Display issues with Cadence and 4K monitors

Per several websites the ibb.co domain that are hyperlinked above are malware.  Please confirm you image links!

I changed the links to another website. If you have a better one, don't hesitate to tell me.

Hi, maybe try taking a look at that windows system variable again.

To set an OS level System variable go to Control Panel > System, then click "Advanced System Settings"

Click the button "Environment Variables"

There are two possible options to add that are a user variable and a system variable. You need to use a system variable as this would be applied to the OS.

Add in a new system variable.

The variable name is  ALLEGRO_HIGH_DPI_ENABLED 

The value is 1.

Save that and reboot your system. See if the 4K scaling works better now.

Just a note on this. Alot of monitors do support 4K today, but unless you are using a really massive monitor like a 50 Inch or something similar there is no advantage to using 4K.
What size monitor are you using ?.

Hello and thank you very much for the detailed answer.

I did that but unfortunately it didn't changed anything to the problem. I will try contacting the support from our local Cadence distributor.
I figured that I am not using the latest update, maybe that will make things better.

The monitor is 27". To be honest I don't really care about the fact that it is 4K or not, but it is a great improvement compared to the HD display I was using before. Allegro looks way better now, all the details look better, especially when I zoom out, I can still see component without having to zoom in again. Circles (vias, PTH...) keep looking like actual circles when I zoom out, which was not at all the case before. The only problems are the menus...

Hi Soll

I came across an appnote from EMA that may help you out so it is possibly worth a try to see if it fixes the Icon scaling etc. Here is the link.

https://techsupport.ema-eda.com/support/solutions/articles/48001060574-modify-the-size-of-allegro-pcb-editor-icons-for-4k-screens

Hopefully that will be the fix for you, let us know if it works. Maybe go with approach #2 in the appnote first.

All the best.

Hi Excellon and thank again for taking the time to answer.

The configuration in the first approach is what I did with Allegro 17.4 and 17.2, I tried it with 16.6 and this is what causes the menu items to be so small (If I don't use this settings, everything is blurry). It worked really well with Allegro 17.4/17.2.

I also tried to find that tbiconsize in the user preferences UI>General... But it is not there. I don't know why since it seems that most people can find this option.

I will be in vacation for a week. After that I will update all Cadence softwares to latest update (couldn't do it this week as the IT guy isn't here this week).

Thank you again !

This user preference wasn't available until 17.2 so you won't be able to set this in 16.6. Remember 16.6 was end of life in Dec 2018 so Cadence will not have made changes like this to support 4k monitors. They are however supported in 17.2 and 17.4 which is what you are seeing.

This user preference wasn't available until 17.2 so you won't be able to set this in 16.6. Remember 16.6 was end of life in Dec 2018 so Cadence will not have made changes like this to support 4k monitors. They are however supported in 17.2 and 17.4 which is what you are seeing.

Hello Steve and thank you for the reply.

Actually I don't have this option available in any version I am using, 16.6, 17.2, 17.4.

We have updated Cadence to the latest patches available. Now 17.4 is completely broken :D All the windows have strange sizes, for instance the "Import Netlist" window is too small to display the buttons and the path field, and I can't resize it. I simply cannot import a netlist now.

We have managed to find what seems to be the cause to this problem : The Windows option to adjust the scaling. I have it set to 150% (the value recommended by windows). If I set it to 100%, The windows in Cadence have a good size, but the texts are so small I can barely read them. What I don't understand is that every other software we use are working properly with this Windows setting.

Hi Soll

I was wondering what video card you are using at that end ?.

How do things look if you run at 1080p instead on that 4k capable monitor ?

All the Best.

Hello and sorry for the long delay ! My video card is a PNY NVIDIA Quadro K2200 which has "support for multiple 4K displays" according to its datasheet.

For the update : I have not been able to work this out for now. I am working on a major project on 17.2 so I'll see if I can find a solution after that.

SPB series software does not support 4K well; secondly, the UI is really pleasing; the title is too large; the border is too thick; many companies use laptop external monitors;

A lot of unreasonable design of allegro UI.

orcad doesn't support 4K at all; the font is blurry; the menu bar font is too small; the size cannot be set.

Secondly, there are many small mistakes...