Cadence Allegro Pcb Design Tutorial Pdf
Rebecca Donnelly
I am new to PCB Editor and I am needing a quick start gude. We have been using layout but that product has been discontinued. The design process in PCB Editor seems to be very different than Layout so I'm having problems getting started.
We are also moving from Layout to PCB Designer and I have just rewritten the tutorial for my laboratory course. I've attached it in case you are looking for a *very* simple introduction to PCB Designer. The tutorial is written for second-year undergraduates and contains revision material for electronics, Capture and PSpice, so please don't feel insulted. It is their first exposure to PCB design. This is the version for demonstrators (instructors), which includes some tips for when things go wrong.
The handout includes a lot of local material because we have designed a library of footprints for manual construction by inexpert students and our in-house processing of PCBs is primitive. If people find the document useful, I'll take out the local stuff.
Whilst the Cadence OrCAD and Allegro tools are designed to solve the most complex of engineering challenges, those features will not be looked at in this tutorial. It is intended to cover the fundamentals
Note: This circuit and associated notes are provided for reference only without any assurance of practical application. Parallel Systems accepts no responsibility for the design, IP or physical products made from this design. It is intended for training purposes only.
Copyright 2022, Parallel Systems Ltd.
The translation of Cadence Allegro Design files can be handled by Altium Designer's Import Wizard. Complete flexibility is found in all pages of the wizard, giving you as little or as much control as you would like over the translation settings before committing to the actual translation process.
Allegro ASCII Extract files (*.alg) can be created by running a batch process on an Allegro machine. See Using ASCII Conversion to Import Without Allegro. The ASCII files can then be translated, on machines without Cadence Allegro PCB Editor installed, to Altium Designer PCB files (*.PcbDoc). The benefit of this, is that you only need one licensed copy of Cadence Allegro PCB Editor to convert all of your designs into Allegro ASCII Extract files (*.alg), which can then be distributed to other team members for translation.
A Log Report in ASCII file format (*.LOG) is generated for each translated Allegro PCB file. This log is saved in the \Imported sub folder of your original Allegro files. Open the Log Report after translation in a text editor to examine the details.
Specify Polygon Connect and Plane Connect Options for the PCB import process. Enable the Import Auto-Generated Copper Pour Cutouts option to import the voids that are auto generated in Allegro PCB Editor as cutouts when the file is translated. The default options are displayed below.
All used Allegro PCB layers must be mapped to an Altium Designer layer prior to import when using the Import Wizard. Layer Mapping is a mapping between the names of the Allegro PCB layers and Altium Designer PCB layers.
Default mapping is provided by the Import Wizard to build the layer mapping for each PCB. Layer mapping can be customized for each of your designs to be imported. You may wish to import multiple Allegro PCB designs and map the same Allegro layer to the same Altium Designer layer. You can set your layer mapping once and use this layer mapping for all of your files to be imported.
The advantage of importing in this manner is that batch layer management can save time when importing multiple designs. The disadvantage to using this is that Default Layer Mapping is not always intelligent with differing structures in designs, and so some manual changes may be required.
Use the Menu button on the Import Wizard or right click on the Allegro and Altium Designer Layer Mapping List to manipulate the layer mapping of Allegro PCBs to Altium Designer PCBs. The Invert Selection menu item inverts the items that were selected to not selected and those that were not selected to selected in the Layers list of the Wizard. This is a handy way to quickly choose layers to map to Altium Designer layers.
You can use the Load and Save Layer Mapping Configuration files using the Load Layer Mapping and Save Layer Mapping menu items respectively to quickly apply layer mapping for Allegro and Altium Designer layers.
Each of the imported Allegro Design Files are located in a separate sub directory in a specified Project Output Directory. You can further customize the PCB projects by dragging Allegro Design filenames to other Projects in the PCB Projects list.
