OrCAD Automatic Footprint and Symbol Download Feature

[dezagha30]

Hi Everyone,
I just wondering if anyone here uses OrCAD for PCB design and if so would you find it beneficial if Cadence or someone else made a feature that would automatically download component CAD files like symbols and footprints and insert them into you library instead of you automatically downloading and importing the CAD file from Ultralibrarian or Octopart?

I'm planning on building out this software, if there is not enough interest

[nctnico]

Is this an alternative to ultra-librarian? I'm not impressed by the footprints from ultralibrarian. I rather design footprints from scratch than fixing the ones from ultralibrarian.

[dezagha30]

It would be a faster way to import CAD file from ultralibrarian or other sites with CAD files. True but that is not always an option if speed is required

[PlainName]

Speaking a non-Cadence user (despite owning a copy), I tried using Ultralibrarian and similar and realised they are a waste of time. There were various reasons, but the primary one was consistency. Things like layer references would need changing and that's if the same layers were used for the same thing across models and sources. Then there is the preferred house style, and just as you wouldn't want your parts numbering scheme tied to match that used by, for instance, RS I don't think a house style should be dictated to by a third party library source.

Some of those things aren't a surprise and the providers try to cover all bases, but in the end I realised the main reason I went looking for library parts was because I didn't have the creative vision to imagine them. That is, I'm not an artist and how should some reasonably complex part look? Finding someone elses idea is generally why we seek them out. Once over that hurdle, which involves making up your own house rules (all inputs on the left, etc) you can generally draw the schematic symbol in the time it takes to go and find one. The PCB package I would want to verify is correct too, which means figuring it out from the datasheet, and it's just quicker to do that from scratch than it is to get one and then try to measure it.

Now, the only thing I go looking for is 3D models, 'cos those are pretty tricky. A reasonable excuse for doing that is to verify that the PCB package is correct - sure, the 3D model might be wrong, but a false negative is cheaper than a false positive (or just trusting to fortune).

The idea of a took such as yours might be attractive to new users, I think, but once they're enmeshed in the ECAD product and doing professional work it's probably not going to save much effort. To be of real benefit it would need to take those files from diverse sources and change them to be like the (definable) house style as well as importing them.

[dezagha30]

You've raised some good points. I do think that I should highlight that it would not necessarily remove the common problems with PCB CAD files and while I do agree that it would mainly be more appealing to new users. It would be a useful tool to have in the scenario where you do find a good component file you can in import it in just one click.

Getting the CAD file from multiples sources (Ultralibrarian was just an example of one source) would be something that could be done to make the tool more useful and I will definitely consider it. With regards to providing different CAD package I think this could definitely be useful but difficult to implement in a smart way in software.

[PlainName]

You might've been beaten to this:

https://www.snapeda.com/plugins/

From a spam email:

Have you ever wished you could add parts to your Altium library directly from the web? Well now you can! No more import process - just click to pop symbols & footprints straight into your Altium library.

To get started, check out the new SnapEDA Desktop App.

[nctnico]

But Orcad isn't in the list!

[PlainName]

It doesn't have a forum section either. Nah, can't possibly be related

[nctnico]

It doesn't have a forum section either.

That is due to Dave hating Orcad according to popular belief  Plenty of Orcad users on the forum and even lesser used software (like Geda) has it's own section as well.

[dezagha30]

Thanks, I did some research before and it also seems like Altium can be directly connected to octopart for CAD files, but currently it does not seem like there is an equivalent for OrCAD.

[Uky]

I have been using OrCAD/Allegro for 20+ years.
Amongst the payed softwares, IMHO it is the
most powerful and scalable tool out there.

Maybe the lack of an OrCAD section here is due to the fact
that it is rarely used amongst hobbyists and thus
not attracting attention. If Cadence wanted to
penetrate the "starter/makers" market
maybe they should consider releasing a
free limited version but that is another topic.

There are Cadence applications that enables automatic downloads
of symbols and footprints such as "CIP". It is powerful
and obviously saves a lot of time but many of the
Cadence softwares such as Library Management and
CIP are payed features. They are quite expenceive
and also designed for use in corporative environments.

I have tried several free wizards that creates footprints
according to different IPC standards (Least/Normal/Most)
etc, but have not found them to be useful enough to purchase
unlimited versions of them.

One reason is that the standards they use for the creation
of footprints differs between Europe and the USA.
(soldermask definition standards/traditions is one of them)

Over the years, Cadence have added features from the more
expenceive versions of Allegro/OrCAD to the low-end
versions of their tools. They have most likely been watching
competitors and since the market is limited, Cadence users have
benefitted from this.

There is always a "risk" that the creator of a freeware
that assists in footprint creation/download suddenly
discovers that such a feature is added as part of a
QIR (Quarterly Incremental Release), Cadence way of
adding features to an existing main Version (Such as 17.2
or 17.4) These QIR's appear at irregular intervalls for
customers with maintenance contracts.

[nctnico]

There are Cadence applications that enables automatic downloads
of symbols and footprints such as "CIP". It is powerful
and obviously saves a lot of time but many of the
Cadence softwares such as Library Management and
CIP are payed features. They are quite expenceive
and also designed for use in corporative environments.

And I also suspect the symbols & footprints being professional / production quality instead of the low quality (amateur) level symbols/footprints from free sources. All in all I don't think there is much use for having a plugin that can get symbols / footprints from free sources. So either pony up the money to pay for professional symbols / footprints or create them yourself. If you are drawing schematics and / or PCBs you don't get around creating your own symbols and / or footprints so you better get good at that.

[dezagha30]

Thank you for your response, I was using OrCAD CIP recently in work, although not to download CAD files. I agree that it will be very difficult to make this software useful to professionals, and the starter/maker audience is not really there for OrCAD (which is who this would appeal to most). There seems to be a conflict here and its seems CIP already fills the spot in the market for this niche. Thank you all for your responses.