What's Good About Allegro PCB Editor DRC by Window? It’s in the 16.6 Release!

The 16.6 Allegro PCB Editor ‘DRC by Window’ command is an alternative to running DRC update at the full design level. As the name suggests, the command is limited to checking the elements within the extents of a user-defined selection window. On large, highly constrained designs where database performance is problematic, one can simply disable ‘On-line’ DRC mode if favor of this ‘On-demand’ method.

The ‘DRC by Window’ command is located in Tools – Window DRC or available from the Toolbar  

Read on for more details…

Disable the Online-DRC system. There are a couple of methods to consider:

• Setup – Enable Online DRC
• Display – Status
• Setup – Constraints – Modes

                         

               Setup menu                                             Status menu                                                            Constraint modes

The DRC mode status can be obtained by hovering over the banner field in the lower right corner:



Move a few components; slide a few routes with the intent of creating DRCs.
Select the Icon to run the ‘DRC by Window’ command then window around elements as appropriate to update the DRC status for that area:
                      



Notes on ‘DRC by Window’:

• Use in conjunction with the Find Filter elements
• Heads-Up Display is still active even though Online DRC is disabled
• If ‘Net’ is selected in the Find Filter, DRCs may be produced outside the window’s extents as the DRC will walk the elements associated with the net

I look forward to your input!

Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia