What's Good About Allegro PCB Editor NC Route? 16.6 has Several New Enhancements!

There are a few NC Route enhancements in the 16.6 Allegro PCB Editor release.

Read on for more details …

Separate plated vs. non-plated files

An option has been added to the NC Route user interface to specify that separate output files are desired for plated versus non-plated routing. When this option is enabled, non-plated routing for both the board and slot holes will continue to be output to a ‘<name>.rou’ file, while plated routing for both the board and slot holes will now be output to a new ‘<name>_plated.rou’ file.

When disabled, all NC Routes will continue to be output to the single ‘<name>.rou’ file:


 

Auto-generate tool codes and sizes

The current NC Route functionality requires that the user supply an ‘ncroutebits.txt’ file that specifies the EXCELLON format tool codes and sizes that will be needed for the routing of board paths and/or slot holes of a design. This requires that the user has detailed knowledge of the routing requirements of the design, and also that the tool sizes need to be specified in the EXCELLON format output units as opposed to the more familiar units of the design in question.

In 16.6, if an ‘ncroutebits.txt’ file is NOT found, the tool code and size information will be automatically determined and used. The information will also be output to an ‘ncroutebits_auto.txt’ file for reference, similar to the ‘nc_tools_auto.txt’ file generated by NC Drill in the same situation. The ‘ncroutebits_auto.txt’ file itself will never be read as currently named by NC Route. It could be renamed though to ‘ncroutebits.txt’ for any subsequent executions of NC Route to bypass the auto-generation.

Open an Allegro PCB Editor .brd file. Run the ‘NC Route’ application from Manufacture – NC – NC Route. Enable the new option ‘Separate files for plated/non-plated routing’:

 

Click on the ‘Route’ button. Use ‘File – File Viewer’ to access the files:


 

Open the ‘ncroutebit_auto.txt’ file noting the tooling codes:

 


I look forward to your feedback.

Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia