Questions & Answers - Orcad 17.2 Decimal Separator Issue

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Orcad 17.2 Decimal Separator Issue

Printed From: PCB Libraries Forum
Category: PCB Footprint Expert
Forum Name: Questions & Answers
Forum Description: issues and technical support
URL: https://www.PCBLibraries.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2060
Printed Date: 22 Nov 2024 at 6:15am

Topic: Orcad 17.2 Decimal Separator Issue

Posted By: jpderuiter
Subject: Orcad 17.2 Decimal Separator Issue
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2017 at 1:11am

We use the Lite version of Library Expert to create footprints for OrCAD PCB 17.2.

Until OrCAD 17.2 S008 all worked fine.

But from OrCAD 17.2 S009 this is broken.

The sizes of the pads are way too big, so they cannot be placed (they overlap).

It seems that the script files that are used to make the pads now need to use the regional decimal separator setting (for us it is a comma) as decimal seperator, while before (until OrCAD 17.2 S008) it was fixed as a dot.

Since the script created by Library Expert uses a dot as decimal separator, this does not work anymore.

Note that the script for creating the outline etc (which also has a dot as decimal separator) is still working, so OrCAD seems to be inconsistent...

Replies:

Posted By: chrisa_pcb
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2017 at 11:40am

Uh... Yikes? I <3 Cadence :/.

Can you check if there is a setting that can be used which allows you to use the '.' instead of the ','?

Also.. are you able to pull the file into notepad and search/replace '.' with ',' and the part then actually imports?

Edit: I have the patch downloading.

Edit2: Got current to S010 and it appears to be working properly. Maybe this was a bug in S009, that they fixed rq? Try S010 and see if the problem persists.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2017 at 1:35am

Hi, thanks for your support.

chrisa_pcb wrote:

Can you check if there is a setting that can be used which allows you to use the '.' instead of the ','?

Unfortunately there is no setting for this.

chrisa_pcb wrote:

Also.. are you able to pull the file into notepad and search/replace '.' with ',' and the part then actually imports?

Yes, I already tried it as a work around, and it works.

However, since the script file also contains filenames, replacing all dots with commas also breaks the script, so you have to manually replace them...

chrisa_pcb wrote:

Got current to S010 and it appears to be working properly. Maybe this was a bug in S009, that they fixed rq? Try S010 and see if the problem persists.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I already have S010 installed, and the issue is still there. Do you have the ',' as decimal seperator ("Decimal Symbol") in your Regional settings?

There are 2 workarounds:

Changing the decimal seperator to a dot in the Regional settings.
However, this is not preferred as we normally use the comma in the Netherlands, so a dot will be confusing.
Also other programs may break when I change this...
Since I have OrCAD PCB 16.6 installed besides 17.2, I can create the footprint for 16.6, run the script with OrCAD 16.6, save the footprint, and then open it in 17.2.

Posted By: chrisa_pcb
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2017 at 10:27am

Changing the regional settings to '.' to import the parts sounds solid. Is there any reason you can’t change it back afterwards?

I don't see the point of trying to jockey between , and . in the scripts. Just more added complexity. Good to see you've found a workaround.

Where are the regional settings for this located?

Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2017 at 3:33pm

These 2 issues were fixed in V2017.07 pre-release – http://www.pcblibraries.com/downloads" rel="nofollow -

· Allegro/OrCAD PCB:

o When the Anti-pad Size is smaller than the Pad Size, the translator will force it to be larger by .005. This is done to bypass the needless warnings from Allegro. It shouldn’t have any effect on the manufacturing.

o Fixed an issue that was generating duplicate pad stacks for symmetrical pads at different orientations as found on a Chip Resistor, etc.

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Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 20 Jan 2017 at 12:52am

chrisa_pcb wrote:

Where are the regional settings for this located?

It's a Windows setting, see:

http://windows.tips.net/T012831_Changing_Regional_Settings.html" rel="nofollow - http://windows.tips.net/T012831_Changing_Regional_Settings.html .

Since it's a common setting for the whole computer, all other program's will be affected by this setting as well...

EDIT:

BTW: I also notified Cadence about this issue shortly after S009 was released, but I haven't had feedback from them yet.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 20 Jan 2017 at 12:53am

Tom H wrote:

These 2 issues were fixed in V2017.07 pre-release – http://www.pcblibraries.com/downloads" rel="nofollow -

· Allegro/OrCAD PCB:

o Fixed an issue that was generating duplicate pad stacks for symmetrical pads at different orientations as found on a Chip Resistor, etc.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply.

However, I don't see how the two issues are related to my problem.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 23 Jan 2017 at 5:14am

Hi,

I just checked Orcad PCB 17.2 S011 (the latest hotfix from last weekend), and the issue is still not solved by Cadence...

