Allegro Pcb Editor Download
Maryetta Worm
My system has a problem with Allegro 17.2. At first all of the text was to small to read and the icons too small to make out even with the Icon setting set to"large" I was able to resolve the issue by editing the properties of Allegro.exe under the tab compatibility, then selecting "Change high DPI settings", then selecting the check box "Override high DPI scaling behavior" with the setting under "Scaling performed by:" set to "System". This definitely solved the problem when I re-opened Allegro, I was very happy!!!
Until, I opened a sub-menu/drop-down. They open so large on my screen that the buttons at the bottom are not accessible and half of the text cannot be seen. This makes the program unusable. I've loaded the latest ISR and I also tried deleting the allegro.geo file but it had no affect. I'm currently at a total loss with deadlines looming... Help!!!
Change the dpi settings back to default (to start) then restart Allegro, with the latest ISR it should recognise if you are using a 4K monitor and adjust icons and toolbars to suit. (Make sure your graphics card drivers are up to date with the vendor as well). If this doesn't help go to Setup - User Preferences - ui - general and adjust the tbriconsize to suit. You can also adjust the menu font size under ui - font - fontsize, both settings will need a tool restart.
But now I have an requirement that I want to run some SKILL scripts after the PCB Editor has come up. These scripts manipulate the .BRD files automatically without any user intervention. Also since these scripts use axlXXXX functions I cannot add these scripts in allegro.ilinit
I will follow up with you Dave if I need some pointers. For now can you tell me where should this trigger registration code go into, I am perplexed because using axlTriggerSet() which is essentially a SKILL function cannot be used in any scripts that are mentioned in allegro.ilinit (this is what is my understanding.
I am using OrCad trial version 17.4. I have been able to work with OrCad capture without much troubles but whenever I open the pcb editor, the pcb editor window shows up as in the picture below but freezes and doesn't respond
So not the latest but unlikely to cause this. Open a Windows File Explorer window, in the address bar type %HOME% followed by a return. This opens your HOME folder (usually C:\SPB_Data or similar) in here is a pcbenv folder, rename this to pcbenv_old then try and start PCB Editor again.
unlikely to be that, I suspect that anti virus software may have quarantined some of the installation exe's which can cause this issue. Open a Windows File Explorer window and go into C:\Cadence\SPB_17.4\tools\bin and look for ProductServer.exe, if this doesn't exist look at your AV software quarantine folder and see if it's there. If it is restore it and set an exception for the C:\Cadence folder then try and run the tools again.
I want to add, or really append, a new menu item to the Allgro PCB Editor menu. What is the easiest way to handle this without having to modify the installed menu? Maybe someone has an example that I could follow?
Most users just update the main menu file for Allegro "allegro.men" located at %CDSROOT%\share\pcb\text\cuimenus or copy it to a different location for modification then retarget their MENUPATH variable in Allegro to the updated menu. All of this is really not recommended because your updates could be overrriden during a software update or your locally update Menu file could become out of date which could lead to software issues.
There is SKILL AXL functionality in Allegro 16.3 forward which allows you to add menus/append your own menus to the Cadence default menu dynamically during startup. This eliminates the need to maintain and support a local Allegro.men file or update the Allegro.men in the Cadence software hierarchy. You can get some background information about the function "axlUIMenuInsert" in %CDSROOT%\share\pcb\examples\skill\DOC\FUNCS (File name: axlUIMenuInsert.txt).
To demonstrate this new functionality I created a small example of the SKILL Code and attached it to this post:
1.) Unzip the ZIP file in your local C:\ folder will create the folder "C:\Dynamic_Menus" with two folders "PCBENV" and "SKILL_Lib".
2.) Add or Update your Windows Environment Variable "ALLEGRO_PCBENV" and point to the path "C:\Dynamic_Menus\PCBENV"
3.) Open up Allegro and you will find "Valor Tools" and "SKILL Tools" menus.
One more question. Is there any easy way to control which menus load with which tools? For instance, my custom Grids menu would be useful in PCB Editor and PCB Librarian, but custom manufacturing menus would not really apply to PCB Librarian, so I really would rather that menu only show up in PCB Editor.
I wrote a little skill routine. It works but when it is finished, I have to end each other commands with done before being able to call the next one ("Finish current command before starting new command")
If I run other skill routines, when I finish it, this strange behaviour disappears.
