What's Good About Net Color Override in Allegro? Check Out The SPB16.2 Release and See!

29 Oct 2009 • 1 minute read

Color assignment in Allegro PCB Editor has been accomplished with either a class/subclass color assignment or a color assignment done with the highlight command. With designs becoming more complex, it's desirable to be able to assign colors, including custom colors to independent objects.

Database elements may be displayed using either the class/subclass color or a single color assigned to an element, also known as a custom color. To assign a custom color to an entire net or to its pins, vias, clines, shapes, or rats, you use the Nets grid. Assigning a custom color automatically enables the custom color state for that element as well, meaning that the custom color displays in the design canvas.

You can also define how the custom color displays the element using a combination of states — none, highlight or custom color state, or highlight plus custom color state — all of which may be set independently. Highlighting or custom colors are set or unset by right clicking and choosing Set Highlight State or Clear Highlight State, respectively in the color chip. If an object is highlighted the text for that object type will be in bold.

To prevent a custom color from displaying in both the Nets tree and the design, right click and choose Clear Custom Color. A color box without a color assigned to it has no custom color state. These custom color and highlighting states affect the display of the element as follows:

Custom Color	Highlight State	Custom Color State	Display Using
Yes	No	No	Class/subclass color
Yes	Yes	No	Highlighted color
Yes	Yes	Yes	Highlighted color
Yes	Yes	No	Custom color. No highlighting
No	Yes	No	Highlight with temporary highlight color
No	No	Yes	Custom color with tempororary highlight color
No	No	No	Class/subclass color

As always - I welcome your question & suggestions.
Jerry "GenPart" Grzenia