I. Preperation

The CR-5000 / CR-8000 Footprint Expert produces a .FTF format file for one or multiple components. All reference to "CR-5000" in these instructions is used interchangeably for both CR-5000 and CR-8000.

In order to import your parts in the CR-5000 Component Manager for later use in PC Board Designs, you must first have a working knowledge of how CR-5000 works. CR-5000 uses binary .FTP files that are generated from ASCII .FTF files using the command-line tool 'ftin'. This tool is limited by very strict legacy DOS naming limitations of 8.3 format filenames with no spaces in the directory name. It appears that the 8.3 limitations were lifted in v16 and v17 of CR-5000, but you can still have no spaces in the path.

There are four directories that are pertinent to generating and getting CR-5000 to accept an .FTP file:

1. Wherever you output the .FTF file. This corresponds to the "Library Directory" path you set just before you hit the [Create] button.

2. Your temporary directory (e.g., C:\Temp).

3. The final destination of the finished .FTP file.

4. The Home location of your Library.RSC file that must be edited and point to the location of the .FTP file. In order to determine this location, you need to run command.com and type 'SET'. This will show you your environment variables. You may need to scroll up, you want the one that says HOME.

Your Library.RSC should be located in $HOME/CR5000/ue. Where $HOME would be equal to C:/SPB_Data on my system.

FTF Conversion

First create a file in notepad with the following two lines. Call it create_ftp.bat and place it into your C:\Temp directory. This is a batch file which will be used to run the convertor to take the ftf file and turn it into a ftp file.

set name=CAPAE1030X1020DD450L350N

ftin -r %name%.ftf -o %name%.ftp -e ftin.err.txt -w ftin.wrn.txt

Now perform the following steps each time you output a new FTF that you need to convert to a FTP.

1. Generate the FTF by hitting Create in the CR-5000 Translator. This outputs the FTF File.

2. Copy the FTF file that was just generated to C:\Temp.

3. Open the Batch File create_ftp.bat that you just saved to C:\Temp into notepad.

4. Replace the name in the set line with the name of the FTF file (excluding the .ftf).

5. Save and close Notepad.

6. Run the batch file. If the FTP was generated, success. Move on to Step 11.

7. If the FTP was not generated, open the .err.txt file that was generated and see what the error is. If it was a no license found move to Step

9. Close any open CR-5000 windows and try the batch file again.

10. If the problem persists, Go To File Explorer and change to your C:\CR5000\license directory. Run LMTools.exe. Select the Start/Stop/Reread tab. Select Force Server Shutdown checkbox. Select Stop Server. Select Start Server. Try the batch file again.

11. If the issue still persists, contact Zuken Technical support for assistance in CR-5000 licensing. If it's fixed, move on to Step 10.

12. You now have a generated FTP file and can move on to importing and opening it in CR-5000.

II. FTP Import

Now that you have a FTP file you have a choice. You can either use that FTP as your master library, or move the parts from that library into a master library.

Using your FTP as a Master Library

1. You now need to copy the .FTP to whichever directory you wish to store the final library.

2. Open your Library.RSC file that exists at $HOME/CR5000/ue. It should look like this:

In the footprint block, insert a line directory above the .FTP callout with the path to your .FTP. Like this (yours will correspond to whatever path you use and whatever the name of your FTP is.)

Now open the CR-5000 Components Manager:

Select the Object drop down combo box and then Footprint:

The parts are now ready to use!

Importing your FTP into a Master Library

Open the CR-5000 Components Manager and then do the following steps.

Select Tools >> Copy CDB Library from the drop-down.

Select Environment >> Copy Footprint Library from the drop-down.

Select the Reference Library Path in Full. Right Click and select Copy.

Click on the Destination Library line. Then Right Click and select Paste.

The two lines should now be identical.

Now change the path of the Reference Library to point to the FTP you just created. Reference Library is what is being copied from and destination library is what is being copied to.

Click Select All.

Click Execute. Close the dialog.

Select the Object drop down combo box and then Footprint:

The parts are now ready to use!