The Output PCB Projects page is where each Allegro PCB is converted to an Altium Designer PCB document (*.PcbDoc) in a design project. This process can be time consuming due to intensive tasks such as loading geometry data, translating nets and components and generating vias and copper pour polygons. You can monitor the status bar on the bottom of Altium Designer workspace to see which operation is taking place. Please wait until the Cancel, Back, Next and Finish buttons are enabled to indicate the processing is complete.
If the translation process is successful, the Wizard is completed. You can click to close the wizard and start working on your translated PCB design in Altium Designer. Cleanup will be performed on this translated PCB document first before you can perform edits on it.
Read on to find out more about Altium Designer and your PCB designs.
An Altium Designer workstation that does not have a licensed Allegro installation is able to import Allegro ASCII Extract files (*.alg). The following procedure enables a Licensed Allegro user to convert Allegro binary *.brd files to Altium compatible *.alg files. The conversion must be run on the Allegro licensed machine.
Below are references to other articles and tutorials in the Altium Designer Documentation Library that talk more about the conceptual information as well as walking you through specific tasks. Remember, you can also browse through the Help contents, and use F1 and What's This at any time in a dialog for more details.
EasyEDA Professional Edition supports importing OrCad schematic files and Orcad schematic library files. You need to export the schematic diagram to EDIF format in Orcad first, and export the schematic library file to XML format before you can import it in Jiali Chuang EDA Professional Edition.
Starting from v2.1, it will support importing Allegro files. It needs to use script conversion to convert Allegro to ASCII format before importing.
In the top menu - File - Export - EDIF or Library XML, get the schematic EDF suffix file or the schematic library file XML. If you are exporting XML, you need to manually select the OLB file and output directory to be exported.
Install the plug-in according to the tutorial in the compressed package. Note that plugins may not be compatible with lower versions of Allegro, please verify by yourself.
1) Find the Allegro installation directory, find the directory xxx\Cadence\SPB_Data\pcbenv, and copy all the files in the compressed package to this directory. If the allegro.ilinit file already exists under pcbenv, add a line of code loadi("convertPcbToAscii.ile" "ascii") in allegro.ilinit.
If you have a large number of Orcad schematics or schematic libraries, you can use the following plug-in for batch conversion, which will scan and convert according to the folder and subfolder you choose.
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In the fast-paced world of electronic design automation (EDA), efficiency is paramount. That's where SKILL, the versatile scripting language of the Cadence environment, shines. Whether you're a seasoned designer sculpting microchip masterpieces in Virtuoso or a PCB maestro wielding Allegro, SKILL unlocks a universe of automation possibilities, enhancing your design workflow, and boosting your productivity.
- Master the Basics: Start with the official SKILL documentation, your blueprint for understanding syntax, data types, functions, and control flow. Embrace the interactive Command Window (CIW or Allegro Command window) as your sandbox, experimenting with commands and witnessing their immediate impact.
- Check out the LinkedIn article Details about SKILL Language
- Practice Makes Perfect: Tackle simple tasks - object selection, list, hashmaps, property manipulation, basic calculations - then progressively challenge yourself with more intricate scripts. Build a portfolio of practical automations, each a testament to your growing expertise.
- Community and Resources: Seek inspiration and camaraderie in online forums and communities dedicated to SKILL users. Learn from the experiences of others, share your progress, and tap into a wealth of tutorials, video courses, and training materials offered by Cadence(check out the SKILL Code Library) and independent providers.
- Unleashing Tool-Specific Power: Based on the tool you would be working dive into the world of Virtuoso SKILL, Allegro SKILL etc. Each flavor offers dedicated APIs tailored to specific Cadence tool. Utilize the comprehensive API documentation as your roadmap, step-by-step, to unleash the power of automation for your chosen software. Checkout the LinkedIn article on Types of SKILL in Cadence Using SKILL to improve the productivity of Cadence Virtuoso Platform
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- Evolving Together: Remember, the EDA landscape is ever-evolving. Stay updated with new tool releases, API enhancements, and best practices by actively engaging with the Cadence community and pursuing continuous learning.