Could anyone let me know a valid syntax using REPEAT keyword to multiply a Bus in a multi channel schematic design (PROTEL 2004)?
A "REPEAT (BUS [1..4])" Entry Sheet in Parent will not make vertical connection with a BUS[1..4] Port on Child Sheet. It generates errors.
Mirela
Sorry for the late post - I don't get here much.
Mirela, you can't repeat a bus using the REPEAT keyword. This is a limitation of the multi-channel system in DXP/P2004. There is no support for a bus of busses which would be required for it to work. I have been suggesting for a long time now that it would be a useful extension.
There is a workaround that is OK for a limited number of channels - it is not at all ideal when you have a large number of channels.
If you place multiple sheet symbols all referencing the same sub-sheet the multi-channel system will detect that it is a multi-channel design and give you the advantages of stuff like copying room formats (to copy the layout of one channel to the other channels) etc. If you compile the project you will see little tabs along the bottom the schematic (of the replicated sub-sheet) - one for each channel. You can see an example of this in the PortSwitcher1C reference design - look in the Altium examples. Have a look at the FPGA_Port.SchDoc and the FPGA_Interconnect.SchDoc files. You can see on the FPGA_Interconnect.SchDoc sheet that there are four sheet symbols all referring to FPGA_Port.SchDoc each with a Designator like FPGA_PortA, FPGA_PortB etc. If you compile the project you should see four tabs along the bottom of the workspace when you have FPGA_Port.SchDoc active - one for each channel. Component designators can have the channel index appended to them in a form you control (see the Multi-Channel tab of the Project Options). The channel index can be controlled by you by giving a unique designator to the sheets (CHA, CHB etc) or by the system itself (I think, but haven't tried for ages) by giving each sheet the same designator. The downside of letting the system choose is you can't control the indexing - you can't see which sheet is connected to which signals on the upper level sheet. Pretty critical problem in most cases. This is not a problem with REPEATed sheets as you know from the bus indexing of repeated signals which channel they connect to. I suggest using designators like A, B, ... or ChA, ChB, etc so the PCB designators don't get too long when the channels are instantiated.
(On the sheets mentioned, you can see use of some of the nice bus splitter and joiner components. Unfortunately these only work inside FPGA projects, not PCB projects. This is another thing I am trying to get changed so we can collect dissimilar signals into busses. If others support this it might help to post something to the feedback address "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" to increase the pressure.)
This issue has been gone through in some detail on the dxp forum, there are many hits in the archive. There are a few multichannel articles on the Protel KB but nothing dealing with repeated busses or sending slices of busses to different sheets.
All the best, Ian Wilson
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