I too remembered that the limit was 12 characters and after looking in the manual I found the following under "Protel Netlist Formats" on page 172:
If the netlist is going to be loaded into the PCB Editor, designators and package descriptions (footprint) are limited to 12 alphanumeric characters. Regards, Steve Smith, C.I.D. Product Engineer Staco Energy Products Co. Web Site: www.stacoenergy.com & www.stacopower.com > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Brad Velander > Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 12:06 PM > To: Protel EDA Discussion List > Subject: RE: [PEDA] PCB library size in 99SE? HUGE! > > > Norman, > I hope that you saw Dennis' email because spaces in the > footprint name are also a known source of problems. The worst > thing about these problems are that they are inconsistent. > When I had the problem with footprint names being too long, > it was only effecting the one part that we could see. It was > with Protel's support that I was initially informed of the > name length issue. Changed the name length on that part and > it updated. After that I revised all of my footprint names to > 14 or less than 14 characters, never saw the problem again. > As I said earlier, this may have actually been in P98, > can't be sure of the timing thinking back on it now. I know > at the time I found one obscure reference in the manual that > said there was a limit of 12 characters. I never had further > problems using 14 characters. > > Sincerely, > Brad Velander > Senior PCB Designer > Northern Airborne Technology > 1925 Kirschner Rd., > Kelowna, BC, V1Y 4N7. > tel (250) 763-2329 ext. 225 > fax (250) 762-3374 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: June 2, 2005 1:20 AM > To: Protel EDA Discussion List > Subject: RE: [PEDA] PCB library size in 99SE? HUGE! > > > Gareth, > > I have one footprint name of 16 characters, one of 17 > characters (inc two > spaces) in one of my designs. > > I had problems updating the PCB, so I installed 99SE on a > spare laptop, > the design worked fine. So at the time I put it down to a > problem on my > desktop PC. It now seems odd the only design I've had that > type of trouble > with is the only one containing >14 length footprint > names...a bit of a > coincidence perhaps? > > I have other shorter length footprint names with spaces in > more than one > design which update fine, so I'm not sure how much truth there is in > avoiding that either. I've certainly not had any problems myself. > > Best Regards > Norman Webster > > Development Engineer > Gas Detection Systems > -------------------------------------------------------------- > Draeger Safety UK Limited > > www.draeger-safety.com > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Draeger Safety >> Pioneering Solutions > > > > "Gareth De Mar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 02/06/2005 02:07 > Please respond to > Protel EDA Discussion List <[email protected]> > > > To > "Protel EDA Discussion List" <[email protected]> > cc > > Subject > RE: [PEDA] PCB library size in 99SE? HUGE! > > > > > > > Brad... > > Thats interesting about the >14 length footprint names. I > have started > using IPC names for my footprints, and some of them can be > quite long. > Haven't noticed anything untoward so far though. Oh well... fingers > crossed!! > > Cheers, > Gareth de Mar. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Brad Velander > Sent: Thursday, 2 June 2005 10:06 AM > To: Protel EDA Discussion List > Subject: RE: [PEDA] PCB library size in 99SE? HUGE! > > > Leo, > Good that you found your problem. > > I can comment on one of your found > limitations though. > Technically maybe the name of a footprint or symbol is > limited to 65535 > elements. However, if you exceed approx. 14 characters on a > footprint name > there are some functions in P99SE that will bite you down the road. I > can't remember the precise details but when I first started > using P99SE I > found that some footprints would not update (can't recall how > I was trying > to update them, synch'ing or update from library) if the > footprint name > exceeds 14 characters. > > Sincerely, > Brad Velander > Senior PCB Designer > Northern Airborne Technology > 1925 Kirschner Rd., > Kelowna, BC, V1Y 4N7. > tel (250) 763-2329 ext. 225 > fax (250) 762-3374 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Potjewijd [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: June 1, 2005 3:15 PM > To: Protel EDA Discussion List > Cc: Protel EDA Discussion List > Subject: RE: [PEDA] PCB library size in 99SE? HUGE! > > > At 01/06/05 19:20, Brad Velander wrote: > >Leo, > > my libraries are typically much larger (10 - 40MB) > than the size > > > mentioned in your reported size. I have never seen a problem. > > I don't think that the reported size is correct. Do > you have the > > > libraries stored in a DDB file? Have you compressed that > DDB library > file > > recently? DDB files can get quite large when they are not > compressed > regularly. > > Well folks, > > it took quite a bit of bit-digging but I finally found the cause for > Protels' sudden interest in it's navel (didn't know it even > had one, until > > yesterday afternoon :): for reasons as yet unknown the > offending library > was corrupted, big time. > It started out fine but after twelve or so components the > information was > complete rubbish. Luckily I have the same setup with a 10-generation > auto-backup every 10 minutes on three PC's, so I only needed > to add one > component to be back in business. > > Brad: as a result of many earlier system crashes (on totally > different > PCs) > I use the Windows file system for storage exclusively. Pro: > no compression > > needed (ever) and all files are visible/manipulatable outside > Protel. Con: > > directories look a bit cluttered. > Note: our software developers had also noticed several qugs (quirky, > bug-like events) in MS Access.. > > For those interested, while digging I found the really, > really hard limits > > concerning PCB libraries: > 1) a library can be a maximum of 4,294,967,295 (2^32-1) bytes long > 2) component names have a maximum length of 255 characters > 3) a component can be comprised of 65535 elements maximum > 4) each element is stored as an ASCII 'record' of maximum > 65535 characters > long > > Point 4 surprised me, too. After all, it is supposed to be a > binary....... > Point 1 (and 4) effectively limits the maximum number of components > because > the file is sequential and internally uses 32-bit unsigned > numbers for > navigation. However, for all practical uses this is equal to > no limit at > all. > > I now suspect the PC's hardware to produce intermittent memory and/or > harddisk faults; they seem temperature related (most other > crashes and > failures occurred in the summer). Various memory test > programs revealed > nothing so far. Maybe I need a brand new one..... > More backups and checks then, I hate to lose another day on > this sort of > crap.... > > Thanks, ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
