[PCB_FORUM] Re: ICU2004 - PCB Top 5 Issue's
- From: "sureshbabu" <suresh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <icu-pcb-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 14:32:53 +0530
ConceptHDL:
Zoom-In and Zoom outs:
The Middle mouse button should be made extensively useful for Zoom-in and
Zoom out of the Work area. The strokes 'z' present now are sometimes very
clumsy to be used.
Searchable PDF Outputs and more legible texts:
The text in PDFs Output on Windows platform should be searchable. Many
customers require that they search to a particular Reference Designator but the
output is only graphical. And also the pages output are much denser and zoom-in
and zoom-outs in Acrobat are very slow even when a nominal 300dpi resolution is
used. Sometimes when a 6-page Schematic is output with 300dpi resolution one
sheet in the set has all the text and graphics appearing blurred even when the
Text and line width settings in all the pages are set to the same size.
Importing graphics from external files:
Graphics such as customer logo should be made easily importable from
external files such as DXF, BMP, etc into Concept Schematic and also into the
Symbol Editor. Creating all the graphics using Concept wire entities is not
user-friendly. Or rather than this the ability to import the bit-maps, jpegs
and gif files as raster images into the tool (As in AutoCAD) and allowing them
to be resized and directly printable will be more useful.
Capture:
Pin-numbers and Pin-names derived from External Tools...
METHOD1: There should be someway of deriving the Pin-numbers from the
Allegro Footprint as it is present in ConceptHDL. The present method in Capture
requires the user to type both Pin-numbers and Pin-names for each and every pin
and the whole process is cumbersome with the Edit Properties dialog for a part
with a large Pin-count.
METHOD2: Or an Alternate method might be...The Edit properties dialog
should accept a column Input from any External Spreadsheet editor for the
Pin-names and Pin-numbers. That is the buffer storing the values should be MORE
OPEN, NOT HIDING what it has copied.
For Example,
A list such as TRING_01_1
TTIP_02_0
SDA
SCL
Should be easily readable from a column of any external Spreadsheet.(like
Excel)
The present Edit properties dialog allows a single cell to be copied to
another cell within the dialog which is not sufficient.
Allegro:
Layer Stackup Editing
The Cross-section dialog is at present not too much friendly towards
Adding, removing Layers and Swapping Layers. Particularly when the Layer count
needs to be brought down from say 8 layers to 6 Layers from a board already
containing data in all the layers, Allegro requires all the data in those extra
layers be removed before the those layers are removed. When the user has
already expoted the contents of the two extra before-hand as Sub-drawings,
having the user delete the data in those layers is tiresome.
And also there should be some option to Add or delete Layers in a group, that
is more than one layer at a time.
X-net in Constraint Manager:
For the Constraint Manager to identify 2 or 3 net paths as X-net, Allegro
(Design Expert) requires the user to use the Setup Advisor dialog, which
requires to configure the device model of the Component falling in the Netpath
for this purpose. This is totally time-consuming and unnecessary for a User who
does not want any simulation or Analysis to be done on his design. The user
only wants the constraint manager to identify a group of Nets as X-nets just
for the purpose of checking the matched length criteria with another X-net. So
there should be some DIRECT WAY of setting an X-Net in Allegro. And this X-net
when selected using the Show Element dialog should show the total length and
the constituents of each X-net.
Anti-etch lines for Negative planes:
The Anti-etch lines drawn for a particular Subclass(Ex.ANTIETCH/PWR1) as
Allegro line entities should be easily slidable as done for the Clines using
Slide commmand (SHIFT+F6). The present method requires the user to delete or
cut the line and modify it as he wishes which is time-consuming.
DRC Violations for Antietch lines over Antipads:
The Anti-etch lines drawn when working with Negative planes create a
violation with the Antipads present on the Pin and via subclasses. Actually
this should not be flagged as an error since the User draws Anti-etch lines
over Anti-pads just to avoid scrapping off the Copper on the planes. And
flagging an error on this is not good.
No DRC at required areas:
False DRC errors should have some way of making the tool not report them as
errors.
Draft view for any Entity:
Toggling the Fill ON and OFF on the Clines, Shapes, lines and Text should
be enabled. (Ex. As in ProtelDXP)
File open:
The Allegro File menu should remember a list of 4 or 5 (Or as the user sets
it up in the User preferences dialog) recently opened .BRD/.DRA/.MCM files as
other Packages on the Windows platform do.
Specctra:
ESC Key and Specctra stops Zooms
Specctra stops Zoom-in and zoom-outs when the Escape Key is pressed
inadvertently. This should be checked.
Signal Shield parameters encoded
Setting the SHIELD_TYPE and SHIELD_NET parameters in Allegro or in the
Front-end Schematic Editor and invoking Specctra causes the values set for
these properties to be encoded in the DO file that Allegro writes to Specctra.
They are written as some non-readble characters, which Specctra fails to
interpret. The user then must set them again in Specctra.
Regards,
Radha Krishnan G.
Layout Design Engineer
Caliber InfoTech India P Ltd.
35/1, 10th Street, Gandhipuram,
Coimbatore-641012
Tamil Nadu
India
Phone:+91-422-5371411
-----Original Message-----
From: local [mailto:suresh@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 7:51 PM
To: felix@xxxxxxxxxxxx; grk
Subject: Fw: [PCB_FORUM] ICU2004 - PCB Top 5 Issue's
----- Original Message -----
From: sureshbabu
To: felix@xxxxxxxxxxxx ; grk@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 7:47 PM
Subject: [PCB_FORUM] ICU2004 - PCB Top 5 Issue's
Dear PCB Forum Member,
The International Cadence Users Group PCB SIG is now soliciting input
for this years PCB Top issues. Now is your chance to influence the
functionality of the Cadence PCB products. This year we are doing things a
little differently than previous years by having individual Top Five issue
lists for the following Allegro Platform products: Concept HDL, Capture/CIS,
Allegro, APD, SpecctraQuest/SigXP/CM and Specctra.
The schedule will be as follows:
Input Begins: June 22, 2004
Input Ends: July 19, 2004
Top-5 Voting Begins: July 26, 2004
Voting Ends: August 6, 2004
Results Published: TBD
Cadence's response to the Top-5 Issues will be shown as a presentation
at the 2004 International Cadence Usergroup Conference and shortly there after
the responses will be posted at http://www.cadenceusers.org. Only the
responses, and not the entire presentation will be posted.
Please visit the following link to submit issues for this years Top 5 voting.
http://www.cadenceusers.org/sigs/pcb/pcbIssuesSubmit2004.html
In addition please checkout our website for Conference Updates, Schedule and
Registration Specials
We are looking forward to hear from you
ICU PCB SIG
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