PCB Design Blogs

Here is a sleeker and more modern version of the OrCAD® and Allegro® release, with enhanced usability and a slew of new productivity-enhancing features. You get more intuitive and easy-to-use flows that enable optimized schematic-to-board-to-manufacturing transitions. So, whether you design schematics, work with physical layouts, manage or create libraries and parts, or administer ECAD processes, there are features in this release that will benefit you.

Download the release from Cadence Downloads right away or first read through this list of the major enhancements made for each product.

This is only a representative list with brief overviews. For details of the changed features and many other enhancements introduced in this release, see What’s New in Release 17.4-2019. 

Allegro PCB Editor and Allegro Package Designer+

• Do you want to open a 17.2 design in 17.4 but retain the database format from 17.2? Maybe because the overall team is transitioning and everyone isn't using the same release, or because your supplier is still using 17.2? It’s possible now with the new 17.2 Compatibility Mode.
• Of course, you want the manufactured board to be what you designed. But have you included all the manufacturing constraints correctly? A tedious and error-prone task. No problem. Allegro Constraint Compiler (ACC) does that for you automatically by translating design constraints from an external source directly into Constraint Manager.
• Don’t you wish you could peep under the mechanical covers of PCB assemblies? Or, cut a symbol right from where it is instead of clicking through menus? All these and more are possible now with an enhanced 3D Canvas.

Allegro ECAD-MCAD Library Creator

• Dimensioning of footprints is important not only for measurements but for dimensioning and documentation as well. Don’t we all know the time saved by a well-documented footprint? Well, you have the Dimension Style form to do all you ever wanted to do, such as control formatting, modify individual dimensions, customize dimensions, or export dimensions to PCB Editor.

Allegro EDM

• Want to store, analyze, and use data with secure Cloud support? What if you could browse and search through various logs from a web browser instead of trawling through multiple machines? That is exactly what (and more) you get with the Pulse platform, which gives you the power of data-driven design with a secure ECAD product management system and Cloud deployment ability. 

Allegro System Capture

• Now comes with an enhanced Dark Theme but that is just the beginning. Your design journey with System Capture is a smooth one with many ease-of-use features that ensure errors are flagged as soon as possible. Overwhelmed by a crowd of menus? Context-sensitive menus and controls come to your rescue. And, what’s more, you can customize almost every window – place them per your comfort and size them as you wish! Tired of clicking in multiple tabs? They are now merged so that you can see the entire design along with all its derived data, variants, BOM, board files, and so on, from the same Project viewer.
• System Capture now provides embedded version management. For example, you can roll back to an earlier version,  create design branches, or preview any version of a design without opening it. 

OrCAD Capture CIS

• OrCAD Capture CIS aids you in your contribution to a greener earth by means of a modern and sleeker Dark Theme. But that is not all. A dark theme reduces power usage, improves visibility, and makes it easier for screens to be read. This, of course, is in addition to the enhancements in usability and PCB flow.
• A major challenge while creating your schematics is the availability of parts. Now, you can search for and download millions of electronic components, symbols, footprints, manufacturer datasheets, and 3D STEP models from Cadence-supported content providers — SamacSys and Ultra Librarian.

PSpice and PSpice Advanced Analysis

• We are committed to healthier earth as you are, and along with that, we ensure your ease and efficacy too. So, Dark Theme is in PSpice as well, ensuring reduced power usage, improved visibility, and easy-to-read screens.
• Now, you can view the tabbed documents in multiple monitors, say, to compare two traces without having to alternate between tabs. 

Topology Explorer – New Signal Integrity Tool

• Topology Explorer combines Parallel Bus and Serial Link analysis capabilities and offers AMI Builder to generate AMI models, in addition to many other features.

Contact Us

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

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Allegro Release Team