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 06 Feb 2017 at 2:13am

Hi,

have you been able to reproduce this behavior?

Jan Pieter

Posted By: chrisa_pcb
Date Posted: 06 Feb 2017 at 10:05am

I believe its an issue.. one that Cadence needs to rectify. They need to provide a setting for it in Allegro. Until then, you'll need to use the workaround.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 08 Feb 2017 at 12:39am

Hi Chrisa,

OK, thanks for looking into this.

I'll try to chase Cadence, see what they can do.

Best regards,

Jan Pieter

Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 14 Feb 2017 at 3:59am

Hi guys!

We also use decimal-comma instead of decimal-point for regional settings.
This leads to that generating footprints in OrCAD Professional 17.2-2016 S012 from PCB Library Expert v. 2016.14 will NOT work.

As I see it OrCAD can handle regional settings, such as decimal-comma, but PCB LE can not.

We cannot accept this and need a fix instead of workarounds.

Cheers, ...
/Benn

Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 14 Feb 2017 at 7:47am

Good news from a Cadence reseller:

I’m just writing to let you know I got feedback on the case I filed to Cadence with respect to this issue and it should get fixed with 17.2s013 – I expect this to be out sometime during the weekend of 18^th – 19^th of February.

The problem is not Library Expert, it's on the Cadence side and they are fixing their bug.

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Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 12:31am

???
... but still the scripts you are generating have decimal point instead of decimal comma, despite of regional settings. When I change the point to comma, the scripts works fine in OrCAD.

/Benn

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 12:57am

Tom H wrote:

I’m just writing to let you know I got feedback on the case I filed to Cadence with respect to this issue and it should get fixed with 17.2s013 – I expect this to be out sometime during the weekend of 18th – 19th of February.

Hi Tom, that's great news.

Thanks for chasing this.

I'm wondering how they will 'fix' this, since to me it seems that switching to regional settings was intended by Cadence.

But we'll see.

BennsPCB wrote:

... but still the scripts you are generating have decimal point instead of decimal comma, despite of regional settings. When I change the point to comma, the scripts works fine in OrCAD.

Hi Benn, as Tom said this is really a Cadence issue, not PCB libraries. The decimal point as seperator has always been there, only Cadence changed it recently.

Posted By: cioma
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 2:29am

Well, generally speaking Benn is right: Library Expert doesn't support regional settings (i.e. point is hardcoded as decimal separator). And once Cadence finally caught up with the world it broke import from Library Expert. So ideally Library Expert needs to be changed to use decimal separator from the regional settings but at least there are workarounds.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 3:06am

OK, fair point.

However, then Cadence has to be consistent all over, so not only for the Pad designer script needs to use the regional setting, but also for the Orcad PCB script (which still uses the fixed dot as seperator).

Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 4:58am

It seems that OrCAD padstack editor obeys regional settings, but when I changed to decimal comma in all .scr files, the generated footprint was not correct/complete.
It looks that there are still some issues with decimal comma in OrCAD.

Cheers, ...
/Benn

Posted By: chrisa_pcb
Date Posted: 15 Feb 2017 at 12:39pm

One of the customers put in a ticket on this a bit ago and received an email that Cadence is working on the comma issue for S013 and that they expect the fix to be available like Feb 18th or 19th.

So we'll see what they come up with before doing anything.

Posted By: jpderuiter
Date Posted: 20 Feb 2017 at 1:36am

Hi all,

I just tried hotfix 17.2s013, and I can confirm that this hotfix fixes this issue.

Apparently they reverted back to fixed dot as decimal seperator.

Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 21 Feb 2017 at 12:35pm

OK, so neither OrCAD nor LE supports regoinal setting such as decimal comma.
Not so impressive, but still preferable compared to non working tools.

Cheers, ...
/Benn

Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2017 at 8:06am

Have tried LE 2016.14 and OrCAD 17.2 S013 but still it does not work properly.
Tested with a http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/776228-1/A105103-ND/2327368" rel="nofollow - THD connector
The non-plated padstack and comp-graphics works but the plated padstack doesn't (and thus doesn't populate the footprint).

Cheers, ...
/B

Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 22 Feb 2017 at 8:10am

All of the Allegro/OrCAD PCB issues were resolved in the V2017.08 release.

We stopped supporting V2016 5 months ago.

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Posted By: BennsPCB
Date Posted: 24 Feb 2017 at 4:58am

Sry Tom, I didn't catch what V2016 5 had to do with this??

Facts: Library Expert V2016 14 and OrCAD 17.2 S013 is a non-working combination.
I guess an upgrade of LE is inevitable or else the tool is useless.

This puts me (as a consultant) in an awkward position as I suggested LE in the first place.
(well, at least it affects no poor Wink

)

Cheers, ...
/Benn

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