OrCAD Capture: What's New 1 What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 This chapter contains the following sections describing the OrCAD Capture 15.7 (henceforth referred to as Capture) release. ■ New Features and Enhancements on page 6 ■ Multimedia Demonstrations on page 10 ■ List of PCRs Fixed on page 10 ■ For More Information on page 11 July 2006 5 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 New Features and Enhancements Capture 15.7 release brings you the following new features and enhancements: ■ Controlled annotation of parts ■ PSpice ground zero symbol included in Capture library ■ Faster invocation of tool by configuring license feature string ■ Mouse wheel support in schematic page editor and property editor ■ New option to set the drag behavior for objects on a schematic page ■ Support for new unit values in the signal flow properties UI ■ Support for customizing your netlist formatter ■ Support for descending hierarchy using the mouse button double-click Controlled annotation of parts Important This functionality works independently from the existing annotation behavior of Capture. The earlier releases of Capture allowed you to perform only incremental or unconditional annotation on a design or a schematic page. Now, Capture 15.7 allows you to control the way part references are assigned in your design or a schematic page. You can specify a range of part reference values that Capture will use to annotate a schematic page or a hierarchical block in your design. The new enhancement allows you to perform: ■ Schematic page-wise annotation (recommended for flat design): set a part reference range for each schematic page that exists in the root schematic folder of your design. ■ Hierarchical block-wise annotation (recommended for hierarchical design): set a part reference range for each hierarchical block that exists in the root schematic folder of your design. To perform schematic page-wise and hierarchical block-wise annotation, use the Refdes control required check box in the Annotate dialog box. If you select the check box, then the July 2006 6 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 Scope options change to Schematic Pages or Hierarchical Blocks depending on whether your design is a flat design or a hierarchical design (see figure below). Grid displaying all the schematic pages in the root schematic folder of the TUTOR2 sample design Grid displaying all the hierarchical block pages in the root schematic folder of the FULLADD sample design Capture will flash error and warning messages, if it encounters any invalid operation while using this functionality. For example, same part reference range for more than one schematic pages or hierarchical blocks in your design, and so on. For details on how to use this functionality, see section Customizing part references in a design in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. PSpice ground zero symbol included in Capture library Capture 15.7 now includes the PSpice ground (0) symbol in the CAPSYM.OLB, which is the default library in Capture. The PSpice ground (0) symbol is required for running the PSpice analog simulation. Also, a new PSpice project template, AnalogGNDSymbol.opj is included, which by default has the PSpice ground 0 symbol needed for your analog designs. For a description on how to place a PSpice ground (0) symbol in your design, see section placing PSpice ground 0 symbols for PSpice simulations in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. July 2006 7 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 Faster invocation of tool by configuring license feature string You can configure the default license feature string on a computer for faster invocation of tools in OrCAD Capture 15.7. The File menu now has the Change Product command (keyboard shortcut ALT, F, C) that allows you to select a product suite from which to open Capture without having to exit the tool. Also, you can set as default a product suite from which Capture should check out a license each time you start the tool. Setting the default option will not display the suite selection dialog box the next time you start the tool. However, if you want this dialog box to be displayed again then clear the Use as default check box in the suite selection dialog box. Note: The Change Product command is not available if you have a project open in the Capture. Mouse wheel support in schematic page editor and property editor In Capture 15.7 you can use the mouse wheel to scroll through vertically and horizontally in the schematic page editor and property editor. Also, you can ■ Click the mouse wheel button and drag the mouse wheel: ❑ To the right or left in the property editor and schematic page editor to scroll horizontally. ❑ Up or down in the property editor and schematic page editor to scroll vertically. ■ Hold down the CTRL key and roll the mouse wheel to zoom in and zoom out in the schematic page editor and property editor. ■ Hold down the SHIFT key and roll the mouse wheel up and down to scroll through horizontally in the property editor. New option to set the drag behavior for objects on a schematic page Currently, if you drag an object to another location and if that change affects connectivity, Capture flags a warning with a changed cursor ( ) and temporary markers ( ) on your schematic and allows you to complete the operation. Visible and off-screen connectivity changes are saved in the session log. Now in Capture 15.7 you can control the drag behavior using the following UI options: ❑ July 2006 A check box named Allow component move with connectivity changes in the Miscellaneous tab of the Preferences dialog box. 8 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 ❑ A toolbar button The following describes the usage of the UI options: ■ If the check box is selected or the toolbar button is in the state, then Capture will allow you to drag and place the selected part or wire on the schematic, even if it results in connectivity changes. Also, Capture will flag a warning with a changed cursor and will show the temporary markers. ■ If the check box is not selected or the toolbar button is in the state, then the selected part or wire attaches to the cursor and does not get placed on the schematic, if it results in connectivity changes. Also, Capture flags only a warning with a changed cursor and does not show the temporary markers. Support for new unit values in the signal flow properties UI Capture 15.7 has added support for the following PCB Editor unit values for Length in the PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY dialog boxes: ■ Micron (um) ■ Millimeter (mm) ■ Centimeter (cm) ■ Inches (in). Support for customizing your netlist formatter The Others tab (Create Netlist dialog box) in Capture 15.7 has a new text box named Config File that allows you to specify a configuration file that contains the properties to be transferred to the .ONL file. For information on how to write a configuration file and a sample configuration file format, see the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. Support for descending hierarchy using the mouse button double-click In earlier releases of Capture you could descend into a hierarchy by right-clicking on the hierarchical block and then selecting the Descend Hierarchy pop up menu. However, now in Capture 15.7, you can also double-click on the hierarchical block to descend into a hierarchy. July 2006 9 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 15.7 Multimedia Demonstrations This release has the following new multimedia demonstration: ■ Customizing part references in a design To access the multimedia demonstrations, point to the Help menu and choose the Documentation command. The OrCAD Capture Help System - Documentation page opens. Click the Learning Aids tab to view all the multimedia demonstrations. These demonstrations run as stand-alone files from the browser window and require the onetime installation of a Flash plug-in. List of PCRs Fixed The PCRs fixed in this release are listed below. PCR No. Description 843018 Property Editor in Capture 10.3 and higher versions does not contain the NO_SHAPE_CONNECT property in the Cadence - Allegro filter. 461322 Double-clicking the .OPJ file does not open the project in Capture. 804193 While saving the design twice, the Remove Pin Name and Number Movement option appears again. 603716, 713886 Add mouse wheel button support in Capture. 489051 Capture crashes when Design Cache is out of sync. 750557 Backannotation does not work, if the backannotation file (.SWP) is specified manually. 834737 The 16-bit SDT libraries do not translate in Capture 10.5 release. 875373 The error message flashed when a field in the New Part from Spreadsheet is left blank while saving the new part is ambiguous. 717051 Discrepancy in sorting order in the Property Editor. 881275 While creating a Standard BOM Capture truncates the Combined Property String after the apostrophe. 863577 Library Correction utility does not maks power pins visible for a part in the Convert View. July 2006 10 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New 2 What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.5 This chapter contains the list of important Product Change Requests (PCRs) fixed in Service Pack 1 for the OrCAD Capture 10.5 release and information about the new multimedia demonstrations. List of Important PCRs Fixed The PCRs fixed in this release are listed below. PCR No. Description Make the cells corresponding to the PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY properties in the Property Editor editable. Capture 10.3 introduced the support for entering high-speed signal properties, such as PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY, on flat nets. However, there was a limitation that you can specify values for these properties only using the UI. In Service Pack 1 for Capture 10.5, this limitation has been removed and now you can manually enter or edit the cells corresponding to the PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY properties in the Flat Nets tab of the Property Editor window. Moreover, Capture will now flag any syntax errors encountered while applying the high-speed signal properties in the Session Log. July 2006 13 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.5 PCR No. Description You can also use the shortcut keys CTRL+C and CTRL+V to perform standard copy/paste operations in the PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY property cells. From this release, you can open the Propagation Delay and Relative Propagation Delay dialog boxes by using only the following methods: ■ Edit > Invoke UI menu command ■ CTRL+U shortcut keys Select the cell corresponding to the PROPAGATION_DELAY property or the RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY property and choose Edit > Invoke UI command or press the CTRL+U shortcut keys. July 2006 14 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.5 PCR No. Description ■ Popup menu (right-mouse button click) Right-click the cell corresponding to the PROPAGATION_DELAY property or the RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY property and select the Invoke UI command from the popup menu. 800926, 806284 Unable to add high-speed signal properties to a group of flat nets. Capture now allows you to populate multiple consecutive or nonconsecutive cells of PROPAGATION_DELAY or RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY properties at the same time. To do this, select the cells you want to populate and press the CTRL+E shortcut keys. The Edit Property Values dialog box appears. Specify the value that you want to be populated across all the selected cells in the dialog box. 834060 In a standalone Capture installation (without the CIS option), paste operation fails in the Edit Properties and Part Editor dialog boxes. 834746 While opening a Capture 10.2 design containing high-speed signal properties in Capture 10.3, the high-speed signal properties are lost. 835535 Allow selection of multiple pins in the Create Pin Pairs dialog box. The Service Pack 1 release for Capture 10.5 allows you to use the following methods to select multiple consecutive pins in the Create Pin Pairs dialog box: ❑ Using SHIFT+Down Arrow keys ❑ Using SHIFT+Left mouse button click ❑ Dragging the mouse pointer diagonally across the pins appearing in the combo box to select them Similarly, you can use the CTRL+Left mouse button click to select multiple nonconsecutive pins in the Create Pin Pairs dialog box. July 2006 15 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.5 PCR No. Description 843255 Creating a PSpice netlist flags an error, if the Auto Recovery checkbox is checked. 326824 The error message for DSM0020 should be more descriptive. The message should contain the names of the parts that are out of sync in the library. 395506 Placing a part created in Capture 9.2 does not appear correctly. 434504 The Find command when run from the Project Manager does not report the power and ground symbols in a design. 682264 Pressing F1 key launches the Capture online help in minimized mode. 709118 Wire placement does not terminate with a single click. 781860 Unable to search for a specific flat net in a design using the Flat Nets option in the Find dialog box. 785053 Capture crashes while placing a hierarchical pin in a hierarchical block. 799555 Propagation delay property does not get backannotated. 787455 Design Rule Check does not flag warning messages for unconnected off-page connectors in a design. A new warning message: [DRC0040] The off-page connector at the location “x.xx”, “y.yy” does not have any wire connected will appear under the Checking Off-Page Connections section in the Session Log. This warning message appears, if the Design Rule Check encounters an unconnected off-page connector in the design. 726486 Problem editing a part in the part editor. Multimedia Demonstrations This release has the following new multimedia demonstrations: ■ Creating a Bills of Materials ■ Associating a PSpice model to a Capture Symbol To access the multimedia demonstrations, point to the Help menu and choose the Documentation command. The OrCAD Capture Help System - Documentation page opens. Click the Learning Aids tab to view all the multimedia demonstrations. July 2006 16 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New 3 What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 This chapter contains the following sections describing the OrCAD Capture 10.5 release. ■ New Features and Enhancements on page 20 ■ List of PCRs Fixed on page 27 July 2006 19 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 New Features and Enhancements OrCAD Capture 10.5 release brings you the following new features and enhancements: ■ Split Part Symbol Generation Enhancement ■ Archiving Enhancement ■ Differential Pairs Between Flat Nets ■ New Part Creation from Spreadsheet ■ Assigning Signal Flow Properties to a Bus ■ New Check Box in Design Rules Check Dialog Box ■ New Check Box in Library Correction Utility Dialog Box ■ New Check Box in Preferences Dialog Box ■ OrCAD Product Documentation ■ Multimedia Demonstrations Split Part Symbol Generation Enhancement In today’s complex designs, you may have parts that have thousands of pins. Such largesized parts may not fit on a single schematic page. And also you may want to partition a large part based on its functionality and work with individual sections separately. The earlier release of Capture provided a limited capability of performing this functionality using the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet. In Capture 10.5, the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet is significantly improved from the earlier release. Now, the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet allows you to: ■ Specify the number of sections into which you want to split the part. ■ Choose the numbering format that should be used for numbering sections in the split part. For example, you can split a part into multiple sections that are alphabetically numbered. ■ Enter or select a section from a drop-down list you want to associate with a pin. ■ Add new pins to the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet. ■ Delete pins from the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet. ■ Save the selected part as a new part with a new name in the same library with changed property values. July 2006 20 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 To access the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet, select Tools - Split Part or use the shortcut keys, Alt, T, L. Enter the number of sections you want to have in the split part Hide/Unhide a property column by right-clicking on it Select a number format for parts Select a section you want to associate with a pin from the drop-down list Select a row and drag and drop it to the desired location Select a property column and drag and drop it to the desired location Grid displaying warning messages For details, see section To split a part in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide Archiving Enhancement The archiving feature in Capture 10.5 allows you to create a zip archive of the design and all the related files (library, output files, and referenced projects) for archival purposes. Also, you July 2006 21 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 can specify any additional files or directories that you may want to be archived along with your project files. The archiving feature in Capture 10.5 contains the following enhancements: ■ Ability to create a single zip archive of an entire project—You can use this feature to create a zip archive of your project and all the related files, and distribute the zip archive to a co-worker. ■ Using relative paths for all references (for example, "Implementation Path" property of a hierarchical part) in the archived project—The pathnames of the external files and directories in the archive file are relative to the archive directory. This implies that when the archive file is unzipped on a different machine the files and directories retain the original directory structure of the archive directory. ■ The details of the archive session, like archive file name and archive directory appears in the Session Log—Provides you up-to-date information about the status of the archiving process. Use the Archive Project dialog box to archive your project. To access the Archive Project dialog box, select File > Archive Project or use the shortcut keys, ALT, F, H. To create a zip archive for you project, select the Create single archive file check box and specify the zip archive name in the File name text box. For details, see section To create a zip archive for the project in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. You can also add more files and directories to your archive by clicking the Add more files >> button in the Archive Project dialog box. For details, see section To add external files and directories to the archive in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. July 2006 22 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 Differential Pairs Between Flat Nets As high speed design practice is getting common phenomenon in all phases of PCB designing, differential signal technology is used for complementary pair of nets to provide noise immunity. The differential pair nets should be close in length and parallel with a specific distance separation. These kind of rules puts lots of constraints and challenges in PCB designing. Capture 10.5 provides a new interface that allows you to define these properties in your design and transfer these properties to the PCB Editor. You can make changes to these properties either in Capture or in PCB Editor and keep the properties up-to-date. Capture 10.5 allows you to create differential pairs between two flat nets for the Capture - toAllegro PCB Editor flow. In Capture, you define a differential pair between two flat nets by: ■ Specifying the DIFFERENTIAL_PAIR property in the property editor.For more information, see section Specifying the DIFFERENTIAL_PAIR property in OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. ■ Using the Create Differential Pair dialog box. To access the Create Differential Pair dialog box, select Tools > Create Differential Pair or use the shortcut keys, ALT, T, F. In the Create Differential Pair dialog box you can view all the nets defined in your design and create a differential pair between those nets. For more information, see section Creating differential pairs between flat nets in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. You can also create multiple differential pairs between multiple nets simultaneously using the Differential Pair Automatic Setup dialog box. To access the Differential Pair Automatic Setup July 2006 23 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 dialog box, click Auto Setup. For more information, see section Creating differential pairs between flat nets in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. New Part Creation from Spreadsheet The existing New Part option is not suitable for creating parts that contain large number of pins. Adding pins manually and setting properties for all the pins in a large pin count part is time consuming and reduces productivity. Capture 10.5 has simplified the process of creating a new part (single-section/multi-section) in the active library. You can use the New Part Creation Spreadsheet to create new parts. The New Part Creation Spreadsheet has a spreadsheet-like interface that allows you to paste contents from a part data sheet to the spreadsheet. To access the New Part Creation Spreadsheet, select Design > New Part from Spreadsheet or use the shortcut keys, ALT, D, H. For more information about how to use the New Part Creation Spreadsheet to create new parts, see section Creating a new part from spreadsheet in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. Assigning Signal Flow Properties to a Bus You can now use the User Properties dialog box to assign PROPAGATION_DELAY and RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY properties to all the bits of a bus at the same time. Make sure that you use the correct syntax for specifying a value for these properties. If you change the property at the bit level, then the bit level value will be given priority instead of the value at the bus level. Syntax for PROPAGATION_DELAY property is: <Pin_pair>:<min_value>:<max_value> Syntax for RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY property is: ■ For the target pin-pair: <match_group>:<scope>:<pin-pair>:: where, <pin-pair> has the following syntax: <pin1>:<pin2> ■ For non-target pin-pairs: <match_group>:<scope>:<pin-pair>:<delta>:<tolerance> The pin-pairs can only be: July 2006 24 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 ❑ AD:AR ❑ L:S ❑ D:R New Check Box in Design Rules Check Dialog Box The Design Rules Check dialog box in Capture 10.5 has a new check box named Report Misleading Tap Connections that checks for and reports those signals that are wrongly connected through a Bus Tap to a bus. New Check Box in Library Correction Utility Dialog Box The Library Correction Utility dialog box in Capture 10.5 has a new check box named Make All Power Pins Visible. When you select this check box, the Library Correction utility scans through all the parts in the library and changes the Power pins settings for all the non-zero length pins in the library to Visible. Additionally, you can also make all zero length Power pins in the library visible. To do this, you need to check the Change Zero Length Pins to check box and choose an appropriate pin shape option (Line/Short) from the list box. At the end of the updating process this utility displays the following message: " Made all the Power Pins visible. Please close the library and reopen to see the change." New Check Box in Preferences Dialog Box In Capture 10.5, the Miscellaneous tab under the Preferences dialog box has a new check box named Preserve reference on copy. When you select this check box, the part references will be preserved when you paste a part to a schematic page. When you copy a part and paste it on a schematic page, the part will retain the same reference designator as that of the copied part. But, if you place a new part on a schematic page, Capture will assign the reference designator found in the library. For example: U?A or J?P. For more information, see section Miscellaneous tab in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. OrCAD Product Documentation OrCAD Products have changed the way you access product information. The Help menus were simplified to access Documentation, Web Resources, and product information. When you select Help – Documentation, a new Help page interface displays all product documentation in tabbed categories of information so that you can quickly get the information that best answers your information needs. July 2006 25 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 ■ The Documentation tab lists user guide and reference information for key concepts and comprehensive point-of-need information. The Help page opens to this tab by default. ■ The Online Help tab lists the Help files that you can access from the OrCAD Capture environment. ■ The Release Info tab lists release-specific information such as What's New and Known Problems and Solutions. ■ The Learning Aids tab lists self-paced interactive tutorial that you can use to quickly get started with OrCAD Capture and flash-based multimedia demonstrations so that you can see an example of how to use certain features or processes. Multimedia Demonstrations In Capture 10.5, you can watch multimedia demonstrations for the following new features and enhancements: ■ Creating a zip archive ■ Creating a differential pair between two flat nets ■ Creating differential pairs between multiple pairs of flat nets simultaneously ■ Creating a new part from spreadsheet ■ Using the Synchronization commands ■ Signal properties flow from OrCAD Capture to Allegro PCB Editor To access the multimedia demonstrations, point to the Help menu and choose the Documentation command. The OrCAD Capture Help System - Documentation page opens. Click the Learning Aids tab to view all the multimedia demonstrations. These demonstrations run as stand-alone files from the browser window and require the onetime installation of a Flash plug-in. July 2006 26 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 List of PCRs Fixed The PCRs fixed in this release are listed below. PCR No. Description 561740 Double the zoom level to 1008% in Library/Part editor. This will help in designing graphic objects. 650279 PXL-Lite error message does not contain any explanation. 702252 Enhance the Update Cache option to preserve the Reference Designator and Value properties. 706629 Design Rules Check does not report stray nets connected to a BUS. 755278 Export property should have a report PIN_NUMBER and netname. 761532 Unable to edit a part once it has been split. 761812 Pin Shape/Type option should be in Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet. 724163 Relative propagation delay constraints assigned to same pinpairs on different nets. 791974 Capture crashes when importing from EDIF and also the PCB Footprint Property is deleted. 791123 Unable to open design in Capture. The following error message appears “Exception while opening OLE storage”. 788801 Unable to recover corrupt design. 787802 Capture CIS 10.3 crashes when using the Cleanup Cache command from the Design Cache pop-up menu. 780846 The error message displayed during generating a Layout netlist has incorrect text. 777753 Editing properties is slow for large designs in Capture. 766139 While archiving a PSpice project, the simulation output files are archived automatically irrespective of whether the Output files check box is checked or not in the Archive Project dialog box. 762802 The Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet should allow entering Pin Swapping information. 761900 Unable to update the pin names in the Split Part, after the pin list has been updated. July 2006 27 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 PCR No. Description 756925 If a part is pasted on a schematic page with the Auto reference placed part check box checked in the Miscellaneous dialog box, the part references are not preserved. 751138 Pin name not being imported correctly from EDIF to Capture. 750570 Exporting a Capture design to EDIF and then importing the design from EDIF to Capture results in loss of graphics. 748382 The text in the design has squares like "[ ]" replacing spaces. 747491 Capture crashes when using a specific Value property. 746894 Avoid changing of implementation path for design reuse block. 742249 If a design is imported with EDIF, the Title Blocks cannot be printed. 739970 Any changes made to text objects on a schematic page does not get saved by clicking the Save All button. 738529 Preserve Properties option in the Replace Cache pop-up menu should not move properties. 728565 When creating an Allegro netlist, the Output Board File is set to allegro\cisflow.brd in the Create Netlist dialog box. 728533 The Capture CIS splash screen should not obscure working with other applications. 724120 When the ads_sdlog variable is set in Allegro, it breaks backannotation in Capture. 722362 When creating a Allegro netlist, if the OK button is clicked in the error message box, Capture goes into an endless loop. 695825 Multiple Bias voltages on a single net slows down Capture refresh. 684892 Reference designators not shown correctly, if the package is greater than 10. 680915 During the cut and paste operation, the annotation of parts does not work properly. 663622 Problem with incremental annotation with heterogeneous parts in Capture. 659634 When running a design through the Allegro netlister some properties from one net overwrite the properties of another. 658823 No error message appears when the Allegro netlist fails. 658049 Capture-to-Allegro Viewer Plus cross probing issue. July 2006 28 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.5 PCR No. Description 653515 In Capture 10.0, select all components and then going to property editor window takes about 45 seconds for each operation, whereas in Capture 9.2.3 it just comes up. 650289 Parts with color body obscure pin names in Capture 10.0. 574235 Capture symbols over 10 parts per packages appearing incorrectly in the cross reference report. 475945 Design file size increases upon rearranging of nets. 804439 Relative Propagation Delay not getting back annotated. July 2006 29 Product Version 15.7 OrCAD Capture: What's New 1 What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 This chapter contains the following sections describing the OrCAD Capture 10.3 release. ■ New Features and Enhancements on page 6 ■ List of Important PCRs Fixed on page 10 November 2004 5 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 New Features and Enhancements OrCAD Capture 10.3 release brings you the following new features and enhancements: ■ Split Symbol Generation ■ Signal Property Flow ■ Page Navigation ■ Replace Cache with Preserve Reference Designator ■ Selection Filter ■ Support for Latest Xilinx and Altera File Format Split Symbol Generation Capture 10.3 provides a new user interface named Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet that allows you to split a part into multiple sections. You may need to split a part into multiple sections in following situations: ■ Using large pin-count designs—Your design may include parts that have thousands of pins. Such large-sized part may not fit on a single schematic page. To handle such parts, you can split them into multiple sections based on your specification and can place different sections on different schematic pages. This will ease designing. ■ Partitioning a large part based on its functionality—You may like to partition a large part based on its functionality and work with individual sections separately. For example, you may like to create different sections for pins with same voltage rating. To access the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet, select Tools - Split Part. The Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet is divided into multiple rows and columns. Each row in the Split Part Section Input Spreadsheet corresponds to a pin while each column corresponds to properties associated with the pins. The property names are listed as the November 2004 6 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 column header. You can sort a property by double-clicking its column header. You can select multiple Section number cells and assign new section number. 1. Sort on any property, for example Voltage 2. Assign section numbers 3. Click the Split button Signal Property Flow Modern designs often operate at sub-nanosecond edge rates. At such speed, it often becomes important to resolve timing issues early in the design cycle. When coupled with the need to reduce time-to-market, solving high-speed issues requires early identification, analysis and specification often in the schematic design phase itself. Capture is now enhanced to process high speed electrical constraints and take them through a complete front-to-back flow. You can now assign signal flow properties such as PROPAGATION_DELAY, RELATIVE_PROPAGATION_DELAY, and RATSNEST_SCHEDULE from within the Property Editor using new graphical user interface. Capture ensures that the syntax of signal properties is correct and passes only valid signal properties to Allegro PCB Design Editor and Constraint Manager. While importing properties from the property text file, Capture only imports properties with proper syntax and flags error messages in the session log file for November 2004 7 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 properties having incorrect syntax. You can use the Property Editor to reassign properties with incorrect syntax. Note: For more information about assigning signal flow properties, see the Using Capture with Allegro chapter of OrCAD Capture User Guide. Page Navigation You can now navigate between pages in a schematic folder by using the Previous Page and Next Page options in the RMB menu at the page level. F11 and F12 are the keyboard shortcuts for the Previous Page option and the Next Page option respectively. Replace Cache with Preserve Reference Designator You can now ensure that the reference designator remains the same when you perform the replace cache operation on any part. A new check box Preserve Refdes is available in the November 2004 8 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 Replace Cache dialog box, which if selected, preserves the reference designator of parts that you want to change. Selection Filter You can now control the selection of objects on a schematic page during a block select operation by using the Selection Filter dialog box. It provides check box options that allow you to include or exclude objects while performing a block-select operation. For example, if you select the Parts, Nets, and Power/GND check boxes, only these objects will be selected when you perform the block-select operation. You can invoke the Selection Filter dialog box in three ways: ■ From the RMB menu at page level. November 2004 9 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 ■ From the View menu in the schematic page RMB Menu at Page Level Option in the View Menu ■ By using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + I Support for Latest Xilinx and Altera File Format Capture 10.3 now supports new FPGA vendor format in the Generate Part command. You can use Xilinx 6.2i and Altera Quartus II, version 2 and 4 while creating Capture parts. List of Important PCRs Fixed Some of the important PCRs addressed in this release are listed below: PCR No. Description 729057 Capture support for Quartus output files. Xilinx has released a new version of their P&R tool, 6.2i. The PAD file syntax for this release is different from the earlier releases. Capture supports following file formats for creating parts—Xilinx4.1I, 5.2i, and 6.2i PAD files. Capture is also enhanced to support creating parts using Altera Quartus II, version 2 and 4 files. November 2004 10 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 PCR No. Description 725852 Ctrl + C key in Capture does not works in the Enterprise suite. If you are using the PCB Design Studio CIS license, then the Copy operation using Ctrl-C did not work in the schematic editor. This bug is now fixed. 703444 The Generate Part option should allow creating multi-section part Capture 10.3 allows you to section a part. For details, see Split Symbol Generation. 410853 Support for Cadstar netlist V5.0 Capture 10.3 supports pin attribute while creating Cadstar netlist. 725591 Cannot open the OrCAD sample file demob.dsn in the Layout\samples\demob as it is from an OLDER version. 724987 Selecting the Print all colors in Black option in the Print and Print Preview dialog boxes in OrCAD Capture display all values and/or part references on the schematic in black color on a color printer even if colors were used for these values. Capture now prints schematic values in color on color printers and in black and white for black and white printers. 724660 Capture crashes while deleting a page when autobackup is in progress. 724352 Annotation is not similar in Capture Versions 9.2.3 and 10.0 SP1.1. The Reference Designators values have different labels when the same design is annotated in Version 9.2.3 as well as 10.0 SP1.1. 721849 The Define Custom Colors option in all Color boxes is not available. 721079 The Find macro commands, such as FindParts, FindNets, FindOffpageConnectors, FindHeirarchicalPort, FindBookmarks, FindDRCMarkers, FindText, when simultaneously used with the PlaceText command do not function correctly. The text is not placed at absolute location specified by these commands but at a relative position w.r.t. to the Find command. 716739 Capture crashes when you select multiple objects on a schematic page and perform a Cut and Paste operation. 716002 No error message is displayed when there are spaces in the NC property in the Capture-PCB Editor netlist. 715065 File lock mechanism is not working on Windows-XP Pro. November 2004 11 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.3 PCR No. Description 714835 Problem in saving a design file on the network or in Read Only mode. 712220 Off Grid objects in Part Editor do not appear properly. If you edit a part in the Part Editor and turn the grid snap option off and place an object, such as ellipse, off the grid then the boundary of the object causes the part boundary to increase. If you now turn the grid snap option on then other objects will be snapped back to the grid on location and not to the changed boundary caused by previous grid snap option settings. 693144 The warning “POWER_GROUP property is not allowed in chips.prt file” is incorrectly generated. Capture 10.3 generates the above warning when power pins are visible on the symbol and the POWER_GROUP property is defined on the instance. 689072 Include an option to "Replace properties and preserve reference designators” during the Replace Cache operation. 656309 The Browse Spreadsheet is not updated when you first delete, rotate, or mirror an object and then undo the action. 651896 Back-annotation from PCB Editor to Capture produces wrong results when multiple functions, respective pin swaps are performed on unsymmetrical components. 460982 Design size increases after placing a part and then deleting it. 458453 Difference in the Mentor Nelist format between version 9.2.1 and 9.2.3 and later versions. Capture 9.2.3 Netlister incorrectly adds quotes around the node name. 406477 No warning is displayed when you delete an open page from a Schematic folder in Project Manager. 323672 Provide a confirm box for users who want to delete a page from Project Manager. If you are trying to delete an open page, Capture will not delete it and provide a warning that user is deleting an open page. If you try to delete any other schematic page, Capture will seek a confirmation before deleting the page as the action cannot be undone. Capture 10.3 includes detailed warnings and displays confirm dialogs each time you delete a schematic page or folder. November 2004 12 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New 2 What’s New in Service Pack 2 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 This chapter contains the following section describing Service Pack 2 for the OrCAD Capture 10.0 release. ■ List of Important PCRs Fixed on page 13 List of Important PCRs Fixed Some of the important PCRs addressed in this Service Pack are listed below: PCR No. Description 480101 The first invocation of the Place Part dialog box takes very long 488336 The bias display is not updated when a net alias is moved from one pin to another 492724 Incorrect bias point result from PSpice on the schematic 555279 Critical PSpice bias point display problem 656434 Capture crashes while placing a Part from swit_reg.olb 658053, 657761 A blank error message is displayed when a blank PSpice project is created 660736 Error creating netlist file in remote client installation 662005 Capture gives a PSpice Explorer error on opening the Place Part dialog box and then crashes 668671 Capture crashes while descending to a schematic page 681086 Capture crashes while deleting a group of components 682004, 704963 Unexpected error in library November 2004 13 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 2 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 PCR No. Description 684496 Faulty Bias Point Display in Capture 10.0 688841 Occurrence properties lost on deleting a page from Project Manager 694218 Capture crashes on copy paste of a rectangle 696442 Right hand side boundary of a generated part is off-grid 697483 Reference designators do not get wrapped up when BOM is exported to MS Excel and include file is merged 697504 Memory exhaustion error on a design 703008 Deleting a DRC marker resets the reference designators 705290 Creation of Integra netlist not possible after editing a pin and using the Update All option 705354 DRC after replacing cache causes a system error 706549 Memory exhaustion error when opening designs in Capture 706630 The state of the View Output option in BOM generation is not retained 711864 An autobackup with two design files open causes random errors in Capture 711883 The Bill Of Materials opens in the Excel worksheet even when the Open in Excel option is not selected 715065 The file locking mechanism in Capture is not working on the Windows XP Pro operating system 715386 The Bill Of Materials opens in the Excel spreadsheet on alternate invocations November 2004 14 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New 3 What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 This chapter contains the following sections describing Service Pack 1 for the OrCAD Capture 10.0 release. ■ New Features and Enhancements on page 16 ■ List of Important PCRs Fixed on page 17 November 2004 15 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 New Features and Enhancements Service Pack 1 for the OrCAD Capture 10.0 release brings you the following new features and enhancements. ■ Importing Bill of Materials in Microsoft Excel Importing Bill of Materials in Microsoft Excel You can now view the bill of materials for a design in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. There is a new check box Open in Excel in the Bill of Materials dialog box. You can select this check box to open the Bill of Materials in Microsoft Excel. November 2004 16 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 To import the bill of materials in Microsoft Excel 1. Select the Open in Excel check box. 2. Click OK. The bill of materials is displayed in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. List of Important PCRs Fixed Some of the important PCRs addressed in this Service Pack are listed below: PCR No. Description 553374 Properties set as “Do Not display” in the schematic are visible in the DXF output. For example, if you turn off the display of a property in the schematic and run DXF Export, the property continues to be displayed in the DXF output. Service Pack 1 fixes this issue. Note: If you do not want a property to be visible in the DXF output, turn off the display of the property in the schematic before running DXF Export. 388979 Edit a Capture design and generate the Verilog or VHDL netlist. The database is not updated and a few connectivity errors are reported. You need to close the design and open again to update the database. 389770 Capture generates an incorrect PADS2K netlist when one or more buses in the design are shorted. 584493 For zero length pins, pin names and pin numbers are not visible in the DXF output. In the Capture 10.0 release, while placing an orthogonal wire, the last segment was not displayed while you were dragging it. It appeared only when you clicked the schematic. In the Capture 10.0 Service Pack 1, the last segment of the wire appears as you drag the wire to place it on the schematic. 587900 When you drag connected components, the aliases for nets connecting them disappear. 589321 Consecutive cleanup operations on the cache of a design increase the size of the design file. 653539 Duplicate component IDs for components in a schematic. November 2004 17 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in Service Pack 1 for OrCAD Capture 10.0 PCR No. Description 661433 Netlisting in Capture Allegro flow is very slow. 668424 The DRC check for “report visible unconnected power pins” is reported for GND pins only when all the GND pins in the design are connected to a GND symbol. November 2004 18 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 New Features and Enhancements OrCAD Capture 10.0 brings you the following new features and enhancements. ■ Design Level Property Management ■ Unlimited Undo/Redo ■ Label States for What-if Scenarios ■ Enhancements in the Support for Simulation Profiles ■ New directory structure for analog projects that makes it easier to manage files for the project ■ Annotation Improvements ■ Soft Save ■ Automatic Backup of Designs ■ Dynamic Port/Pin Updates on Hierarchical Blocks ■ File Locking for Team Design ■ Ability to Run Multiple Versions of Capture ■ Printing and plotting enhancements ■ Support for Design Reuse in Layout ■ Significant Improvements in Capture-Allegro flow ■ Push Occurrence Properties into Instance Utility ■ Support for Xilinx Design Manager version 4.1 and 4.2 Output Files ■ Improved EDIF 2 0 0 Import/Export Functionality ■ Auto-tiling of Online Help ■ Updated Capture Tutorial November 2004 20 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Design Level Property Management In previous versions of Capture, you could use the property editor to edit properties on individual objects in a design, or on a single schematic page. Capture 10.0 combines various property editing techniques into a single unified property editor that allows you to edit properties at all levels of the design. You can now also edit properties across an entire design or across all pages in a schematic folder. For example, select