I may be jumping in a little late here but if you want to check a pcb
against an existing netlist, there is a comparison function I always use.
Design|Netlist Manager|Menu|Compare Netlist file to board.
This checks the all the PCB components footprints and Part types against the
netlist. Using this in addition to a DRC check should tell you if the
schematic and PCB match without using the synchronizer. Both are relatively
fast.
Hope this is useful.
Cheers,
Lloyd Good
Engineering Systems Co-ordinator
GE Harris Energy Control Systems Canada, Inc.
2728 Hopewell Place NE
Calgary, AB. Canada
tel: +1 (403)214-4777
fax: +1 (403)287-7946
email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: David Cary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 10:40 AM
To: Protel EDA Forum
Subject: Re: [PEDA] Quickly checking sync status between PCB & schematic
Dear Matthew van de Werken,
> From: Abd ul-Rahman Lomax [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2001 12:29
> To: Protel EDA Forum
> Subject: Re: [PEDA] Quickly checking sync status between PCB
> & schematic
>
>
> At 09:45 AM 6/28/01 +1000, van de Werken, Matthew (DEM, PH) wrote:
>
> >Is there a quick way of checking the state, without actually
> doing the
> >synchronisation?
Please run your test on a scratch copy of these files, to make sure you
don't
accidentally break something on the "real" files.
It would also be a good idea to archive the original files (I like to put
them
on CD-ROM) before you open them with Protel.
> I have around a hundred or so boards to
> check in 3 ddb's,
> >so I'd really like this to be quick.
100 boards ? Wow. So what are you going to do if they're not quite
synchronized
?
> There a number of ways to do this, I don't know which is the fastest.
>
> (1) You could use the synchronizer. You want to preview the
> changes, not
> make them.
In other words, "Cancel" or "exit" after looking at the preview.
...
> good
> chance the
> board is correct and the schematic is not, particularly if
> the designers
> have been sloppy.
All too true. I think that's the purpose for the menu option in the PCB
Editor
for "update schematics". You might want to check (and optionally update) the
footprints from that direction.
...
> It would also be
> a good idea
> to run DRC in the PCB as well as ERC in the schematic.
I agree. Just last week I figured out that the reason my prototype wasn't
doing
anything. The power pin on one component was isolated, not connected to
anything
on the physical board on my desk. When I looked at the board with Protel PCB
Editor, it gave no DRC errors. And the "update PCB" synchronization preview
showed that it was properly synchonized with the schematic, which clearly
showed
that pin connected to "+5V". Finally it occured to me to run ERC on the
schematic, which plopped down an error right on that pin "unconnected power
net". Huh ? That pin is directly connected to the "+5V" power symbol ! What
Protel was trying to tell me was that that was the *only* "+5V" power symbol
on
the entire schematic.
...
> (3) Create a netlist from the Schematic and load this into
> the PCB.
I hear that this runs much quicker if (looking at layout) you add the extra
step
of "Design | Netlist Manager | Menu | Clear all nets | Yes" before "Design |
Load Nets...".
Um... Does this really answer the original question ? Does this really give
an
error when the schematic has real differences from the layout ?
...
> Abd ul-Rahman Lomax
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