the warning, Brian enabled meshing across all inner layers. The software hesitated. The screen flickered. Auto Correct disabled itself.

That night, strange things happened. The cursor moved on its own. Nets reassigned. Planes re-solidified. Through his headphones, Brian heard a whisper:
“Impedance… must be preserved…”

The file renamed itself: Eliot_Lives.gbr

The next morning, Brian was found asleep at his desk, pale and shaken. He never spoke of what he saw. But from that day on, no one meshed above Layer 4 again.

Apply Rule for Track Width

In the haunted halls of design, changes lurk around every corner. Last-minute alterations to the stack-up can cast a sinister spell on trace widths, especially on high-speed or analog tracks. The horror of ripping up traces and rerouting them can drain your time and resources. But fear not! By invoking the “Apply Rule for Track Width” command in Design Force, you can banish these changes swiftly and easily, sparing yourself from the nightmare of rerouting.

In the eerie video, I reveal the dark secrets of the Apply Rule for Track tool, guiding you through the shadows of an ever-changing realm of design rules. Use this feature wisely, lest your design be cursed with errors that refuse to die…

Conclusion

Whether you’re warding off spectral errors or summoning clarity from the shadows, this year’s Halloween Tricks and Treats have unearthed the secrets lurking deep within your favorite Zuken tools.

But the magic doesn’t end here. Try these tricks yourself and share your own haunted design tales with the Zuken community. Stay safe, stay sharp, and may your designs remain free of errors… and apparitions.