Embedded Files
Drafted by Nicholas Luminarias, last modified on 08/16/2023
Introduction
Introduction
My name is Nicholas Luminarias and I am an undergraduate electrical engineer student that taking part with the Clemson Cadence Project. This page will be my personal guides for installing the software and tips for working through the Cadence learning map training courses. Here you will get my tips that I would have liked to have when working through and installing this software to make your learning experience as seamless as possible.
VU Meter Project (WIP)
VU Meter Project (WIP)
For my project I wanted to use the Cadence PCB Editor to create a VU Meter Circuit as my first very simple program but from scratch using the labs and courses.
How to get started
How to get started
To get started immediately head to the Getting Started where you have a very clear step by step guide to getting your cadence account and how to install the software. Follow the steps from top to bottom and you should be able to install the Allegro PCB Editor and Capture CIS 2022 along with the Clemson VPN to connect when you are not on campus. YOU MUST BE CONNECTED TO VPN TO RUN THE SOFTWARE.
When I was following along I initially had a hard time actually searching for the software on the website so here is a quick link that should easily take you to the software download without the hassle of looking for it with the search bar.
Make sure you download the 17.4 version and not the 22.1 at the moment we do not have full access to the licensing for 22.1. Some of the software in courses and feautures will be unavailable if you try to use the 22.1 version.
Learning Map and Training Courses
Learning Map and Training Courses
Once you have set up your Cadence account and installed Allegro PCB Editor and Capture CIS 2022 you are ready to start learning how to actually use the software. Cadence has provided a Learning Map which consist of a learning path for different focuses for PCB and logic designs with learning how to use the software.
Clicking any of the links will take you to a page where you can enroll into a course which you can have the chance to have an online course or an Instructor-led course.
Once you press ENROLL you will be directed to your Training Dashboard where all of your course progression will be saved in a convenient spot for you to be able to keep track of as you progress.
From here you are able to go explore the Learning Map and enroll into any courses and learn how to use the software at your pace where you'll be able to earn badges of certification which you can display on any piece of social media like LinkedIn. Share your badges and make sure to contact David Haeussler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-haeussler-559392) who works directly with Cadence as a great connnect to help expose your interest in learning this software for the company.
Ambassador Badge
Ambassador Badge
The first badge you should be able to obtain easily is your Cadence Ambassador Badge which is just to give you a nice introduction to Cadence the company itself and what their personal goals are.
This course consist of you just watching four video that inform you on cadence and some of the goals as a company they have for the future. After watching the four videos you will be able to take on the Ambassor Badge Exam. DO NOT WORRY this is a simple exam that allows you as many tries and no penalties if you do not answer them correctly. Just make sure you learn from your mistakes and you can retake the exam which will allow you another shot at passing the exam.
Allegro Design Entry Using OrCAD Capture
The next best course to take on is this beginner course that will help introduce you to learning the basic fundamentals for using the OrCAD Capture software. When you start the course what I found very useful to help organize all the library and data files you'll need for each course to setup an easy access folder to setup your directories.Allegro Design Entry Using OrCAD Capture
On my desktop I have a Clemson folder which I use to hold files for different classes and other resources. I set up a Cadence Research folder where I can have separate folders for each course I am working on.
When you begin working on a lab you will have a popup page which will not work if you are using an adblocker so make sure allow for popups and turn off your adblockers. You will see all of the modules for each lesson which will have a video essay and check boxes for when you complete labs and each module.
I suggest you immediately go to the last module DATABASED DOWNLOADS and there download the Lecture PDF, Lab PDF, and the Database Zip File. I suggest downloading all of these files and putting them inside of your personal folder where for whatever course you will be working on.
Now you will be able to begin the course
I would suggest when you work through each course to immediately tackle the labs because that is where you will get the hands on experience and be able to actually look at what using the software will be like. The lecture videos are helpful if you get stuck or want to get a more detailed description for what each part of software actually does.
I do not have any major guides or tips for this course as it is very well-structured with clear instructions so this is a very beginner friendly course to get started.
Allegro PCB Editor Basic Techniques
Allegro PCB Editor Basic Techniques
As a electrical engineer major one of my big focuses I want to pursue is PCB design so this path on the learning map was one that I am thoroughly interested in learning about.
Compared to Allegro Design Entry Using Orcad Capture this lab involves a lot more visualization for the board as you will need to route connections to the top, bottom, and have multiple layers. I highly recommend for this lab to make sure you watch the lecture videos that go along with each module to help understand the instructions that are given in the lab pdf. You won't be given a visual guide at some of the instructions until the end of some labs so I will provide some intermediate checkpoint screenshots for modules I found some confusion to help you easily flow through this course. I will not be providing guides and tips for each module but only parts I deemed will help those that get stuck to make sure you remain on track.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND HAVING A MOUSE FOR THIS COURSE!!! If you are working on this course on a laptop it will be difficult for the 3D step models where you will use the scroll wheel a lot so I highly recommend having a mouse as a trackpad can make navigating the UI difficult. Here is a link to a mouse on amazon I recommend.
