[PCB_FORUM] Re: ICU2004 - PCB Top 5 Issue's
- From: Andy_Kulik@xxxxxxx
- To: icu-pcb-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 08:39:55 -0400
Hello Suresh,
please submit your issues for this years Top 5 Voting at the following
website.
http://www.cadenceusers.org/sigs/pcb/pcbIssuesSubmit2004.html
The link to the submittal page is at the bottom.
Sending it to the forum is a great idea, but will not get them on the
voting list.
Thanks
Andy
sureshbabu
Sent by:
06/24/2004 05:05 AM
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Subject
[PCB_FORUM] Re: ICU2004 - PCB Top 5 Issue's
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,
Suresh
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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