Importing Allegro .brd file in Altium

[Spargus01]

Hi everyone,

I need to import a reference design created with Allegro 16.6 (.brd file) into Altium. I initially tried importing the .brd directly, but it fails because Altium requires an installation of Allegro for the process (which I don’t have). I understand Altium can import Allegro files in .alg (ASCII) format, but converting .brd to .alg still requires Allegro and its extracta tool. After searching online, I couldn’t find any method to make this conversion, not even via intermediate ECAD tools (e.g., KiCad).

I also tried opening the file with Allegro Free Physical Viewer, but it gave an error saying the .brd file was saved in an older, unsupported version and needs to be updated using DB Doctor—a tool only available with an Allegro installation.

Are there any other ways or tools I could try to get this .brd file into Altium?

Thank you!

[Ice-Tea]

Register for a free Allegro trial ;-)

[nctnico]

If you PM me, I could give it a try as I'm an Allegro user. I have to warn though that converting designs from one package to another is prone to (subtle) problems.

[Spargus01]

If you PM me, I could give it a try as I'm an Allegro user. I have to warn though that converting designs from one package to another is prone to (subtle) problems.

Thank you, I just PM you.

[phitastic]

If you PM me, I could give it a try as I'm an Allegro user. I have to warn though that converting designs from one package to another is prone to (subtle) problems.

Hi nctnico,
I'm facing the same challenge as Spargus01 above-- trying to move an Allegro 16.6 .brd over to Altium, but learning about the need to have an "extracta" tool available.  Would you be willing to help me as well?  I'm a new user, so suffering from the "no PMs before 10 posts" issue, but if you are able to send me a PM, I'd love to connect.  Thank you