Module 2
Module 2
Module 2 is very self-explanatory for following along with the lab. You will mainly be learning about how to zoom and open up your first project.
Module 3
Module 3
For each of the options in your toolbar you are able to right-click the icon and will be given a list of options of what you want to appear as tabs on the right side of your workspace.
I highly recommended making sure that Find, Options, and Visibility, and Command have a blue check mark next to them because you will be using these a lot throughout the labs.
If you do not see these tabs on the right side of your workspace then make sure to follow the previous step of right-clicking the icon in the toolbar and they should be visible.
Lab 3-1 Part 6
You are asked to change the active class in the options window to Board Geometry. This should be on the right side of your workspace if you have set the visibility of the options button to on
Lab 3-2
You will begin to move around parts and learn how to use the find filter to easily locate parts on the board. This is important as you will have a lot of connections and devices that can make it very difficult to figure out where everything is located.
For part 7 when you press the Tab key you should see the U3 device attach to your pointer like this.
Part 8 for Using the Selcectable Object List you will learn to move just the text of the design and for reference you should see a white line connected the the RefDes text attach to your pointer
Part 2 of Using Preselection Mode you will be told to hover over a pin and given specific information on the pin of the device based off your filters in the find window. When you press Tab you should get a different set of information based off your find filters
Part 6 of Finding Items by Property you will be filtering for nets that have a minimum line width of 15 which when you hit apply will highlight all of the nets that have this property like shown.
The rest of Module 3 is well-explained and with the previous knowledge of these earlier modules you should be able to follow along with the lab.
Module 4
Module 4
This was the module I found really interesting as you get to actually see what a 3D PCB board will look like and how you can interact with it using the software. This module is pretty easy to follow and you are provided with a lot of visual diagrams to follow along for each steps.
Module 5
Module 5
For this module we will look at how to edit and setup the pad stacks for our PCB board.
For this part of the module you will be working on creating a 60s38d which is just the square equivalent for theh 60c38d which is a circle. These are the settings that you should have just to make sure you are following along correctly.
For this part of the module you will set up the 76x24smd disk which if you follow all of the directions correctly you should end up with these settings
Module 6
Module 6
For this part of the lab we will start working with actual package symbols inside the software
In Lab 6-1 you will setup your first 16-pin DIP with package symbol wizard and this is here to show what it should look like after you finish the lab.
Remember that your command line is in the bottom left and if it is not visible make sure you check the visibility options when you right click on the tool bar icons.
You will begin adding labels to the different parts of your DIP and one tip to help you move around your text is simply to press the move icon in the tool bar which will allow you to move around your text.
This is just what the move icon looks like
This is a good checkpoint for how your DIP14 should look like after adding the labels. At this point you will be asked to create a package boundary and all they will tell you is that is to just outline your chip so here is an example.
This should be the final result once you create your SOIC16
Lab 6-4 we will start working with mapping out step models and learning to snap certain pins to these models in 3D
When using the MAN option you will learn how you can manually move the step model around in the 3D plane and you use this XYZ plane to control the movement
This should be how you snap the step model after selecting the Top option. We are not given an exact reference picture so here should be how your final result should look for the 445600001
You will follow similar types of steps for the 473461001 and at the end it should be snapped on like this for your final result
Module 7
Module 7
For this module you will work on creating the outline for your board. You will learn how to draw the outline along with measure the dimensions.
Lab 7-1
You will need to add chamfers to your design and at one point you will need to add the dimension for the angle and length of the chamfer. make sure you select Dimension/Drafting > Dimension Environment before you right click otherwise the chamfer leader option will not be present.
The rest of the module is very clear according to the lab manual and you will even be able to learn how to create a DXF file which you can share to mechanical engineers you work with on projects.
Module 8
Module 8
In this module it is important that you do not do the whole lab module and just do the program that fits yours needs. In lab 7 you choose a project file that you wanted to base off which program CIS, HDL, and System Capture. This corresponded to the project 1, 2, and 3 folders. In my case I chose project 2 so I will do the CIS part of the lab. This lab is very straight forward and a quick one so there are not many tips I have for this module.
Module 9
Module 9
For this module you will learn how to edit specific properties for pins and nets along with set constraints. There are no major tips or guides for this section as the instructions are very clear and with the knowledge up to this point you have everything you need to complete it.
