Adding skill command to the toolbar incl. Icon

Hi,

You can do it with a script. I just tested it. I was hoping to find an easier solution (like some env file settings, but did't work easily)

things to do:

1. You need an icon in bmp format

2. I have my command in a top menu as well. I haven't tested without this. This is important since you need to have it listed when customizing things. Let me know if you don;t know how to create your own top menu

3. on your machine, record the script like any other script, where you add this in the toolbar.

4. you can run this script at startup using a SKILL, and using a variable to make sure it runs only once.

5. I suggest you to have a cds_site location defined

6. I suggest you define an icon location path in environment variables, it will make things easier

that is it.

my script code:

# Allegro script
#    file: C:/Users/andak/OneDrive/Work/allegroWork/icoTest.scr
#    start time: Fri Apr 18 10:07:41 2025
#    Version: 23.1-2023 S008 (4262797) Windows SPB 64-bit Edition
version 23.1

setwindow pcb
trapsize 811
display toolbar param
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor spbtoolbareditor_tabView currentChanged Commands
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor_commands spbcommandtab_toolcombo CurrentIndexChanged Display
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor_commands spbcommandtab_add clicked
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcategory_list currentRowChanged 0
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcategory_list currentRowChanged 57
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcategory_list itemSelectionChanged KNEOS
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel currentChanged current 9 1 +
QtSignal previous "-1" "-1"
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel currentRowChanged current 9 +
QtSignal 1 previous "-1" "-1"
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel currentColumnChanged current +
QtSignal 9 1 previous "-1" "-1"
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel selectionChanged selected 9 +
QtSignal 0 9 1 9 2
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcommand_table cellClicked 9 1 9 1
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel currentChanged current 8 1 +
QtSignal previous 9 1
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel currentRowChanged current 8 +
QtSignal 1 previous 9 1
QtSignal spbcommand_table spbcommand_table_selectmodel selectionChanged selected 8 +
QtSignal 0 8 1 8 2 deselected 9 0 9 1 9 2
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcommand_table cellClicked 8 1 8 1
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcommandslct_add clicked
QtSignal spbtoolselector spbcommandslct_close clicked
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor_commands spbcommandtab_list currentRowChanged 7
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor_commands spbcommandtab_list itemSelectionChanged "Fiber Wave"
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor_commands spbcommandtab_icon_change clicked
QtFillin "pcbenv/toolbar_icons/demoIco.bmp"
QtSignal spbtoolbareditor spbtoolbareditor_closeBtn clicked

#    stop time: Fri Apr 18 10:08:19 2025

Skill menus can be added easily (posting this for everyone else) and then follow the script reply I gave earlier. Launching a script from SKILL is easy too.

Define a CDS_SITE system variable like shown below:

test it with:

create your corporate folder structure inside that folder (skill, scripts, icons, footprints etc).

For this discussion you need this one:

Q:\ADK_SITE\pcb\skill

in this folder you need to do 2 things:

1. in allegro.ilinit (create it if it's missing) add this line: load "company_name_menu.il"

2.have a file named company_name_menu.il with a content like shown below:

first item in the list is the name to display in the menu, the second item in the list is the alias you gave to your SKILL function, as shown at the bottom.

file: company_name_menu.il

KNEMenuList = '(
    (popup "KNEOS")
        ("DFA Check" "dfaer")
        ("Open Symbol's Lib Path" "ofl")
        ("WEB Search" "dbpi")
    )

procedure( KNEMenuLoadTrig()
    ; add a new menu item before the help menu
    res = axlUIMenuRegister(-1 KNEMenuList)
) KNEMenuLoadTrig()

DFA Check file entry, loaded in allegro.ilinit with load "dfaErrorCheck.il", to depict complete setup of top menu

file: dfaErrorCheck.il

axlCmdRegister( "dfaer" `dfaerMain)

(defun dfaerMain ()
    printf("\nDFA error check by ANDAK CONSULTING LTD (c) 2019-2025.\n")
); end defun

having a menu added through skill is not a problem. the question here is about the Toolbar itself, incl. Icon

Thanks for this info.

Whereas it might work using the scripting, it is for me more a kind of a 'workaround' rather than a real production solution.
automating the UI and button clicks is not really something which should be used for real products (and it is even more worse in OrCAD, as here a lot of things have to be done through the UI)
I think that Cadence has to come up with a real capability to do this.

Anyways, thanks for that

My pleasure.

I agree with you, and, after digging a bit more I realized that this probably will not be easy to do in the future (Presto is coming). Adding an icon in the menu is GUI dependent which is release dependant. So I think we need to accept this limitation and move on.

Regards