the .DSN file in the Capture project manager and from the Edit menu, choose Object Properties. All the properties on all the objects in the design are displayed under various tabs in the property editor. Unlimited Undo/Redo The Undo and Redo features in Capture 10.0 allow you to easily correct mistakes, as well as free you to experiment with your design. You can undo/redo commands in the following two ways: ■ Sequentially, exactly one command at a time ■ By using label states Label states act as bookmarks for various stages of design development. You can set label states and use the labels to undo/redo multiple commands at one go. For more information, see Label States for What-if Scenarios. The Undo and Redo functionality is available in the schematic editor, the part editor and the property editor spreadsheet. Label States for What-if Scenarios Capture 10.0 allows you to set markers at specific stages of design development. This makes it possible for a designer to traverse back-and-forth between different stages of design development. This ability to tag a schematic is especially useful when experimenting with what-if scenarios. Enhancements in the Support for Simulation Profiles Capture 10.0 brings you the following enhancements in the support for simulation profiles: ■ Increased reusability of simulation profiles on page 22 ■ Support for profile level configuration on page 22 November 2004 21 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 ■ Changes in Simulation Settings dialog box on page 22 Increased reusability of simulation profiles Previous versions of Capture allowed you to import settings only from a simulation profile that exists in the same project. You can now create a new simulation profile by importing settings from a simulation profile that exists in another project also. This increases the reusability of simulation profiles. For more information, see the OrCAD Capture Online Help. Support for profile level configuration Previous versions of Capture allowed you to configure model libraries, stimulus files and include files only at the global level (applicable to all designs) or at the design level (applicable to all the profiles in a design). You can now configure model libraries, stimulus files and include files at a particular profile level also. For more information, see the PSpice Online Help. Changes in Simulation Settings dialog box The Simulation Settings dialog box in Capture 9.2.3 had three tabs-Include Files, Libraries and Stimulus. In Capture 10.0, the functionality of the three tabs has been merged into the Configuration Files tab. The Configuration Files tab allows you to quickly configure model libraries, stimulus files and include files for the simulation profile from a single UI. New directory structure for analog projects that makes it easier to manage files for the project All files related to analog projects created using Capture version 9.2.3 or older versions were maintained in a single directory. Capture 10.0 introduces a new directory structure for analog projects in which the design level, schematic level and simulation profile level PSpice files are organized in their respective directories. This makes it easier to manage the files for the project. All PSpice related files will be placed under the folder <Projectname>_pspicefiles. For more information, see “New directory structure for analog projects” in Chapter 1, “Things you need to know”, in the OrCAD Capture Online Help. Note: If you open an analog project that was created using Capture version 9.2.3 or older versions in Capture 10.0, you will be prompted to convert the project to the Capture 10.0 format. For more information, see “Conversion of old analog projects to new project format” in the OrCAD Capture Online Help. November 2004 22 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Annotation Improvements While annotating and auto referencing the design, Capture now takes care of the following: ■ Groups multi-section parts with common power connections ■ Includes unused references of a package while doing incremental annotation ■ Supports sequencing of the annotation process in the order of: ❑ pages/folders in the Project Manager window, or ❑ sheet numbers specified in the title blocks of schematic pages. ■ Displays a warning that the schematic and board may go out of sync if the design is reannotated in Capture. If the board exists, you should update the reference designators in the board and run back annotation. ■ With Auto Referencing turned on, when you copy and paste a part instance Capture assigns the next available reference designator value to the pasted part. ■ Supports auto referencing when packaging homogenous multi-section parts Soft Save In the unlikely event that Capture crashes when you are working on a design, you will be prompted to save the design before exiting Capture. This serves as a safeguard against design corruption and ensures that you do not have to redo your work because of the crash. Automatic Backup of Designs You can now configure Capture to automatically backup your design at specified time intervals. You can maintain up to ten backups of the design. This feature allows you to continue working on your design without worrying about saving it explicitly and serves as a safeguard in the unlikely event that your design gets corrupted. Dynamic Port/Pin Updates on Hierarchical Blocks In a design that uses hierarchical blocks, a block and its underlying schematic can go out sync if: ■ new ports are added or changes made to the existing ports in the underlying schematic ■ new pins are added or changes made to the existing pins in the block November 2004 23 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 In previous versions of Capture, it was not possible to automatically synchronize the hierarchical blocks with their underlying schematics. The Synchronize menu items in the View menu in Capture 10.0 allow you to automatically synchronize the hierarchical blocks in a design with their underlying schematic implementations. It is now possible to do the following: ■ Synchronize the selected hierarchical block from the underlying schematic ■ Synchronize the underlying schematic from the selected hierarchical block ■ For complex hierarchical designs, propagate the pin changes of the selected hierarchical block to all the other sibling hierarchical blocks instantiated in the design at any level which have the same underlying schematic. For more information, see “Synchronizing Hierarchical Blocks Across and with Underlying Schematic” in the Capture Online Help. Part Editor Enhancements The following enhancements are available in the Part Editor: ■ Pin Movement Improvements on page 24 ■ Ability to Move Pin Name and Number Separately on page 24 ■ Possibility to do Part per Package Manipulation for Heterogeneous Parts on page 25 Pin Movement Improvements Earlier releases of Capture had the following issues while moving a group of pins: ■ It was difficult to move a group of pins upwards using the mouse. ■ If a group of pins were unevenly placed, and they were cut and pasted to a new location, the spacing would get distorted and the pasted pins would be one grid apart. These problems have been fixed in the Capture 10.0 release. Ability to Move Pin Name and Number Separately Earlier releases of Capture treated a pin, its name and number as a single unit. This meant that whenever you moved a pin, the name and number would also move with it. This sometimes resulted in a symbol or schematic getting cluttered when a lot of pins were placed closely. November 2004 24 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Capture 10.0 allows you to move a pin, its name, and number separately, if you are editing a part instance on a schematic page. Note: You cannot move a pin, its name, and number separately if you are editing a part in a library. Possibility to do Part per Package Manipulation for Heterogeneous Parts In the earlier releases of Capture, it was not possible to delete a specific logical part in a heterogeneous part. With the 10.0 release of Capture, it is now possible to delete a part in a package of a heterogeneous part. File Locking for Team Design Previously, the same Capture design could be opened and modified by multiple users simultaneously. This led to design integrity issues as there was no mechanism to let a designer know that the design was opened by others too. Capture 10.0 ensures that a design can be opened in read-write mode by only one user at a time. If other users try to open the same design, Capture displays an error message that the design can be opened only in read-only mode and that a copy of the design should be made if the user wants to modify the design. Ability to Run Multiple Versions of Capture In earlier releases of Capture, it was not possible to install and run multiple versions of Capture from the same machine. The 10.0 release, with its unique self-registering mechanism, makes it possible to run multiple versions of Capture from the same machine. Printing and plotting enhancements An option to print instances or occurrences of a page in a schematic design is now available in the Print and Print Preview dialog boxes. You can specify one of the following modes in which to print a page: ❑ Inst. Mode (Instance mode) - Enables you to print only the instances of a page in a schematic. ❑ Occ. Mode (Occurrence mode) - Enables you to print multiple occurrences of a page in a