DATA Pulse: Publishing to a PLM System Using Allegro Pulse as a Layout Source

To share Allegro^® System Capture design data stored in Allegro^® Pulse with others in an organization who have access to the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system used by the enterprise, designers use the Publish for Manufacturing (PFM) application. PFM can be accessed directly in the Allegro System Capture design environment and is used to publish engineering data such as Gerber files, and files for schematics, variants, BOMs, and layout data to the PLM system.

As administrators, you can use the out-of-the-box PLM templates to simplify PFM configuration of common PLM systems, such as PTC Windchill^® and 3DEXPERIENCE^®. You use these templates to specify the commands to generate and locate ECAD data to be published to a PLM system. In these templates, you can also define the source for layouts, manage permissions or custom attributes such as COST in a BOM, and the linkages between documents, such as schematic drawings and datasheets.

Using Pulse as a Layout Source

For the designers in your company working with boards outside of Allegro System Capture, you can define a global method for locating the layout database. Once defined, you can specify this common layout source in the PFM utilities for generating engineering data, which designers publish to a PLM system. A common data source makes it easier for administrators to configure the Board Utilities and ensures that all board-derived data is based on the same layout source.

You can use Pulse as the layout source for easy access to the up-to-date layout files that need to be published to the PLM system. With this option, the designers do not need to contact board designers for the files or copy the layout files to their hard disks because the layout files, always up-to-date, are accessible and available centrally in Pulse. Using Pulse as a layout source provides traceability for a set of publish deliverables, which are related to a specific layout version managed in Pulse.

To configure the layout source, log in to the Publish for Manufacturing application with administrator credentials and select Pulse as the layout source.

Now, when PFM is launched with a template using Pulse as a layout source, the latest committed version of the layout is downloaded to a project subfolder: temp/layouts. All the PFM utilities specifying the {{LAYOUT_SOURCE}} variable use this layout design when generating derived data such as Gerber, IDX, and IPC2581 outputs.

 
To select layout files from Pulse, designers must first link their logical designs and associated layouts. For details on linking designs and layout files, see ASCENT: Synchronizing Schematic and Layout Designs.

So, there you go. Choose Pulse as a layout source for up-to-date files and easy publishing. Keep an eye out for more posts on Pulse-managed layouts.

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