Module 10
Module 10
During lab 10-2 you will incrementally reference the the RefDes of the devices on the board. The first device you need to chance is the J* in the bottom left which should become J1
During this lab you will begin placing parts specifically U1, 2, 3, and 4. While placing these you will see a bunch of the light blue lines in the picture and it can get quite messy. These are rats nest or unconnected pins which you will learn more about when you route connections. The red and green "A" looking icons allow you to turn on and off the rats nest. This will just make your board easier to look at without all the lines.
The rest of the lab is fairly straight forward but the hard part will come with a lot of practicing with the moving, rotating, and deleting components. You will be given at many points reference pictures for how your board should look at certain points. I highly recommend taking the time and moving this components to the places you see in the most effective and fastest ways possible. That means rotating at user picked points and using ctrl-click on the components you want to move.
Here is an example of how my board looked at the end
Module 11
Module 11
Module 11 is super quick and really easy to follow. There is not much to go over this and it is very self-explanatory.
Module 12
Module 12
Module 12 is where we can learn about routing which is how we actually connect the pins on the board to other components. There are many options of doing this with a variety of settings for how we organize the board to be as clear and realistic as possible.
I highly suggest for when you are looking at the different options for the routing whether it is shove preferred, or Hug to mess around with these settings to see how your connections get moved around.
In lab 12-4 you are preparing these power layers for your boards for Vcc and GND which you will be outlining your board using the Shape options. These should be how your Vcc and GND power layers look when you finish this portion of the lab.
MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN 17.4 AND NOT 22.1!!!!
When I was originally working on this lab I was in the 22.1 version and could not use the smart route option. I was forced to changed to the 17.4 version for this portion of the lab to work. This should be how your board should look after you smart route your board.
The rest of this module should be straight forward.
Module 14
Module 14
Very quick and easy to follow
Module 15
Module 15
This is the last module and there are no big tips or tricks for this one. Just carefully follow the instructions and it should all be straight forward as you get towards the manufacturing stage of the board. This is a
This is a longer training course and it is honestly a great idea to come back and redo some of the labs and mess around to get comfortable with these techniques. Don't get discouraged as it just takes practice to learn how to use the editor. My final DRC report had 58 errors the first time I was working through these modules so it definitely takes some practice.
Allegro PCB Editor Intermediate Techniques
Allegro PCB Editor Intermediate Techniques
lab 12 use the user guide and give link. Not very helpful lab instructions
Note that I provided guides for modules that I deemed somewhat confusing or the lecture guide does and lab does not completed state clearly. If the module is not listed it is because I found them easy to follow and have enough information for your ability to complete the labs.
Tips and tricks routing to same pin
Modifying padstack
Module 2
Module 2
Lab 2-2 Part 3
This part will ask you to add the DFA boundary to ALL package symbols but it is not directly in the PCB Editor program. You should have installed another program called the DFA Symbol Update that you can search in your windows start bar.
Lab 2-2 Creating DFA Rules
In this part of the lab they actually give you a little bit of a task where you use the Display-Measure command and change the DFA Constraints to match the DRC error picture in the Lab. You will actually be changing the constraint value for the Vertical and Horizontal air gap so it is important to know what the initial is to find estimate a value to give you the desired results.
You are given the solutions at the bottom but try first to get it right before you are completely stuck on this point.
Module 9
Module 9
This module we work with looking at how to route differential pairs on the board. In lab 9-1 in the last part you are tasked to change the Max Uncoupled Length to get rid of the DRC's. If you hover your cursor over the DRC error it tells you the actual value which easily allows you to change the Max Uncoupled Length to get rid of the DRC.
In Lab 9-2 you learn how to route differential pairs with different rules for certain layers on your board. Now the instructions are very clear for this module but to help provide a visual for how the routing changes here is an image of what your end result should look like.
Module 12
Module 12
You will be mainly tasked on created extracta command files to do certain task. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THE VIDEO LECTURES to get a good basis for how to these files work and how you set them up.
here is a link to the user guide that has more information on these extract commands
Module 13
Module 13
You will gain a lot of useful tips and tricks for how to navigate the PCB Editor quicker. For this lab you will be doing a lot of tasks that require you to follow the lectures which will walk you through how to do the lab. You will need to look around the PCB board for white text which will give you an task to complete and referencing the lecture videos will be very pivotal in completing these task.
For the part where you need to route to the same pin make sure you follow the pattern of beginning from the D2, D3, or D4 first and then pressing the D1 for each short you create and you should end up with this as your final result
For the task of modifying the pad stack boundary I was initially confused on what exactly they wanted us to accomplish until I realized what we we needed to edit. The boundary you are editing will allow you to add or remove parts of the shapes of the pad stack so you can easily route without pushing or shoving pins around. In this case you are trying to make space for the 3.3 route to easily fit between and create the image above.
