Cadence Allegro

PollEx PCB supports Cadence Allegro files such as binary and ASCII files.

  1. From the menu bar, click File > Import ECAD > Cadence Allegro.
    The Import from Cadence Allegro dialog opens.
    • Allegro Binary File: Select the target binary file *.brd or *.mcm to import. To import binary files, you need to set the Binary Reading Option in the User Defined Setting dialog.
      • Panel: To import as a panel data, select a *.geom file of the panel data.
    • Allegro ASCII Files: Select the target ASCII file *Geom.txt to import.
      • Panel: To import as a panel data, select a *.geom file of the panel data.
    • Allegro Fabmaster File: Select the target fabmaster file *.txt or *.cad to import.
    • User Defined Setting: Specify parameters for data importing options.
  2. The User Defined Setting for Cadence Allegro dialog opens.
    • Import Type
      • Read from Binary File: Support default as Allegro binary file reading.
      • Read from ASCII File: Support default as Allegro ASCII file reading.
      • Read form Fabmaster File: Support default as Allegro Fabmaster file reading.
    • Binary Reading Option: Import with an Allegro binary file (*.brd).
      Note: The Binary Reading Option only works on a machine which Cadence Allegro installed. Otherwise, this feature will not work.
      • Path to the extracta.exe: If you want to use the way of reading binary file, set executable command file, extracta.exe path. Example: %ALLEGRO_INSTALL_DIR%\tools\pcb\bin
      • If the extracta.exe file is not found in the user-specified path, it will refer to the Allegro default path. (%CDSROOT%\tools\pcb\bin or %CDSROOT%\tools\pcb\bin)
        Note: Extracta.exe is provided by Cadence Allegro. It extracts the desired format from the design data and exports it as a text file.
      • Path to the Control File: To use Allegro ASCII extraction command, extracta.exe, you need to use control file for extract ASCII file. Set the path for control file. In general case, this file is in C:\ProgramData\altair\PollEx\<Version>\Share\AllegroExpansion_ExtractCommandFile163
        Note: The control file is provided by Altair PollEx. It contains the information necessary for extracting ASCII files through the extracta.exe command.
    • Options
      • Allow Break Component: Check when user wants to import Break Component.
        Note: The edited Footprint Library on the PCB Layout is recognized as a Break Component.
      • Higher than Version 16.3: Check this option while reading upper Allegro version than 16.3.
      • Add suffix “Manufacturing” for the manufacturing related layers.
      • Define Part Name: Set the ECAD Part name with a Property or Parameters value.
    • Layer Set-Up: Set Allegro layers’ name which will be used as PDB’s component related layers for silkscreen, component outline layer.
      Note: The Board Layer setup accepts multiple layers.
    • Apply to Environment Setting: Apply settings to the environment setting.
      Note: In order to use the cross-probe with Allegro(Link to ECAD) in PollEx PCB, you need to copy the 'allegro.ilinit' file to Cadence installed directory.'allegro.ilinit' file in the "C:\ProgramData\altair\PollEx\<version>\Share" directory to "%CDSROOT%\share\local\pcb\skill"