QUICK START – Digital electronics

Quick Start Guide to Create Your Digital Electronics Circuit in Automation Studio™
You can also view multiple training videos at: https://www.famictech.ca/en/Support/Automation-Studio/Learn-and-explore

1. Basic Manipulations
 1.1 Moving components from the library to your
schematic
Click on a component from the library, and drag-and-drop it
on your schematic.

 1.2 How to connect components

Move your cursor over a red connection port and click
when the target sign appears. Release the button, draw
your line with the cursor and click on a second connection
port to establish a connection between those two
components. Both connection ports automatically become
black when linked.

 1.3 How to change paths during connection

When drawing a line and while moving your cursor, you can
click to create a 90° turn (elbow).

 1.4 How to insert a junction

While tracing a line, coming across another line, there is no
target sign that usually allows you to make a connection.
Therefore, you need to double-click on the line to make a
junction. When a 3-line junction is created, a filled black
connector is automatically created at the junction.

 1.5 How to open the components’ properties window 1) Right-click on

Right-click on the component and choose “Component the component
Properties”.
Shortcut: Hover your mouse over the component and 2) Shortcut: on the component
double-click to open the properties window.

 1.6 Panning the document

Click on the “Panning” function from the “View” tab of the 1) in VIEW / ZOOM
ribbon bar, under the “Zoom” group of functions.
Shortcut: Press and hold down the space bar while holding 2) Shortcut:
down the left mouse click, and then move your mouse to
move the page.

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 1. Basic Manipulations
 1.7 Zoom in and out
Click on the “Zoom in / Zoom out” functions from the
“View” tab of the ribbon bar, under the “Zoom” group of 1) in VIEW / ZOOM
functions.
Shortcut: Press and hold down the control key (CTRL), and
then scroll up to zoom in or scroll down to zoom out of the 2) Shortcut:
page. The software will zoom where you are pointing your
mouse.

 1.8 Disconnecting a component On the

Press and hold down the SHIFT key, click on the component, component
and drag it elsewhere on the schematic.

 1.9 Manipulating components 1) Choose the appropriate icon from the “Edit” tab:
Functions to rotate, flip, align, distribute and order
components can be accessed from the “Edit” tab of the
ribbon bar, under the “Layout” group of functions. First,
click on the component(s) and then, click on the desired
function.
2) Shortcut: Right-click on the component to choose the desired
Shortcut: Right-click on the component and choose the operation.
desired manipulation functions, or simply use assigned
hotkeys.

 1.10 Accessing component help

All components in Automation Studio™ have a context help
describing their functionality. Right-click on the component
and choose “Context Help”.

Shortcut: Click on the component and then press the F1

key.

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 2. Draw a Chronometer
 2.1 Building your first digital electronics circuit
All the components needed for this first circuit are
contained in the “Digital Electronics” library. Simply click on
the following sub-categories to display the components,
and then drag-and-drop the components from the library
(section 1.1) onto your schematic:

• Lines and Connections→ Positive Power

• Lines and Connections→ Ground
• Logical Gates→ AND Gates→ AND Gate (4 inputs)
• Logical Gates→ Inverter
• Decoders→ Decoders→ 7-Segment Decoder
• Flip-Flops→ D Flip-Flop→ D Flip-Flop with Clock
• Counters→ 4 Bit Counters→ 4 Bit Asynchronous Counter
• Input Components→ Clock
• Output Components→ Signalling Devices→ 7-Segment
Display

 2.2 Duplicating components

To build the circuit, you will need: 3 x Positive Powers, 4 x
Grounds, 2 x AND Gates (4 inputs), 4 x Inverters, 3 x 7
Segment Decoders, 1 x D Flip-Flop with Clock, 3 x 4 Bit
Asynchronous Counters, 1 x Clock, and 3 x 7 Segment
Displays.
To do so, drag-and-drop additional components from the
library, (section 2.1) or copy and paste the components.

Shortcut:
• CTRL+C and CTRL+V
• CTRL+D
• CTRL +Drag and drop

Note that the component will be pasted at the location your

mouse cursor is pointed.

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 2. Draw a Chronometer
 2.3 Rotating components
To organize the circuit layout, rotate 1 of the “Positive
Power” 180°.
To do so, select the component and from the “Edit” tab,
“Layout” group of functions click on “Position” and choose
“Rotate 180°” from the drop down list.

Shortcut: You can use CTRL+H to rotate a component 90°

clockwise.

 2.4 Connecting components

Connect all the components as shown on the picture.
Refer to the basic manipulations section if needed.

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 3. Simulation
 3.1 Start the simulation to see your circuit come to 1) Click on the “Simulation” tab.
life!
Now that all the components are connected, you can start
the simulation.
2) Click on “Normal Simulation”:
Click on the “Normal Simulation” icon from the
“Simulation” tab of the ribbon bar, under the “Control”
group of functions to start simulation.

 3.2 State of the digital wire

While in the simulation, the wire changes color to display
the current state.

A green wire represents a “False” state, while a pink wire

represents a “True” state.

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