Cadence OrCAD X and Allegro X 23.1 HotFix 003 is Now Available

The HotFix 003 (QIR 1) update for OrCAD X and Allegro X 23.1 release is now available at Cadence Downloads. This blog post contains links to access this release and describes some significant changes and new features.

     OrCAD X /Allegro X 23.1 (SPB231)

Here is a representative list of product changes and enhancements with brief overviews:

OrCAD X Presto

• The layout design environment has many usability enhancements. You can create views in the Visibility panel. Use stipple patterns for better display of essential objects. Open the design location on the file system with File – Open Design Directory. Replicate placement from another design or CAD tool using placement files. Retain the original X-Y location with Paste Special. 
• Switch the application language to the system default for Chinese and Japanese locales. 
• Protect IP by locking databases to prevent editing and exporting shared designs.
• You can archive and remove review comments and markups from a design before you send the design out as a reference or send it to a subcontractor.
• LiveDoc now offers a simpler way to modify dimensions. With the improved Properties panel, you can easily set the font, arrowhead, and design units.  
• You can quickly edit pin locations in a spreadsheet-like view when authoring footprints in OrCAD X Presto. Searching for a pad to add to your PCB footprint displays all the relevant data for a padstack. You can import data from another CAD system using the industry-standard data exchange mechanism, DXF, to create a PCB footprint. Functions, such as editing the symbol footprint and updating the design, are now integrated.
• 3DX Canvas enhancements include cutting planes across any axes combination to get an exact view, creating photorealistic 3D images, controlling the display transparency of each component or mechanical symbol, and measuring air gaps.

Allegro X PCB Editor and Allegro X Advanced Package Designer

• DesignTrue DFM technology continues to bring new changes. DFA supports alignment while placing groups. A new check is added to check the paste mask against a PLACE_BOUND or DFA_BOUND component body. A new DFA Package replaces the legacy DFA functionality. You can leverage DFA_BOUND_TOP and DFA_BOUND_BOTTOM shapes to represent the component body as an alternative to place bound shapes.
• 3DX Canvas enhancements listed for OrCAD X Presto are also available here. You can export 3D models, such as STEP or IGES, from 3DX Canvas. You can even output the complete 3D representation of the design or a part of it based on visibility settings.
• Save time in Padstack Editor by copying and pasting pad geometries between the Design and Mask Layers tabs or within the same tab. New commands―Paste with Offset and Copy Design Layer Pad with Offset―are introduced.
• Customize Timing Meter colors in the Route – Connect category with colors beyond the default Red (Error), Yellow (Warning), and Green (Pass) conditions.
• New properties are available to generate adjacent layer keepouts for high-speed components and their pins dynamically. Adjacent layer keepouts can also be created during zone and embedded placement. These new properties specify adjacent layer keepout parameters, which you can assign to the schematic or layout. The properties transfer back and forth using the front-to-back or back-to-front flow. Auto-generated dynamic keepouts get processed during placement, move, delete, and padstack update operations.
• With specific licenses, you get a Query Based Rules workbook that offers flexibility in developing specific Same Net Via to Via rules based on groups of vias, Trace Connected, or Not Trace Connected (stitch vias). You can build a query to narrow down the via padstacks into a specific group, add query-based rules to specify the required spacing or pitch between the two groups, and view constraint violations on the canvas.
• Allegro X Advanced Package Designer now supports ODB++ file import, Allegro X Pulse Publish for Manufacturing (PFM), and the OASIS format. Design markup and reviews are now integrated with APD. A new Cascading Bond Wire Loop check is introduced in package integrity checks to find redundant wire bonds causing loops. Two new bubble options are now available for moving bond fingers: Shove Same Profile and Hug Same Profile. 