Module 14
Module 14
For this last module you are trying to learn how to install SKILL commands which requires configuring the correct directory for your editor. Make sure to watch the lecture video that gives a specific instruction on how to configure your active directory to the correct location for the drc_walk.il to work. You are almost doing the exact same thing as the video lecture provided so it is great practice for installing these SKILL commands.
Allegro PCB Router Basics
Allegro PCB Router Basics
In this course you learn how to use a different program that allows you another way of routing your designs from the PCB Editor 17.4. This is directly connected to the PCB Router 17.4 program and you can go back and forth. I highly suggest taking notes for the badge exam because there are a lot of questions where you will need to select multiple answers for a singular question. Check the Notes tab when you watch the lectures to help you get more detailed explanations.
Module 3
Module 3
For this module in Lab 3-1 you will look at a report for the Design File where you have to find specific piece of information about the design. I have provided a basic outline for each part to help you make sure you are looking at the correct pieces of information in the design file
Wiring Paths
The VD Bus
4 - mil clearance
In lab 3-4 you learn to select specific parts and nets to route and the only real ambiguous part for beginners is what the two I/O connectors are. I have provided a image of the two connectors to help make sure you are on track while following this lab.
Module 4
Module 4
In this module you learn how to analyze specific routing results. In the lab you will be given two different example cases where you need have look at key indicators for the routing to determine answer for the questions asked in the lab. Make sure to watch the lecture videos and take good notes for what to look for and what you want ideally for your route status reports.
Module 5
Module 5
In this module you start routing and learning about vias and it is very straight forward to follow but I wanted to provide an image for what a successful route with a via to the highlighted pins looks like
Module 8
Module 8
a lot of practicing with creating do files
list commands
practice trying to set up without looking at solutions
PCB Editor Advanced Methodologies
PCB Editor Advanced Methodologies
This is one of the most well-written labs and modules in my opinion for I was able to easily follow along with all of the steps and lectures. I highly recommend taking notes from the lectures to help out with the multiple answer questions for the exam but everything else is very easy to follow along. The only things to note is you will have to change a few settings without a step by step guide but at this point of doing the courses you should be able to navigate them without trouble otherwise please refer back to the older courses for refreshers.
Module 3
Module 3
In lab 3 you will need to load a color view file which was used in the earlier PCB courses. This image shows you where to load in the view file just in case you do not remember.
High-Speed Constraint Management
High-Speed Constraint Management
One thing to note about this course in my experience while working was that for modules where you need to use the SigXplorer program that it would constantly quit and restart when I was using it. I tried to fully update the 17.4 version I am using in the download manager but the problem would continue. I unfortunately at the moment had to skip those parts of the lab that required the usage of the program.
Module 2
Module 2
For the Setting the Cross Section you must expand the Signal integrity section to find the impedance setting
Module 4
Module 4
For Defining Constraints for the Electrical Constraint Set you are introduce to the Differential Impedance Calculator where you are told to press the radio button next to the primary gap. I have circled what that button is referred as.
Module 13
Module 13
Remember how to update DRC's on the board. At this point for these courses there will be multiple things that you should know how to do without too much instruction.
To pull up your status form to update DRC's select Display-Status
Every other module you follow for this is very well structured and although you do not have the same amount of pictures as the Advanced Methodologies course, it is very straight forward to follow.
Note: I was not able to complete the modules that utilize the SigXplorer as it would keep crashing and restart when I tried to use it.
The cadence labs provides you with .brd files that will allow you to continue on to labs if you have issues without completing so this was not too big of an issue in my experience.
Allegro Update Training
Allegro Update Training
This course is very straight forward and does not actually have a type of lab to follow. The purpose of this course is to explain the new features and upgrades that the PCB Editor underwent for 17.2 and 17.4. It is still an important module to learn about the features inside the program to jot down some notes for potential tools you can use in your future designs.
Allegro PCB Librarian
Allegro PCB Librarian
In this module you will learn about how to use the Project Manager 17.4 software which is just as stated in a name easy to organize a project with Cadence's many different tools. In this you will use the project manager to create and edit parts from DIPs, SOICs, and other devices. You will be able to learn about how to take footprints of the designs and edit each pin on them to be an input, CLK, OE, and whatever you need.
I personally think this is a great module that is pretty easy to follow once you already have the bases of the other courses like Entry Orcad and Basic PCB Editor from earlier. You bounce around different editors and learn a good basic for designing parts and drawings that is a good introduction for new users to the software. I believe it would be best to have this be your first module to do to get the introduction of how the cadences softwares work otherwise once you have the experience already it is very easy to follow along.
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