schematic. This option is selected by default. November 2004 25 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Support for Design Reuse in Layout When placing and routing a board file, it is common for parts of a board to be identical to previous existing designs. The new design reuse functionality in OrCAD Layout allows you to create reuse modules for circuit replication. Reuse circuits along with the corresponding schematic data may be saved to a directory that acts as a library of reuse elements. The reuse data can then be imported into a design saving valuable time versus placing and routing circuits from scratch. For example, a power supply from a previous board might be identical to a current board file. If the previous and current boards share a common Capture schematic, and if that schematic is properly annotated, it is possible to apply design reuse and extract placement and routing information from the previous MAX file. This type of design reuse is called external design reuse. Design reuse can also be applied to reuse a part of the current board. This type of reuse is called internal design reuse. An example of internal design reuse could be a multichannel amplifier, where the placement and routing for each channel is easily reused. Capture 10.0 provides the Layout Reuse interface through its Annotation mechanism which enables you to do design reuse in Layout through Capture. For more information, see the Design Reuse chapter of the OrCAD Layout User’s Guide. Significant Improvements in Capture-Allegro flow This release contains the following improvements in the Capture-Allegro flow. For more information on these improvements, see Chapter 14, “Using Capture with Allegro”, in the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. ■ Support for pin level property transfer between Capture and Allegro ■ Support for using “Combined property string” to pass user-defined property as PCB Footprint property between Capture and Allegro ■ Inconsistency checks on Allegro netlist immediately after generating Allegro netlist ■ New Library Correction Utility for correcting missing pin numbers and duplicate pin names in Capture part libraries ■ Support for pin swapping across gates of heterogeneous parts ■ No need to assign arbitrary footprint value to Mechanical parts ■ Support for creating pxlBA.txt file in forward mode November 2004 26 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Support for pin level property transfer between Capture and Allegro Earlier versions of Capture did not support transfer of pin level properties between Capture and Allegro. Pin level properties had to be manually assigned in both Capture and Allegro. Capture 10.0 allows the transfer of pin level properties between Capture and Allegro using the Allegro configuration file (Allegro.cfg). For example, suppose that you have specified a property say, NO_SHAPE_CONNECT on a schematic pin. When you annotate the schematic to Allegro, the property is transferred to Allegro. Allegro ensures that no connection is created between the pin (that passes through a shape with the same net) and a shape. Support for using “Combined property string” to pass user-defined property as PCB Footprint property between Capture and Allegro Like other PCB flows, the Capture-Allegro flow now allows you to use the “Combined property string” to pass a user-defined property as the PCB Footprint property for PCB netlist generation. This enhancement gives you the flexibility of defining a user-defined PCB Footprint property specifically for the Capture-Allegro flow. As a result, you can define different PCB Footprint property names for different PCB flows. Inconsistency checks on Allegro netlist immediately after generating Allegro netlist This enhancement ensures that a semantically and syntactically correct netlist is passed to Allegro. This helps you detect and correct design related problems at the netlist creation stage. This is a major enhancement from previous versions, where problems were detected only at later stages in the Capture-Allegro flow. New Library Correction Utility for correcting missing pin numbers and duplicate pin names in Capture part libraries Previously, you had to manually check for and correct missing pin numbers and duplicate pin names in Capture part libraries. Capture 10.0 provides a Library correction utility that allows you to automatically verify whether parts in a library have missing pin numbers or duplicate pin names, and automatically correct the missing pin numbers and duplicate pin names. For more information on the Library Correction Utility, see the OrCAD Capture User’s Guide. November 2004 27 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Support for pin swapping across gates of heterogeneous parts To enable pin swaps across sections of split (heterogeneous) parts in Allegro, a SWAP_INFO property has been introduced in Allegro 15.0. You can use the SWAP_INFO property in Capture 10.0 to define a logical group of parts of a package in a heterogeneous (split) part. This allows two pins having the same PIN_GROUP property to be swapped within a logical group, regardless of the physical availability of the pin in the given part of the package. For more information on the SWAP_INFO property, see the OrCAD Capture Online Help. No need to assign arbitrary footprint value to Mechanical parts With Capture version 10.0, you no longer require to assign arbitrary footprint value to mechanical parts. Support for creating pxlBA.txt file in forward mode Capture 10.0 generates the pxlBA.txt file in the forward mode. If Allegro is not installed on the same system as Capture, you can use the Export Logic command of Allegro on the system where Allegro is installed to create the back annotation files for Capture. During Export Logic, Allegro reads the pxlBA.txt file from the location where the board file resides. If the pxlBA.txt file does not exist at the board file location, Allegro reads the standard pxlBA.txt file located at <install_dir>/share/pcb/text/views. However, this pxlBA.txt file may not have all the properties that you want to back annotate to Capture and some of the properties may get annotated as deleted or with a null value. To avoid this problem, you can copy over the pxlBA.txt file generated by Capture to the board file location, before running the Export Logic command from Allegro. Push Occurrence Properties into Instance Utility Suppose that you copied a circuit or part of a circuit from design A and pasted it in design B. You might see occurrence and instance level properties with different values on the pasted parts in design B. For example, the reference designators of the occurrences and instances may be different. To avoid confusion in the future you have to ensure that each part has only one reference designator by replacing the instance value of the part reference property with the occurrence value of the part reference property for each part. November 2004 28 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 In previous releases of Capture, you had to invoke the property editor on each part, edit the instance and occurrence property values as required, and remove occurrence properties that are not needed. Capture 10.0 provides a utility that automatically: ■ transfers occurrence property values of the part reference and PCB footprint properties as instance level property values ■ transfers all occurrence properties as instance properties, removes all occurrence properties from the design, and sets Capture to update instance properties when the design is back annotated. To run this utility, from the Accessories menu in Capture, choose Transfer Occ. Prop. to Instance, then choose Push Occ. Prop into Instance. Support for Xilinx Design Manager version 4.1 and 4.2 Output Files You can use the output files of Xilinx Design Manager version 4.1 or 4.2 to create parts in Capture 10.0. This enables FPGA designers to use Capture and Xilinx tools seamlessly in their flows. Improved EDIF 2 0 0 Import/Export Functionality Capture 10.0 is integrated with Electronics Tools Company (e-tools) EDIF 2 0 0 programs. The e-tools EDIF 2 0 0 programs support import and export of schematic or netlist view data. The e-tools EDIF 2 0 0 programs are integrated with tools from Cadence and other leading EDA vendors and hence provide a more robust and seamless EDIF 2 0 0 import/export functionality in Capture. Note: In Capture 9.2.3 and earlier versions, the EDIF 2 0 0 import/export functionality was provided by Engineering DataXpress's EDIF 2 0 0 programs. From Capture 10.0, the e-tools EDIF 2 0 0 programs replace Engineering DataXpress's EDIF 2 0 0 programs. For more information on using the e-tools EDIF 2 0 0 programs with Capture, see the e-tools EDIF2CAP (EDIF 200 to OrCAD Capture Schematic Translator) and CAP2EDIF (OrCAD Capture Schematic to EDIF 200 Translator) User’s and Reference Manual November 2004 29 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 Auto-tiling of Online Help If you enable auto-tiling of help, the online help window vertically tiles with the Capture application window. This allows you to view the online help without having to switch between Capture and the online help window. Use the toolbar button to enable auto-tiling of online help and the disable auto-tiling of online help. toolbar icon to Updated Capture Tutorial The Capture tutorial has been updated to include information about the Capture-Allegro flow and Capture Allegro design reuse. The following lessons have been added to the tutorial: ■ Capture to Allegro design flow: This lessons covers the information that you need to successfully use the Capture Allegro flow. ■ Capture Allegro design reuse: This lesson covers the information that you need to successfully create reuse modules in Capture and Allegro. List of important PCRs fixed in OrCAD Capture 10.0 PCR No. Description 364974 Provide a utility to transfer the occurrence level values of the part reference and PCB footprint properties as instance level values. 