[SOLVED] [ORCAD PCB] Copy between layouts? Or import DXF without losing design?

[Pack34]

I'm mainly an Altium user and I'm having some trouble with adding a logo to a PCB in OrCAD PCB. I went through the process of taking the logo, converting it to a DXF and importing it into the design but when I do that it seems to blow-out everything in that layout file. Even the constrains, stackup, etc.

What I was hoping on doing would be to then just import the logo into a different board file and then copy and pasting it over. But it seems like that doesn't work. I even tried doing it in the same window. So copying the silkscreen, then opening my design, and trying to paste but it's greyed out.

There has to be a way to do this, does anyone know?

[nctnico]

This video should take you through the process step by step:


Basically you need to make a mechanical symbol.

[AndyC_772]

That .bmp import feature looks to be an Allegro thing; it's not in OrCAD PCB Designer.

I use Dave Elder's Logo Maker utility 4.0 (search 'logomaker'), which works perfectly - though it's a bit of a pain to set up and install, that only needs doing once.

[nctnico]

That .bmp import feature looks to be an Allegro thing; it's not in OrCAD PCB Designer.

PCB Editor is Allegro. I just tried in PCB Editor 17.2 and it works just fine (just don't forget to click the import button *). I have used it several times already to put customer logos on a board.

* One of the things about Allegro that gets me every time is needing to click a specific button to do something instead of clicking the OK button (which in Allegro typically does nothing except for closing the dialog  ).

[Pack34]

I was able to get this to work, but it looks like it imports as line segments that aren't filled in. Even though the black and white logo I imported has the lettering filled in.

[nctnico]

I was able to get this to work, but it looks like it imports as line segments that aren't filled in. Even though the black and white logo I imported has the lettering filled in.

The next step is to convert the imported lines to filled shapes. Select 'compose shape' under the shape menu, select the class (board geometry) and subclass (silkscreen top) and click on the lines to convert them to shapes. If you have an object which shouldn't be filled (like the letter O) then click in the part that shouldn't be filled and it will open up.

PCB editor / Allegro uses shapes to make filled polygons and lines to have lines. Sometimes you have to convert from one to the other to do certain operations.

[Alex Eisenhut]

You should create these as a symbol so you don't risk blasting the layout. Makes it so much easier to place and move around.

Also, you can't really paste between instances of Allegro because it isn't using the Windows clipboard system. The copy/paste only stays within that instance of Allegro.

Allegro has its own clip system, it saves the stuff as a file that you can then import elsewhere.

edit: you have to click "incremental addition" when importing a DXF into a layout, otherwise it does that destructive thing. Allegro weirdness.