Automatic PCB Router crashes on startup

Hi Julian,

I doubt the issue is related to your hardware as I use a R9 here and its fast. It could be related to OS permissions. When you installed Allegro/Orcad did you install it as a current user or for all users ?.

You could try exporting the Specctra files directly from within Allegro & then Launch Specctra to see if they will load or not. In Allegro  go to file export Router. This will create the files needed for the router.

What os are you running there ?

Best regards.

It is installed only for current user, running Windows 11 on both machines. Starting specctra vom /bin/ gives error 0xc000007b.  

With Process Monitor i found, that obviously MFC110u.dll is missing. This seems to be included in visual studio 2012 redist. Also installing this is not changing this error. 

On my system here the cadence software is installed for all users. The local user account on windows to run the software is a standard windows account with administrative privileges. So your basic administrator account. The Cadence license manager is also installed on my local machine. So everything is local, Not using a network to access the cadence installation or the license manager.

I had seen in the past installing the software for just the local user caused issues. I think it is better to install the software for all users instead.
There is an option when installing the software to do this but it can be a choice that is easy to miss.

Before doing a re-install, verify the pcb editor and capture works ok. I imagine they should. If Not check that the cadence license manager is running under the windows services and try launch capture or the pcb editor to check they work ok.

The strange thing on this is your .DSN specctra files are zero bytes. Even if specctra was ok it still would have no file to use. Within the PCB editor with your board loaded go to File > Export  Router and browse to a folder to save the specctra .dsn file. Save the file. The physical exported file should not be zero bytes, it may be a few kb.

Last thing is go to Start menu and look for the Allegro Pcb Router icon. Right click on it and run it as an administrator. Speectra should load.
Point to your .DSN file and see if the router runs. If it does run then it would seem that some sort of permission issue is causing specctra not to load from within the pcb editor.

If none of this seems to help, reinstall for all users.

Hopefully you will get it to run.

Best Regards.

On my system here the cadence software is installed for all users. The local user account on windows to run the software is a standard windows account with administrative privileges. So your basic administrator account. The Cadence license manager is also installed on my local machine. So everything is local, Not using a network to access the cadence installation or the license manager.

I had seen in the past installing the software for just the local user caused issues. I think it is better to install the software for all users instead.
There is an option when installing the software to do this but it can be a choice that is easy to miss.

Before doing a re-install, verify the pcb editor and capture works ok. I imagine they should. If Not check that the cadence license manager is running under the windows services and try launch capture or the pcb editor to check they work ok.

The strange thing on this is your .DSN specctra files are zero bytes. Even if specctra was ok it still would have no file to use. Within the PCB editor with your board loaded go to File > Export  Router and browse to a folder to save the specctra .dsn file. Save the file. The physical exported file should not be zero bytes, it may be a few kb.

Last thing is go to Start menu and look for the Allegro Pcb Router icon. Right click on it and run it as an administrator. Speectra should load.
Point to your .DSN file and see if the router runs. If it does run then it would seem that some sort of permission issue is causing specctra not to load from within the pcb editor.

If none of this seems to help, reinstall for all users.

Hopefully you will get it to run.

Best Regards.

One other thing to try. The Allegro/Orcad comes with some example specctra files. They are under

c:\cadence\SPB_17.2\share\specctra\tutorial folder. Launch specctra "Allegro Pcb Router" from start menu icon and try load one of those .dsn files. I used "Conflict.dsn" as a test. Works fine here. If your on a newer version of allegro the path should be the same except for the SPB_17.2.

Best regards.... 

I guess the installation process is not the right. I will try a new, for all users and have a try again. License works. Allegro PCB Router does somehow not exist.. 

When you install the software, choose all options even if you don't have a license for them. Hopefully after a new install all will work ok.

Best regards.