BeagleBone Green CAD Files (Altium Designer)

599 views
Skip to first unread message

jam...@cladnetwork.com

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 2:13:13 PM3/7/17
to BeagleBoard
Hi all,

I am the lead electrical engineer for a small company based in New York State. We have been using both the Beaglebone Green and Beaglebone Black internally for hardware development purposes for the past couple of months for an upcoming product. We are early in the process of transitioning to a production-grade single board hardware design for said product.

I am looking for CAD files for the Beaglebone Green to use as a starting point in the board design process. Can anyone here point me towards for provide me with Altium Designer files for the BeagleBone Green? We do not use Cadence Allegro to design our boards, and have no way of converting the available OrCAD/Allegro CAD files to an Altium Designer compatible format. 

I would much rather not have to redesign a complicated & nontrivial board layout for an open-source hardware product such as this, especially given that the open-source nature of BeagleBone was the most motivating factor in choosing as a development and prototyping tool. 

Note that we are not modifying any part of the BeagleBone Green's design (except removing the 2X23 female headers and grove sockets). We are using it as a base and adding additional functionality via peripheral components that are integrated on the same board. 

Thank you for any help that you can provide. 

I look forward to hearing back,
James

*Disclaimer: I fully understand that these files would come as is, with no warranty or guarantee of suitability or merchantability for any purpose.

**There is a separate thread for BeagleBone Black revC related responses.

John Syne

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 4:02:26 PM3/7/17
to beagl...@googlegroups.com
Converting Orcad/Allegro files to Altium is pretty easy if you can get the Allegro files in ascii format. There are several issues you have to clean up, especially the copper pour areas which I advise to delete and just recreate these areas. Some of the components included some artifacts which need fixing. The universal database that links Schematic and PCB layout will have some inconsistencies and these need to be resolved. 

I converted the original BBB files which took me a few days to complete. My advise is generate Gerber files after the final conversion and compare those to the original Gerber files to ensure you haven’t made any mistakes in the conversion. 

Regards,
John




--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/d586a995-398d-4de8-ad07-a2e9b880b393%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

jam...@cladnetwork.com

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 4:23:16 PM3/7/17
to BeagleBoard
Hi John,

Thank you for the advice on the conversion process. 

I created this post after attempting to convert the .brd file available on the official BeagleBoard wiki using Altium, Ltd's instructions on how to do so (see here, I am using AD16). Converting to ASCII (.alg) is not possible because I do not have Cadence Allegro (the Altium, Ltd-supplied batch file appears to use Allegro to open "file.brd", and then save it as "file.alg"). BeagleBoard does not seem to supply the design files in this format. I have yet to find the files in ASCII format at this point.

-James

John Syne

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 5:11:31 PM3/7/17
to beagl...@googlegroups.com
Hi James,

You have two options here. Ask Gerald to provide the ascii version of the PCB or contact your local Allegro or Altium user group and ask someone to do the conversion for you. 

Regards,
John




Gerald Coley

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 5:15:33 PM3/7/17
to beagl...@googlegroups.com
It has already been done, minus a couple of small changes. I suggest you start with what has already been done and cleaned up. A basic ASCII conversion has a lot of things that require clean up.


Gerald



Regards,
John




To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/A9A16055-5ACD-47C8-B8EC-4E69489F37AC%40gmail.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.



--

John Syne

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 5:35:33 PM3/7/17
to beagl...@googlegroups.com
Yeah, I think the OP was asking for BeagleBone Green.

Regards,
John




Gerald Coley

unread,
Mar 7, 2017, 5:42:21 PM3/7/17
to beagl...@googlegroups.com
Oh, OK. I picked up BeagleBone Black in the thread.

I am sure Seeed will provide the needed information with the file already converted and cleaned up in Altium.

Gerald



Regards,
John




--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beagleboard/2185A428-91C0-4D1F-9D0B-183B0044B2BE%40gmail.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

hjpi...@gmail.com

unread,
Aug 18, 2017, 3:37:03 PM8/18/17
to BeagleBoard
Hi One question, somebody please help do seeed provide full orcad source files of their beaglebone green wireless? i dont find them... 

Regards,
John





Regards,
John





--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard...@googlegroups.com.

--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard...@googlegroups.com.

--
For more options, visit http://beagleboard.org/discuss
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BeagleBoard" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to beagleboard...@googlegroups.com.

Mark Emerson

unread,
Sep 10, 2018, 8:09:26 AM9/10/18
to BeagleBoard
Also looking for orcad/allegro files for the beaglebone green wireless or the beaglebone black wireless. Any help is appreciated. 

Thank you,

Mark 

Mark Emerson

unread,
Sep 10, 2018, 11:25:22 AM9/10/18
to BeagleBoard
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages