By clicking the “Next” button, the wizard takes us into the “Import Data” step. Although the parameters that we are going to enter can all be done manually, the wizard simplifies the process and combines it all into one menu. As you can see in the picture above, we browsed to the directory that we wanted to store our design, gave the name “Example” to the design, and selected as the drawing type, “Board (wizard).” Although we could have chosen the board option without the wizard, this will allow us to quickly create a very simple board outline example.Īs you can see in the picture below, the board wizard takes us through the creation process of a board outline very easily. In our case we clicked on “New” under “Start Design,” which brought up the “New Drawing” dialog box. The Design Start Page in Cadence Allegro PCB Designerīy clicking on the “Start Page” tab, you will bring up the design start options where you can select the design you want to work on. You also can navigate to a different design to open, or as we are going to do, open up a new design. To save you time when working on a large project, the PCB Editoropens up to the last design that was worked on. Remember, your list will probably show different tools to work with. Clicking on the “PCB Editor 17.4” icon brings up the same product choice menu, and we will select Allegro Venture PCB Designer Suite from the list. These choices could include Allegro Sigrity SI, Allegro Sigrity PI, Allegro Physical Viewer Plus, Allegro Venture PCB Designer Suite, or whatever tools you have licensed in your system.įor our purposes though, we are going to access the design tools through the desktop icon. brd, and Cadence will pop open a menu allowing you to choose which version of the tools that you want to use. For instance, to open the PCB editor, you simply would click on. One of the nice things about Cadence is that you can open the tools by simply clicking on the appropriate file. brd: This is the main board file for PCB layout.Įach of these files can be named as you want, with the file type being designated by the dot extension. psm: The binary equivalent of a drawing file, and represents the footprint package’s physical shape in layout. dra: A drawing file used to create symbols, such as footprint packages for layout. We won’t get into all of the file types within the Cadence design system, but here are a few that you may see when you open an Allegro design directory: How to Start with Cadence Allegro and Understanding Its File StructureĬadence Allegro uses plenty of different file types in the design of a printed circuit board, and it will create many as well. So let’s take the lid off of this box, and start exploring the wonders within Allegro version 17.4.
Sprint layout board outline how to#
That’s where we are going to help, by giving you a simple introduction on how to start with Cadence Allegro. To support this level of technology however requires a lot of input from the designer, and there are a lot of different features and options in the user interface to learn how to use. It carries within it enough power and flexibility to handle anything that you will ever design. Simply trying to open a new design can be a challenge if you’ve never worked with this system before.Ĭadence Allegro is flat out one of the best PCB layout tool systems that you can use today. Just looking at all of the functionality in the menus is exciting, until I realized that I don’t know where to start. I have found some of these same emotions stirring within me when working with a new PCB CAD system for the first time. There was also a feeling of apprehension as I wondered how in the world I would ever be able to fit all of those little tiny plastic pieces together into just one model. When first opening the box of a new model, there was such a feeling of joy looking at all of those little tiny plastic pieces. While growing up, I really enjoyed building model planes, cars, and ships.