Thursday, January 08, 2009     Register | Login | Search | Contact Us
     
   
     
     

Many of you already received communications about the move of the Cadence user community into cadence.com. And many of you have already joined, with over 4000 registrations in the first two weeks.

The new Cadence Community enhances the ability of Cadence users to connect and collaborate. In addition to moving the community into cadence.com -- enabling single sign-on for community, Sourcelink and Cadence events -- the new site is organized around nine technology segments, giving you easy access to product information, training, forums and blogs. Some of the new features include:
  • Ability to respond to posts via e-mail
  • Technology-specific blogs
  • Latest Web 2.0 social networking capabilities
  • Public profile options
  • Private messaging
  • Friends lists
Visit the new Cadence Community today at www.cadence.com/community and join the discussions!

Registration note: Due to the scope of the enhancements and the new SSO registration system, we were not able to migrate existing cdnusers.org member accounts. So new registrations are required, but this enables a broader set of functionality we think you'll enjoy.

Forum note: Under the guidance of forum moderators, we have taken the 20+ cdnusers.org forums and consolidated them into 11 forums on the new site. Posts have been brought over so you can leverage that posting history. CDNusers forums will be set to read only starting 7/30, and cdnusers.org will be redirected to the new community on 8/4.

Best regards,
Mike and Tom

Michael A. Catrambone - Steering Committee Chairman
Distinguished Engineer
PCB/Mechanical
UTStarcom, Inc.

Tom Diederich
Cadence Community Manager
Home
Forums
Forums > Silicon-package-board > PCB Design

Subject: slots in 15.2
Posting to forums is available to community members only.
Login or Register
Rate this topic:
   
Author Messages
cnunn
Posts: 3
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 10:54 AM  

Hi all,

We are trying to take advantage of the new slot capablities in 15.2. Can anyone tell me if an NC ROUTE file is REQUIRED to fabricate a board using slots defined with this new type of padstack? When I tried it on a test board, the ncdrill.log file showed no reference to the slot, so I am assuming they are not making it into the ncdrill.tap output.

We typically do not supply an NC ROUTE file to our fab vendor, but instead supply the board outline and a dimensioned fab drawing. If an NC ROUTE path layer is required to produce slots in boards, then perhaps we should supply one for the board outline as well. I am struggling with ncroutebits.txt though. How are we to know what tool (bit) size the fab vendor plans to use to route the board? I searched for a default ncroutebits.txt file in my Cadence heirarchy and can't find one.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris
GigaDyne
Posts: 3
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 11:13 AM  
You need  to produce a route output - what fun!

ncroutebits.txt
0.6 T200
0.65 T201
0.7 T202
0.75 T203
0.8 T204
0.85 T205
0.9 T206
0.9271 T207
0.95 T208
1 T209
1.05 T210
1.1 T211
1.15 T212
1.2 T213
1.25 T214
1.3 T215
1.35 T216
1.4 T217
1.45 T218
1.5 T219
1.55 T220
1.6 T221
1.65 T222
1.7 T223
1.75 T224
1.8 T225
1.85 T226
1.8542 T227
1.9 T228
1.95 T229
2 T230
2.05 T231
2.1 T232
2.15 T233
2.2 T234
2.25 T235
2.3 T236
2.35 T237
2.4 T238
cnunn
Posts: 3
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 11:48 AM  

Thanks GigaDyne,

It is my understanding there is not an absolute mapping of Tcode to drill size - it can be generated randomly.  Is this your understanding?

Chris
rb
Posts: 53
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 12:09 PM  
Hi Chris,

We also do not typically send an NC Route file to the vendor either, but we have in some instances started defining slots within pad designer.   This at least provides an easy way of having the slot show up in the drill legend.  We still provide an outline of the slots on the board_geometry/outline layer as well as dimension and provide a detail of them on the Fab drawing.   We usually don't use many slots on a board, so doing it this way is not a big deal for us. 

Regards,

Randy
cnunn
Posts: 3
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 12:21 PM  
Thanks for the reply Randy.

What concerns me with the new slot definition is I don't see them output in the ncdrill.log file, and I can't tell if they actually exist in the ncdrill.tap file - I doubt they do! 

Up until now we have specified a slotted padstack using 2 drills (1 at each end) for slots which are longer that 1X the width, and using a single drill for the smaller slots.  In the case of the single drill there has alway been the possiblity that the slot won't be rotated properly.  That is where you have to dig in and actually draw the outline of the slot and either provide a picture of it and/or dimension it. 

I thought the whole reason for Cadence addressing slots was to eliminate the need for all of this supporting documentation and get things embedded into the design.  But if people aren't using nc_route, then they must not be using these slotted padstacks other than for the drill chart - as you say.

Chris
rb
Posts: 53
Online: User is Offline
4/05/2006 12:42 PM  
Hi Chris,

They definitely do not show up in the ncdrill.tap file,  thus the need for the dimensioning(including slot radius) on the fab drawing.   In the past and still today we sometimes will position one drill with a non-standard/unique drill size in the center of the slot.  Then we manually modify the drill legend to indicate the slot.

I can understand the rational for putting the slot data in the NC Route file,  but I agree that releaseing a NC Route file does not seem to be a standard practice thus significantly diminishing the value of the slot capability.

Randy
Alex1202
Posts: 7
Online: User is Offline
4/20/2006 1:42 PM  
It has shown in the fab drawing file, right? pls don't worry about it.
Posting to forums is available to community members only.
Login or Register


ActiveForums 3.6
     
Copyright 2006 Cadence Design Systems, Inc.