491263 Display warning when a user tries to annotate again after creating Allegro or Layout netlist. 437716 435683 Capture should prompt for saving any recovered files, and then clean up the autosave directory, if user opts to save the recovered files. 425629 Remove restriction to update the design with changes done as a result of Capture-Allegro back-annotation, which allows user to do pin swap across pins in heterogeneous part. 467247 The pxlBA.txt file should always get generated from an Allegro.cfg file as part of the back annotation process, whether or not the feedback files are being generated by Capture 437045 Raise limit for number of characters node names in SciCard netlist format to 16 characters. 381749 Ability to pass custom pin properties from Capture to Allegro. November 2004 30 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 10.0 PCR No. Description 323878 Provide the ability to change pin shapes for multiple pins. 324440 Provide the ability to remove part sections from heterogeneous parts. 475933 Reduce loading time of configured libraries in Capture. 383616 Provide ability to move pin name and numbers in part editor 346995 Capture should issue warnings when a user tries to open a file which is already in use. 348023 Provide auto-incrementing of reference designators feature to ensure no duplicate references in a design. 422022 Capture has to check for carriage returns in property values November 2004 31 Product Version 10.3 OrCAD Capture: What's New 2 What’s New in OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 Web Update 1 OrCAD Capture version 9.2.3 Web Update 1 includes the following enhancements: ■ Grid spacing on page 19 ■ Auto increment reference designator for pasted parts on page 19 ■ Part selection filter on page 19 ■ Pin swapping across gates of heterogeneous parts on page 20 ■ Miscellaneous improvements on page 20 Grid spacing Capture currently uses the pin-to-pin spacing as the grid spacing for the schematic page editor. Capture now allows you to specify the grid spacing as a fraction of the pin-to-pin spacing. Auto increment reference designator for pasted parts Capture now allows auto increment referencing when you copy and paste a part in the schematic editor. That is, when you copy a part that has a reference designator assigned to it, and then paste that part onto the schematic page, Capture assigns the next available reference designator value to the pasted part. Part selection filter Capture now includes a part selection filter that allows you to restrict part searches in part libraries based on specific criteria. So, for example, if you are a PSpice user, you can restrict your part library search such that only parts with associated PSpice simulation models will be listed. June 2003 19 Product Version 10.0 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 Web Update 1 Pin swapping across gates of heterogeneous parts There is improved functionality that allows for backannotation of Allegro pin swapping information to Capture. Specifically, information for pin swapping across gates of heterogeneous parts can now be backannotated to Capture from Allegro. This solution addresses the GAT0028 restriction. Miscellaneous improvements ■ Improvements to the DXF export capability. This includes prevention of text shifting, and correct exportation of hierarchical pin information. ■ Improvements to the Design Rule Check reporting. ■ Improvements have been made to power pin name assignment, such that power pins, with both unique and duplicate names, can be backannotated to Capture from Allegro without problems. June 2003 20 Product Version 10.0 OrCAD Capture: What's New 3 What’s New in OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 OrCAD Capture version 9.2.3 includes the following enhancements: ■ Tight integration with simulation, synthesis, and place-and-route tools ■ Improved Capture-Allegro interface ■ Enhanced Verilog editing and netlist capability ■ Simulation capability for multiple chips (or board-level simulation) Tight integration with simulation, synthesis, and place-and-route tools OrCAD Capture Version 9.2.3 provides support for programmable logic design by enhancing the accessibility to synthesis and simulation tools, and by providing libraries for the most popular FPGA/CPLD vendors. In order to provide an easy interface for programmable logic design in Capture, this version includes “open door” access to Synplicity’s Synplify synthesis tool, vendor place-and-route tools, and the Cadence simulation tool suite, NC Desktop. Programmable logic enhancements to the project manager Capture’s project manager provides increased integration and new part libraries for creating a vendor-specific programmable logic project for Actel, Altera, and Xilinx. Other vendors will be supported in future updates and releases. The increased integration provides easy access to NC VHDL Desktop for simulation, Synplicity’s Synplify for synthesis, and the appropriate vendor tool sets for place-and-route. Compatibility with Synplicity’s Synplify tool You can invoke Synplify from within the Capture user interface. If you have installed Synplify on your system, Capture will create a Synplify project and invoke the tool on your programmable logic design. June 2003 21 Product Version 10.0 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 Compatibility with vendor place-and-route tools Capture will now launch the place-and-route tool set appropriate for the target vendor (provided that the tool set in installed on your computer). Finding hierarchical pins and power/ground symbols in Capture You can now locate hierarchical pins and power/ground symbols in Capture by using the Find command from the Edit menu. This makes it very easy to locate these objects in your design. You can also update names for hierarchical pins. Improved connection checking for bus maps You can now check to insure that buses are mapped correctly with hierarchical pins by using the Design Rules Check (DRC) tool. In previous releases, the DRC tool would not locate discrepancies between bus widths and hierarchical pins. The new version of Capture now provides for checking this. Integration with Specctraquest and Advanced Packages Designer (APD) OrCAD Capture 14.2 is tightly integrated with SpecctraQuest and Advanced Package Designer which are used for High Speed Circuit Analysis and MCMS/SCMs (MultiChip Modules/Single Chip Modules), respectively. NC Desktop simulation Capture provides easy access to the Cadence NC VHDL Desktop simulation tool suite. Further, Capture includes functionality for generating simulation testbenches and provides numerous coding samples that you can use when developing your designs and testbenches. Improved Capture-Allegro interface The interface between OrCAD Capture and Allegro has been improved, allowing for easier migration of designs between the two tools. Enhancements include: ■ Inclusion of a new part property, POWER_GROUP, which provides a method for avoiding the use of visible power pins and for connecting power pins to specified power nets in the design. June 2003 22 Product Version 10.0 OrCAD Capture: What's New What’s New in OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 ■ Inclusion of a new property, SPLIT, which provides a method for pin swapping across heterogeneous parts. This is especially useful for large pin-count devices. ■ Enhanced design rule check capabilities which detects any/all errors when generating an Allegro netlist from Capture. ■ Support for duplicate power pin names. ■ Support for mechanical parts. ■ Support for POWER_PINS values of more than 1024 character length by allowing the values to be split in the PSTCHIP.DAT file. ■ Support for back-annotation of asymmetrical (or heterogeneous) section swapping. ■ Support for back-annotation of pin swaps between pins that have net names (connected pins) and pins that are not connected (associated with the NC netname.) Enhanced Verilog editing and netlist capability OrCAD Capture 9.2.3 includes a Verilog editor that provides highlighting for Verilog keywords and syntax checking, similar to the VHDL editor and syntax checking tool provided with earlier Capture releases. Further, there have been significant improvements to the Verilog netlister. Capture allows for creating hierarchical blocks from Verilog entities, and vice-versa, which allows for designing in Verilog using block diagrams in the same manner by which you can use Capture to design with VHDL. Simulation capability for multiple chips (or board-level simulation) Capture also includes functionality, similar to that in the former OrCAD product, Express, that allows you to simulate multiple programmable logic devices in a manner that represents the interaction of devices on a printed circuit board. You can use either VHDL or Verilog as the hardware development language to represent the devices. June 2003 23 Product Version 10.0