Ordered ball array?

This could be done outside of the tool, no idea how to do this in APD itself, maybe SKILL?

I guess you mean by "step through in order" that, for example, A10 should come after A9 and not after A1, and so on? This is called a "natural sort", try your favourite search engine for "natural sort code" and you should get a bunch of source code examples, then "simply" adapt one of these for your specific needs.

The 16.2 version of APD include a "symbol spreadsheet" command (File->Export->Symbol Spreadsheet) which will write a tab-delimited file representing the ball grid array in a spreadsheet-type view, where the cell represents the pin's position in array. This may be helpful, depending on the final result you are aiming for

If not, the previous suggestion of grabbing code off the web for a natural sort is probably the best one, as skill doesn't have that sort type built in that I've seen.

Tyler,oldmouldy...

Thanks for the response!  I just tried 16.2 and that "symbol spreadsheet will give me a start."  One follow-up question... any idea how to get the max pin/ball from the db (in SKILL)??  Thanks!

 Aye, to paraphrase a famous quote from the USA's president 42 "It all depends on what your definition of what 'lowest to highest' is.

Seriously tho, if the pins of your BGA are laid out on a nice grid pattern then it's easy to populate a table of concentric rings of pins keyed on value of ring ( innermost to outermost) based on xy position. Then you just iterate through each pin in each key's list and set them to the various colors you want.

HTH,

Chris Walters

local Cadence guru

() 

Here's a code snippet to get a list of the balls in the bga. It assumes you are correctly setting the component class to "IO" and requires the attached algorithm for sorting in "natural order ". If you want the output to be an ASIC file change .xls to .txt.

 Craig

defun(pinlist ()
let((bga pins port)

  foreach(cmp axlDBGetDesign()->components
    when(equal(cmp->class "IO")
      bga = cmp
    )
  )
  port = outfile("pinlist.xls")
  pins=foreach(mapcan pin bga->pins
  list(pin->number))
  pins=sort(pins 'CAL_strnatcmp)
  foreach(pin pins
    fprintf(port "%s\n" pin)
  )
  drain(port)
  close(port)
  t

))