So, something in these other routines si needed in the new one to avoid this behaviour.
But in my stop/cancel I have a axlCancel(Finish)EnterFun, an axlClearSelSet but nothing put Allegro back to normal.
I saw that my stop routine set some variables to nil but if I go to skill mode in allegro and display these variables, some are not set like they should be after a stop....
Any help would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks.
thanks for this. that helps me not to crash Allegro while forgetting to finish the active command by launching my routine.
But I still have the problem that at the end of my routine, I hhave to "done" all commands to be able to get next one.
How are you starting the command?
If you put a procedure that calls axlShell("done") into a command register, then the command is called automatically when starting a new command.
procedure(MYFinishCommand()
axlShell("done")
)
axlCmdRegister("mycommand" 'MYCommandStart ?doneCmd 'MYFinishCommand ?cancelCmd 'MYFinishCommand)
This also automatically makes a context menu (Right mouse click) with "Done" and "Cancel" in it.
I also have same problem. In my skill code , I use ?cmdType "general" mode for pupose use axlShell ("move*******"). How I can finish current allegro editor command before run my skill command by skill?
I have a pcb design where the pins in the previous version of this design were actually diff pairs. In the latest revision of this design, these pins have been changed to single type nets, not diff pairs anymore.
In the constraint manager I tried to delete the diff pair group but the delete button is greyed out. I tried unfixing the nets and symbols which are attached to these nets but still cannot delete them.
On the tool bar in the pcb editor go to "Logic > Assign Differential Pair. In the window select the diff pair name and click on it so it is highlighted. Click Delete button to remove it then hit apply then ok.
Hi, Let me ask how the diff pairs were defined on your design. Were they defined in the schematic or directly on the board. If done in the schematic using capture by any chance were you possibly using the capture constraint manager ?.
By what you write it sounds like the diff pairs are locked in some fashion. Other things you can try is launch allegro as an administrator and do a database check to make sure there is no corruption with the database.
The diff pairs were originally defined in Allegro Pcb Editor. We have tried fixing this issue in the schematic by changing the netnames in the schematic generating a new netlist but that did not work. We use EDM to store our designs, etc so not sure what I would need to do to have administrator rights. It seems odd that we cannot change the netnames in the schematic and then delete the diff pair name in the layout side to fix this issue. Seems like the nets are fixed in some way, I had unfixed the nets and symbols that the nets are connected to but it did not work.I will keep trying. Thanks for the assistance.
The Altium Designer Import Wizard can directly import Allegro ASCII format PCB files (*.alg). To import a binary Allegro PCB (*.brd) or footprint (*.dra) file, the file must be translated from binary to ASCII. The binary-to-ASCII translation is performed by the Cadence utility called Extracta, a configurable command-line utility that is capable of extracting and translating data from the binary PCB file, with the extraction process controlled by a Command file that details the data required to be extracted. Learn more about Extracta.
Extracta will only extract data from Allegro binary PCB (*.brd) and footprint (*.dra) files whose version is the same as, or lower, than the version of Extracta being used. To check the version of Extracta, open a Windows Command prompt and enter Extracta -version.
Note: If this command fails it may be that Extracta.exe does not have the correct Windows Path defined, refer to this Altium Knowledge Base article for detailed information on configuring the Path System Environment Variable for Extracta.
If Altium Designer is installed on the same PC as Cadence Allegro, the extraction process can be handled automatically by the Altium Designer Import Wizard. The process of running the Wizard is outlined below. Note that the Wizard also performs file version checking, Allegro files up to 17.4 are currently supported by the Wizard.
If Extracta.exe is not installed on the same PC as Altium Designer, you can manually run the extraction process on the PC where the Extracta utility is installed. Altium Designer runs the extraction process using the following batch file and extraction command file:
where your_file.brd or your_file.dra is the name of the binary file you want to convert. Surround the filename with double quotes if the filename contains spaces, for example Allegro2Altium "your file.brd".
If you attempt to import a binary Allegro Design File (*.brd) using the Import Wizard and you do not have Allegro installed locally, the import process is suspended and a warning dialog is displayed. In this case, import an ASCII version of the design file that has been created through the Allegro ASCII file extraction process (as outlined above).
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