Miscellaneous

I just upgraded from the Macintosh version of MC4. Can I import my circuits from MC4?

Circuits can be transferred from the MC4 Macintosh version to the Micro-Cap PC version. This process will require two third party programs. The steps are as follows:

1) Launch a resource editor program. ResEdit from Apple is one example of such programs. This program lets you change the Creator and Type that the file is defined as. The Creator and Type fields link the file to a specific application and define it as a specific type of file. For a MC4 circuit file, the Type is 'MC4C' and the Creator is 'EXVP'. These fields need to be edited so that the Type field is defined as 'TEXT' and the Creator field is blank. Save the new resource settings. The circuit file has now been converted into a standard text file. It should appear on the hard drive now using the blank page icon.

2) Launch a Mac/PC conversion utility if your system doesn't do it automatically. Apple File Exchange, also from Apple, is an example of such a program. The utility needs to perform a text translation on the file. Essentially, what it needs to do is replace every carriage return in the Macintosh file with a carriage return / line feed. If this is not done, the circuit file will appear double spaced on a PC and will not load into Micro-Cap.

3) Copy the file over to the PC. Launch Micro-Cap. Go to the File menu and click on Open. Select the circuit file and Micro-Cap will automatically convert it into the new format. Each individual circuit file would need to be processed this way.

Any user created macros or subcircuits would need to be recreated in the Component and Shape Editor. The actual macro circuit or subcircuit model may be brought over in the fashion described above, but the schematic shape and component information would need to be reentered.