OrCAD / Cadence Allegro PCB Layout Review Beautifier

This project provides a script and GUI that makes a PCB layout, created in either OrCAD or Allgero much easier to read and review. It is also great for hardware debugging. Note that the OrCAD and Allegro PCB layout tools are both sold by Cadence and use interchangeable file formats.

• It has NO effect on the fabrication and manufacturing layers (eg ASSEMBLY, SILKSCREEN)
• orients, centers, and automatically sizes the REFDES's and pin designations on the TOP DISPLAY layer
• orients, changes to forward direction, centers, and automatically sizes the REFDES's and pin designations on the BOTTOM DISPLAY layer
• gives easy control of the colors used for the display layer via a set of three +/- buttons for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness (HSL).

The script is written in Cadence SKILL, which is a variant of Lisp.

INSTALLATION

1. Download the zip file for this github repositiory by clicking the Code button above and selecting Download ZIP.
2. Unzip the downloaded .zip file to any location that you like.
3. The Skill script PCBReview.il is the only file that you need. This script will run from any folder. Of course, if your installation has a skill folder, e.g C:\Cadence\[VERSION]\setup\skill, you can copy the file PCBReview.il there.

USAGE

1. Open the OrCAD (or allegro) layout tool and open the layout that you wish to view / edit.
2. Go to to Command window inside OrCAD (or allegro) layout and type

skill
load "[path]/PCBReview.il" 
pcbreview

where [path] is the full path to the folder that you saved the PCBReview.il file to. Note that in your path you MUST use forward slashes ('/') and NOT backslahses ('\'). The use of double quotes surrounding the "[path]/filename" is also required.

3. The modifications to the DISPLAY layers described above will take place.
4. Afterward completion, the following popup window will appear which allows control of the colors and other display features.

allegro.ilinit [optional]

This step is optional.

1. Place the load command above in your allegro.ilinit initialization file for OrCAD Layout. This is typically located in a folder named PCBENV\ or pcbenv\. or
2. Merge the contents of allegro.ilinit from this repository with the your allegro.ilinit initialization file for OrCAD Layout. This file loads all the scripts in the C:\Cadence\setup\skill folder during initialization of the OrCAD Layout application. (allegro.ilinit is the initialization file for OrCAD Layout.) Be sure to change C:\Cadence\setup\skill to the path where your skill scripts reside.

EXAMPLE RESULT