The Net Appearance panel on the Topology Import Options dialog provides a series of fields that allow the Analyst to customize the way that net appearance is treated by the eXpressSpreadsheet Topology Import. This panel can be accessed by clicking on one of the "Options..." buttons on the Main Topology Import Panel and then selecting the Net Appearance tab on the Topology Import Options dialog (the Analyst can go straight to this panel by clicking on the "Options..." button to the right of the Net Name Column dropbox). The Net Appearance options panel appears as follows:
At the top of the panel are three dropboxes that allow the Analyst to select the spreadsheet columns that contain the Type, Color and Category associated with each net to be imported. The entries in these dropboxes are automatically selected when the Automatically select columns checkbox is enabled on the Main Topology Import panel. These dropboxes can be de-selected to prevent the data in the spreadsheet from being assigned to the imported nets. The net type and/or color will then be based on the Default category (or, when a Category Column is selected, from the settings for that object's category)
The Net Type Prefixes checkboxes at the bottom of the panel are active when the Net Type Column is selected. Each checkbox specifies whether a given prefix (which corresponds to a particular net routing method) should be taken into consideration.
The Category Column, because it does not correspond to an eXpress net property, is not exported by the eXpress Model topology export. If categories are included in the spreadsheet, however, they can be used to define the type and/or appearance of the imported nets. When a category column is selected, the Categories list in the middle of the dialog is filled out with each unique category listed in the spreadsheet. For each category, the Analyst can specify whether the type (wire or pipe), thickness/borders (for pipes), color and routing method to be assigned to nets in that category.
