Capture netlist to PowerPCB

[Ryan Marston]

Tom,

I posted this on the list server, but maybe you could help too. I'm looking for any instructions on how I'm supposed to get get my netlist from Capture into PowerPCB. I'm new to capture and I created a simple design to "try it out". I set my footprint names for my components in capture and made sure they matched the decal names in PowerPCB. I tried to send a netlist (I'm not sure if I did it correctly) and got tons of errors saying it couldn't find the Part Types. I know I'm doing something wrong.

Any help would be great.

[Tom]

Ryan,

We have 15 seats of OrCAD here and we've got the interface nailed down pretty good. First, use the attached OrCAD netlister. I put both V3 & V4 in the Zip File. Put these in your C:\Program Files\OrCAD\Capture\Netforms> folder. Then when you create a netlist use this netlist format.

After we get the preliminary netlist into PowerPCB, we us Netcheck Tools by CADPRO Systems (858.695.9900 Michael Maung) to create all ECO's. This program creates a difference list and an ECO file. You create the ECO file by creating a netlist from PowerPCB and compare it with the new netlist from OrCAD. We get new netlists on almost every design daily and sometimes several new netlists a day on the same design. We just run Netcheck Tools everytime and Import the ECO.

OrCAD creates it's own netnames for unassigned nets and everytime you extract a new netlist OrCAD renames all those netnames. Netcheck Tools compares the contents of the nets and renames the PowerPCB netnames to always match the OrCAD netnames. It also does a really good job of not ripping up all the traces on your design when you import the ECO. It also will update Decal changes, additions and deletions.

But, it sounds like you cannot even get a netlist into PowerPCB to begin with so I would like you to e-mail me your "Test Schematic" so we can look at how you setup your OrCAD Symbol Attributes. We'll send you back an e-mail with the problem fixed and an explaination on what you did wrong.

[Ryan Marston]

thanks Tom I will try using the netlister you sent.

I was finally able to get the netlist into PowerPCB. I was naming the PCB Footprint in Orcad to the PCB Decal name in PowerPCB instead of the Part Type name.

I do have another simple question on this though. If I was to send my Capture schematic to someone else, what file(s) would they need? I see a lot of different extensions in the folder I originally put it into.

Also, am I assuming correctly that Netcheck tools is the only way to correct my PCB file in PowerPCB if I make changes to the actual schematic in Capture?

I really appreciate your help. As you can tell, I clearly lost my battle between PLogic and Capture.

Thanks

[Tom]

Ryan,

The OrCAD .DSN file is all you need to send anyone. It's just like a PowerPCB database. It has all the Libraries and attributes in the database.

Netcheck Tools is not the only way to create ECO files. You can use the PowerPCB ECO Gen.

[ltrakal]

hey Tom ihave a question about Orcad, viewdraw and powerpcb. right now we have just 3 seats of orcad here but we are planing to move to dxdesigner becuase they only have here orcad capture, not cis and i need to start making a database with components...the hing is what the tools that we have now if i make a netlist i can't go back from powerpcb to capture and i saw dxdesigner working togheter with pads and i like it, you can go back and forward whenever you want, so since they have to buys more seats of capture maybe is better to go and buy dxdesigner...What do you think about this product?

Laszlo

[Ryan Marston]

This is a very good question. Is DxDesigner as versatile as Capture? Could any joe schmo use dxdesigner easily like they could capture?

[Tom]

The future is Viewdraw/DxDataBook/PowerPCB/BlazeRoute/CAM350. These products will all be seamlessly tied together with high speed design rules. They are not seamless today, but the sooner you get to know the products the better off you will be. We have 10 seats of Viewdraw and 5 seats of DxDataBook but we are not implementing it until they fix all the bugs and the interface.

In the meantime we are using OrCAD, but I can see the day when OrCAD is moved aside and the entire Innoveda product line takes over.

[ltrakal]

i actually have a problem netlisting with orcad...i have some boards here that they have some wirebonded components...the engineer want those components in the schematic so we can make bom's, but i have the problem that when i netlist the schematics those components appear there...so how i fixed that is using a hierarchical block...so i know that in dxdesigner i can just netlist to whatever level in the hierarchy i want and then backannotate to the same level, but with orcad i can't do it that, the problem is that i can netlist to the level i want but as soon as i do the netlist orcad save the file and i lost all my other designators in the job, i know i can work with a copy of the file but still can't backannotate for pads...that's one of the biggest reasons why we want to move to dxdesigner.

Laszlo