Allegro X Pulse

• Publish for Manufacturing (PFM) is now available with Allegro X Advanced Package Designer. For users without access to APD, PFM provides options to extract and publish IC package design metadata from Pulse to 3DEXPERIENCE. PFM can deliver multiple files with a single utility without requiring various PFM utilities for every published file. The Mandatory Utilities section is revamped and renamed to Utility Selection Rules. From here, administrators can define the utilities to run when data is published, the default utilities for data publishing, and group utilities to run together.
• The 3DEXPERIENCE connector in PFM now supports searching strings in product numbers, storing assembly and board selection revisions with the Pulse project, filtering unassigned PLM part numbers, and filtering board item numbers based on the boards linked in the PLM system to the specified assembly number.
• Version control filters support version metadata, layouts associated with schematics, tags, and comments. You can also use these filters to compare versions or roll back to an earlier version.
• Administrators can add custom tags for committing designs and customize the Live BOM summary pane. The Live BOM pane also has many UI changes. 

Allegro X System Capture

• The MTBF Analysis now supports the FIDES standard.
• Thermal analysis shows the board thermal map in a tab within System Capture. You can launch analysis workflows in the tab. New controls are added to the dashboard for temperature-based classification and to toggle between the board and junction temperature.
• Designers working on shared designs can set constraints at the page level, use filters when working with design versions, roll back to read-only versions, change the design locking mode from page level to block level, and use new controls in the Open Projects dialog box.  
• New Tcl commands are available for extracting design information.
• In AWR MWO integration, you can import RF blocks into an existing System Capture design without affecting the grid of the design. From this release, you can import a technology file from Allegro PCB Editor for CUL translation. The CUL Translator now supports appending, deleting, and comparing translated libraries.
• Part Manager can now flag user-modified property changes in the design and update them with the libraries or preserve overrides.  
• You can stop exporting to netlist when specific properties do not match the PTF_MISMATCH_EXCLUDE_INJ_PROP directive.
• Live BOM has collapsible panels that show charts and tables. New filter controls are available. Overridden quantities for a part are highlighted in a different color (blue). You can reset part properties to the base BOM.
• Design search-related enhancements include permission-based searching, new sections to access Project, Design, Layout, and Other details, schematic previews, viewing project details on the web, and opening linked-layout version control for the designs and blocks.

PSpice and PSpice Advanced Analysis

• PSpice simulator supports parallel simulation, generates faster simulation results, and improves performance for the Monte Carlo, Parametric Sweep, and Temperature Sweep analyses.
• PSpice A/D supports standard transient sources ISO 7637-2 and ISO 16750-2 for automotive applications. To place the transient sources, a new category, Automotive Pulses, is added in the PSpice – Source node of Component Explorer.
• You can exclude the noise contribution of a device from the Noise Analysis report by adding the NOISELESS property to the component with the value YES.
• The ability to simulate audio input files is added. To simulate the audio input source, place the WAVESRC component and define the channel and path for the input source.
• Persona support for simulating circuits is added. Simulation personas are an easy and effective way to define and apply simulator options globally. While many default personas are available, you can create custom simulation personas.

OrCAD X Capture CIS

• The Component Explorer interface enables placing components from the CIS database.
• Workspace management provides the ability to change the local workspace location, override the standard revision sequence, and specify a custom revision for a component, design file, or library file when publishing it. 
• This release also supports the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) revision standard. You can enable the ASME revision standard and specify a delimiter other than the standard delimiter.
• In Live BOM, you can configure manufacturer details and map Live BOM properties to the corresponding schematic properties, making the existing CIS database designs compatible with Live BOM without any additional steps.

These were some top changes available in Hotfix 003 of Cadence OrCAD X and Allegro X Release 23.1. For more information on the new features and enhancements made across products, see What’s New in Release 23.1. 

For supported platforms and other release compatibility information, see the README.pdf available on downloads.cadence.com. This file is also available in the Disk 1 folder of the downloaded installation media.

We’ll soon be back with more in-depth blog posts on the new features and enhancements made across products, so watch this space. 

If you have questions or feedback, send them to pcbbloggers@cadence.com.

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Allegro Release Team