RE: [PROTEL EDA USERS]: PADS ASCII netlist reference designator bug - is there a workaround?

["Drew Lundsten" <drew@ccpu.com>]

It's very clear that the Protel "PADS ASCII" netlist output, as it stands,
is flawed - when the reference designator is 8 characters long Protel cuts
the delimiter (the space between the ref des and the footprint/library
name).

Our current version of PADS cuts off reference designators at the 16th
character, not the 8th. We are okay with having ref des lengths less than 16
characters but not 8.

We have run into no problems whatsoever with long net names. This seems to
be limited to the reference designator itself.

Drew


-----Original Message-----
From: TSListServer [mailto:owner-proteledausers@techservinc.com]On
Behalf Of Michael Reagan
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 6:01 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list proteledausers
Subject: Re: [PROTEL EDA USERS]: PADS ASCII netlist reference designator
bug - is there a workaround?


Drew,
I would look at a couple things
1.  Does Pads allow net names longer than 8 characters
2. Does Pads allow reference designator as long as you have them.

3. I was told by PADS support that they no longer will support their old
netlist format.  The last two versions of PADS used a new format to support
Viewlogic attributes.

The problems you are experiencing probably come from PADs not supporting
their old netlist format .  Personally, I would start taking some of those
PADS files and importing them into Protel and convert them.  You will also
find the same problems with Orcad schematic to PADS now.   PADs is trying to
redirect customers away from ORCAD and outside program created netlist and
attempting to tie in closer with Viewlogic.


Mike Reagan
EDSI


----- Original Message -----
From: Drew Lundsten <drew@ccpu.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list proteledausers
<proteledausers@techservinc.com>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 4:45 PM
Subject: [PROTEL EDA USERS]: PADS ASCII netlist reference designator bug -
is there a workaround?


>
> I am using Protel 99SE for schematic capture and exporting netlists to
PADS
> for layout (at least for big digital boards). I've run into an error and
I'm
> hoping that bouncing it off the user group will result in confirmation and
> workaround!
>
> Here's a sample netlist exported (single sheet, nets/ports global, as
> 'Protel':
>
> [
> JP123456
> test890
> 4 HEADER
>
>
>
> ]
> (
> NetJP123456_1
> JP123456-1
> )
> (
> NetJP123456_2
> JP123456-2
> )
> (
> NetJP123456_3
> JP123456-3
> )
> (
> NetJP123456_4
> JP123456-4
> )
>
> and as 'PADS ASCII': .NET and .PRT files
>
> *PADS-PCB*
> *NET*
> *SIGNAL* NetJP123456_1
>  JP123456.1
> *SIGNAL* NetJP123456_2
>  JP123456.2
> *SIGNAL* NetJP123456_3
>  JP123456.3
> *SIGNAL* NetJP123456_4
>  JP123456.4
> *END*
>
> *PADS-PCB*
> *PART*
> JP123456test890
> *END*
>
> The long reference designator forces the part (JP123456) and footprint
> (test890) to run together and PADS obviously won't import this correctly.
>
> Any advice? Other than to shorten reference designators, of course (not an
> option for some clients).
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Drew
>
>
>
>
>
>