Working with traces
Traces are data series depicted in plots. The data can be simulation values or functions based on simulation values. You can add, remove, and rearrange traces.
Traces are used to evaluate a simulation.
Selecting traces
You select a trace by clicking it or clicking its entry in the legend below the plot. You can select multiple traces by shift-clicking or control-clicking them. (Both methods have the same effect.)
Adding and removing traces
When the Waveform Viewer first opens, it contains traces for the signals you have specified when setting up the simulation. You can add more traces or remove traces that you do not need.
To remove a trace, click it in the plot to select it and press the
Del key or click the 
toolbar button. To delete all traces in the selected plot, click
in the toolbar. If you have accidentally deleted one or more traces, you can choose to undo this action.
You can add different types of traces to the selected plot:
To add a signal, double-click it in the Output Variables view, select it and click the Add button at the bottom of the view, or drag it from that view to the desired plot. The options below the list of signals let you filter it. (If the view is not displayed, click
in the toolbar to show it.)You can check the In new X plot option at the bottom of the view before double-clicking the signal or clicking Add to display the trace in a new plot instead of the selected plot. That new plot has an independent (unsynchronized) x-axis.
You can also add a trace using the command or clicking
in the toolbar. This
opens the Add Trace(s) dialog where you can select
one or – by control- or shift-clicking – multiple signals or variables
that are added when you click OK.Choosing adds all signals and variables from the Output Variables view to the selected plot.
If the plot to which you add a trace has multiple y-axes, the traces are added to the selected y-axis.
To add a trace based on an equation, click the Trace Functions button at the bottom of the Output Variables view. This opens the Evaluate Goal Function dialog, in which you can enter the desired equation. Click OK to display the equation results as a trace in the selected plot. If you are adding traces using the Add Trace(s) dialog, you can click Eval Goal Function instead.
Similar to adding signal traces ( described above), you can choose in new X plot from the list in the bottom right corner of the dialog to place the trace in a new plot with an independent x-axis. In the Add Trace(s) dialog, you get the same result by checking Place in New X Plot.
Any equations you create are saved as variables in the list in the Output Variables view and can be thereafter placed in the same way as signals.
Moving traces
You can move traces between plots:
To move a trace to a different plot, select it and drag it to the desired plot. When you drop it, the y-axes of the target plot is automatically adapted: If necessary, the range of the axis is increased to accommodate the value range of the trace.
To duplicate the trace instead of moving it, hold down the Ctrl key while dragging it to another plot.
You can also move a trace by copying and pasting it, using the Cut Trace, Copy Trace, and Paste Trace commands from the Trace menu or the equivalent toolbar buttons
, 
, and 
. Note that pasted traces are inserted into
the selected
plot.To collect all traces in one plot, choose or click
in the toolbar. All
traces are collected in a single plot, and the other plots are
removed.To display each trace in a plot of its own, choose or click
in the toolbar. This
creates for each trace a plot with auto-sized y-axis. If you prefer
instead to use the y-axis from the original plot in each generated plot,
choose instead. Note that both commands affect all plots in the
Waveform Viewer window, not just the selected one.
Modifying the appearance of traces
You can change both the color of the trace and the shape if the marks indicating the simulated or calculated values.
By default, both colors and shapes are assigned automatically. If you want to use different appearances, select the trace and choose to open the Trace Properties dialog. In that dialog can you click Custom Color to assign a different color to the trace by clicking on the color swatch or Custom Mark to assign a different shape by clicking on the shape symbol.
The chosen color and shape is assigned to the trace when you click OK. If you first check the Apply to all the same traces option, all other traces that display the same signal or variable are displayed with the same color and shape.
If you want to revert the color or mark shape of an individual trace to the defaults, open the Trace Properties dialog and choose Current Color Scheme, Current Mark Scheme, or both. If you want to reset the colors or mark shapes of all traces in all plots, choose, , or both.
You can toggle the display of the connecting lines in the traces by choosing . To toggle the display of the marks, choose . Note that either the lines or the marks must be visible. Therefore, if the lines a re hidden and you choose Hide Marks, the lines are automatically displayed, and vice versa.
Renaming traces
It is not possible to rename a trace, but you can give it a display name under which it is listed in the Output Variables view. The same display name is also used for labeling traces in plot legends.
To assign a display name, choose and enter the desired name in the right-hand column beside the signal or variable name.