EEVblog Electronics Community Forum

Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => KiCad => Topic started by: GiskardReventlov on April 17, 2014, 08:26:01 pm

Title: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: GiskardReventlov on April 17, 2014, 08:26:01 pm
I have allegro board file that I'd like to read into kicad. Is it possible? Anyone done it or know how?
Should I abandon hope?

The essence of a board, here's my guess.

part names
part positions
part dimensions
board dimensions
layer details

From my naive point of view it seems that a board file for one package will contain the same data as a board file from another with only the organization of the data differing.  Sounds like a converter would be doable.
So how naive am I?
Title: Re: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: GiskardReventlov on April 19, 2014, 02:01:58 am
I found this program but I don't see any mention of allegro.

https://github.com/upverter/schematic-file-converter/

Is there another name allegro goes by?  I found out allegro is by company called cadence.

I did try to read the board file into kicad but got an error.
Title: Re: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: miguelvp on April 19, 2014, 03:19:12 am
Quote from: GiskardReventlov on April 19, 2014, 02:01:58 am
I found this program but I don't see any mention of allegro.

https://github.com/upverter/schematic-file-converter/ (https://github.com/upverter/schematic-file-converter/)

Is there another name allegro goes by?  I found out allegro is by company called cadence.

I did try to read the board file into kicad but got an error.

Cadence bought OrCad so they have bidirectional integration with this:

http://www.cadence.com/products/orcad/orcad_capture/pages/default.aspx (http://www.cadence.com/products/orcad/orcad_capture/pages/default.aspx)

Also Allegro can export to:
–– Capture
–– EDA XML
–– CSV
–– Mentor DxDesigner
–– Design Architect
and import from:
–– EDA XML
–– Si2 PinPak XML
–– VHDL
–– Verilog
–– Synopsys PTM models
–– CSV and text files
–– Die text
–– Pin grids
–– Pin tables
–– Cadence OrCAD Capture
–– Mentor Graphics DxDesigner
–– Mentor Graphics Design Architect
–– Allegro Package Designer
–– FPGA (Xilinx, Actel, Altera)
–– IBIS
–– DML

http://www.cadence.com/rl/Resources/datasheets/allegro_pcb_lib_xl_ds.pdf (http://www.cadence.com/rl/Resources/datasheets/allegro_pcb_lib_xl_ds.pdf)

So I guess you will need someone with Allegro to export to DxDesigner, or OrCad when they start that work.

In the meantime there is a free viewer but that probably won't help you much.

Edit: but in case the viewer helps, here is the official link:
http://www.cadence.com/products/pcb/Pages/downloads.aspx (http://www.cadence.com/products/pcb/Pages/downloads.aspx)

Name is: Allegro/SIP/MCM FREE Physical Viewers 16.6

You might find it on other places but I wouldn't trust not known downloads for executables.
Title: Re: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: GiskardReventlov on April 19, 2014, 04:47:20 pm
Quote from: miguelvp on April 19, 2014, 03:19:12 am
Name is: Allegro/SIP/MCM FREE Physical Viewers 16.6

I guess that it's called a viewer it probably does not have any export or save features.

I guess the thing to do is to try to get the author to save in a more portable format.
Title: Re: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: GiskardReventlov on April 19, 2014, 08:09:32 pm
If you have allegro and know how to save to a file that kicad can use it would be great!

I tried to attach just the board file but there's a single-file size limit of 1000K here so here's the link.
This files contains yet two more zip files.

https://github.com/CircuitCo/BeagleBone-Black-A6/blob/master/BBB_PCB.zip
Title: Re: Possible to read allegro board file into kicad?
Post by: timofonic on June 07, 2016, 02:15:23 am
Any news about this?