PCBEdit is a utility which you can use to edit text files. Support for PCBoard's @X color codes and @ macros is directly integrated into PCBEdit.

There are several command line parameters or options you can specify when loading PCBEdit. These parameters will control how PCBEdit will behave. If you are not yet familiar with PCBEdit, skip the sections that discuss command line parameters.

The PCBEdit command line uses the following format:

PCBEDIT /parameter /parameter ... /parameter [filename]

The following section describes the valid command line parameters for PCBEdit.

When a PCBoard @ macro is displayed in PCBEdit, default text is displayed in their place. To change the text that is displayed for each @ macro, use this command line parameter. After the colon, specify the @ macro you want to change the default text followed by a colon and the next text to be displayed.

Example usage:

PCBEDIT "/ATMAC:@USER@:JIM SMITH"

NOTE: Quotes must surround any parameter which contains a space. If no quotes are used, the command line parameters will be mis-interpreted.

Forces PCBEdit to use a color display adapter card even if a monochrome card was detected.

Specifies a different character sequence to be appended to the last line when a file is saved. By default, the last line is written with a carriage return / line feed appended to it. With this switch, you can change it to several carriage return/line feed pairs, an end of file character, etc. Replace [ASCII code(s)] with any valid ASCII codes.

Example usage:

PCBEDIT /LLEND:013,010,013,010

Loads the macro filename specified by [filename].

Example usage:

PCBEDIT /MACRO:C:\PCB\PCBEDIT.MAC

Forces PCBEdit to use a monochrome display adapter card even if a color display is detected.

Forces PCBEdit to not interpret @ macros or @X codes (regardless of whether or not /ATX is in effect). This setting is useful for using PCBEdit as a text editor.

Forces PCBEdit to ignore @X codes and to display all text in the attribute specified via the /STARTATTR option.

Forces PCBEdit to not keep backup files.

Disables the buzzing sound for alerting the user about error conditions.

Forces PCBEdit to not allow shells to DOS.

Disables the ALT-I, ALT-K and ALT-L functions. Also disables the ability to specify the filename to save in the ALT-S function.

Displays the welcome screen when PCBEdit starts.

Tells PCBEdit to not strip trailing spaces from lines.

Loads the file specified by [filename] as the function key character set (available by pressing ALT-F in PCBEdit).
Example usage:

PCBEDIT /SET:C:\PCB\PCBEDIT,KEY

Tells PCBEdit to test for CGA screen snow.

Tells PCBEdit to strip trailing spaces from lines.

Changes the default status bar type to the type specified:

Always strip the G graphics file specification (if present) prior to attempting a file load.

Strip the G graphics file specification (if present) if a file with the G as part of the filename doesn't exist.

Removes the command line parameter from processing (works with any parameter which begins with a forward slash [/].

There are three ways of specifying startup options. The first is on the PCBEdit command line. For example:

PCBEDIT /NOQUICK /MACRO:MAIN.MAC /SET:MAIN.SET NEWSG

The second means of specifying startup options is through the PCBEDIT environment variable, which you can SET in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. An example line would look like this:

SET PCBEDIT=/QUICK "/ATMAC:@USER@:SCOTT ROBISON"

Finally, startup options may be specified in a configuration file. It is named PCBEDIT.CFG and can be located in the same directory as PCBEDIT.EXE or in the current directory. It can be created with any text editor, may have as many lines as necessary, and may have several options on one line, as long as all lines are limited to 127 characters or less. Here's an example:

"/ATMAC:@USER@:FIRST LAST"
/NOBAK
/MACRO:C:\PCB\PCBEDIT.MAC
/STATUS:1

PCBEdit searches for startup options in the following order:

• PCBEDIT.CFG (first in the directory with PCBEdit, then in the current directory)
• PCBEDIT environment variable
• PCBEDIT command line.

In this way, an option in the PCBEDIT.EXE directory configuration file can be overridden by another option later in the same file, in the other configuration file, environment variable or command line.

NOTE: Parameters specified on the command line always override any prior settings.

Fifteen sets of user-defined macros are supported by PCBEdit. Each set consists of ten strings that may be accessed via the F1 - F10 function keys. Different sets may be accessed by utilizing the SHIFT-ALT-F1 - SHIFT-ALT-F10 keys for sets 1 - 10 and the SHIFT-CTRL-1 - SHIFT-CTRL-5 keys for sets 11 - 15. The macros may be selected from and maintained with the ALT-G key. Each macro may consist of whatever text the user would like. Additionally, the following special sequences are recognized by PCBEdit: