Allegro X System Capture (EE Cockpit) - Recent Threads

RE: SysCap – Tip of the Week: Allegro System Capture in Offline Mode

TP202606164843 — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:18:35 GMT

For engineers who frequently work in remote or spotty-connectivity locations, Allegro System Capture's offline mode is a very useful enhancement. The ability to continue editing schematics and accessing cached parts without the Pulse server is a true workflow saver.

SysCap – Tip of the Week: Allegro System Capture in Offline Mode

DesignTech — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 10:07:35 GMT

With SPB 23.1, Allegro System Capture offers an offline mode functionality to work without being connected to the Pulse server. It also benefits the schematic engineer to work seamlessly when there is weak or no internet connection (local license should be available). Through this functionality, System Capture lets you disconnect from the Pulse server and work with preexisting parts that are available in the design cache.

You can do several operations if System Capture is in offline mode. A few of these are:

Allows editing of any assigned page or block
Allows connectivity change to the existing parts
Allows adding new parts from the cache library
Allows PDF generation and schematic checking (Audit)
Allows using the existing parts (addition, find and replace)
Allows copying project as…
Allows saving, closing, and opening the design

Team DesignTech
Cadence Design Systems

How do we map special symbols like power and ground in system capture?

Smith ecad — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:53:02 GMT

I have multiple power symbols which I want to use in my design but in the special symbols section I could only see cadence symbols.

How do I add my symbols to use it in my schematic.

RE: How do we map special symbols like power and ground in system capture?

WallEE — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 11:34:49 GMT

In Allegro System Capture, you can control most of the customizations through the CPM directives specified at the site/project level. If you need to configure the "Special Symbols" section to add/delete components like power symbols, flag bodies, and so on, the following steps should help:

Navigate to your $CDS_SITE/cdssetup/projmgr/ and open the site.cpm file in a text editor.

Note: If you do not have a site-level customization, you can do the changes at the project level by modifying the project CPM file.
In the site.cpm file, locate the section START_CANVAS/END_CANVAS and add the following directive:

POWER_SYMBOLS '<NAME>!<VOLTAGE>:<LIBRARY>:<SYM NAME>:<SYM VERSION>'

Example: POWER_SYMBOLS '+1_5V!1.5V:standard:p1_5v:sym_1'
Save the site.cpm file and launch Allegro System Capture.
In the "Special Symbols" section, you should now see the configured power symbol.

Simplify Schematic Management with Function Overlays in System Capture

Akshay khosla — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:44:19 GMT

System Capture introduces Function Overlays, a powerful way to group components and nets directly on the schematic using graphical shapes.

With Function Overlays, you can define functional regions, assign common attributes (both standard and user-defined), and visually highlight sections for better clarity.

Simply draw an overlay, configure its properties, and all components or nets within it automatically inherit those attributes. Additionally, overlapping overlays allow objects to receive combined properties—making it ideal for complex, multi-domain designs.

This feature significantly improves design organization, readability, and efficiency, reducing the need for manual property assignments for individual components.

To add an overlay in your design, from the floating toolbar, click on Add Functional Overlay option and select the desired shape.

After selecting a shape, the Function Overlay Dialog box is open as shown below. You can define the Overlay Name and add Component and Net properties to be added to the components under this group. You can also toggle the formatting button to highlight the nets / components in the overlay.

Once you have defined the overlay, you can select the components and nets inside it to see that the properties are added to them as defined in the function overlay dialog box.

You can also enable the Function overlay view in the project tree from the Project toggle view.

How do we control the symbol properties centrally in system capture like text ,font,size, colour etc? Especially for old DE-HDL library?

Smith ecad — Mon, 11 May 2026 05:45:49 GMT

I have a old Concept based HDL libraries, I know I can use it in system capture but how do I control its properties?

RE: How do we control the symbol properties centrally in system capture like text ,font,size, colour etc? Especially for old DE-HDL library?

Smith ecad — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:49:28 GMT

Thank you this helps.!!

RE: How do we control the symbol properties centrally in system capture like text ,font,size, colour etc? Especially for old DE-HDL library?

WallEE — Fri, 15 May 2026 13:45:39 GMT

Hi Smith,

In System Capture, text associated with components (RefDes, Value, Device Name, etc.) is controlled using Canvas-level CPM directives.

please find an example below:

Recommended Directives (START_CANVAS)

START_CANVAS

INST_TEXT_FONT_NAME 'Arial'

INST_TEXT_FONT_SIZE '5'

INST_TEXT_FONT_COLOR '#008000' ; Green

INST_TEXT_FONT_BOLD 'FALSE'

INST_TEXT_FONT_ITALIC 'FALSE'

INST_TEXT_FONT_UNDERLINE 'FALSE'

END_CANVAS

What these control:

Applies to all instance properties including:
- RefDes (e.g., R1, U2)
- Passive values (e.g., 10k, 1uF)
- Device name / part name

Symbol properties for all components are treated as instance properties in System Capture and same directive is used.

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:38:11 GMT

Many thanks again,

the problem is solved.

Best Regards

Moyan

TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 06:09:04 GMT

Dear all,

may i ask how could i make a TCL/script in order to get the Custom variables variant specific Values for specific row(For example row3 DOC_PART_PCBA) and then give/transfer this value to a customer variables?

Many thanks

Moyan

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

CadAP — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:06:13 GMT

MZ20250602835

Please try to remove the "~" from the list "valuesOnlyList" where we are storing the dict key and value.

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 10:19:09 GMT

Dear CadAP,

during test i have one issue, if the data content ~ and changed the row in this case i can`t get the value later for custom variable.

RE: Launching *.cpm File in System Capture via Batch File

MZ20250602835 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:10:37 GMT

Many thanks for your reply.

I set a batch file in order to set it:

@echo off

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "projectFolder=%~dp0..\..\..\.."
for %%I in ("%projectFolder%") do set "projectFolder=%%~fI"
echo %projectFolder%

for %%f in ("%projectFolder%\*.cpm") do (
set "file_list=!file_list! %%~nxf"
)
cd %projectFolder%
echo %file_list%
%CDSROOT%/tools/bin/syscap -proj %file_list% -product "PCB_design_studio"

Launching *.cpm File in System Capture via Batch File

MZ20250602835 — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 15:43:18 GMT

Dear all,

i found the command below to open a cpm File if the project name is available.

syscap -proj <project_name>.cpm

syscap -proj <project_path>/<project_name>.cpm -tclfile <tcl file location>\<tcl_file_name>.tcl -product "<license name>" -nograph

May i ask how could i set the value in order the system capture to find the *.cpm and open it without giving a concrete project name?

Best Regards

Moyan

RE: Launching *.cpm File in System Capture via Batch File

JCTEYSSIER0 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 05:26:58 GMT

Hello,

*.cpm will not be possible since you can have several cpm file in same <project_path>.

I have already use such configuration in order to acess different version of same project

RE: SysCap - Tip of the Week: Changing the grid units from inches to millimeters

CP202604075044 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 03:05:41 GMT

This is a helpful tip for those using metric libraries! I've definitely run into situations where misaligned grids cause headaches. Remembering to adjust the GRID_PIN_PITCH is crucial – especially when dealing with complex layouts. It's easy to overlook these seemingly small details, but they have a huge impact on ensuring a consistent design. It's like a Slope in the foundation, get it wrong and everything above suffers! Thanks for sharing this reminder.

SysCap - Tip of the Week: Changing the grid units from inches to millimeters

DesignTech — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:55:55 GMT

By default, the grid unit is in inch because Cadence-provided Standard libraries use inches for all components.

If your libraries use millimeters, you can change the unit from inches to millimeters by modifying the site-level cpm file.

Change the following in the START_CANVAS section of the site.cpm file:

From:

GRID_UNIT_MEASURE 'INCHES'

GRID_PIN_PITCH '0.1'

To:

GRID_UNIT_MEASURE 'MILLIMETER'

GRID_PIN_PITCH '1.00'

The changed grid unit will come into effect when Allegro System Capture is restarted.

Team DesignTech
Cadence Design Systems

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:49:22 GMT

Dear CadAP,

many many thanks again, i modified the script within checkFuncVar in order to get CV_VAR_X at one time so it works independent of the order of the variants.

happy Easter

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

CadAP — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:58:36 GMT

MZ20250602835

Retrieve the list of variants from the design using the function cps::getVariantNames, which returns the variant names in order, and store this list in a variable.

Iterate to the foreach loop defined in the above code and retrieve the variable value 'data'. Parse the variable by removing the prefix "CV_" and then match the resulting variant name against the list from above in order to obtain the corresponding property value.

This will help you to achieve you requirement.

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 07:37:36 GMT

Dear CadAP,

many thanks for your support. After test i got one issue and i could not figure out the reason yet. It seemed the value impact the sequence.

Sometime i got the wrong order of variant within variant.dat file and then i got the wrong value.

May i ask how could i guarantee to get the right order of the variant?

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

CadAP — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:37:47 GMT

MZ20250602835

we need to repone the design to read the cpm diretive, which is written by script.

For suppressing the message, you can use belwo command:

cps::setSuppressDialog <bool> tcl API can be used to suppress pop up messages.
e.g.
cps::setSuppressDialog 1
This will suppress all the pop up messages for current session. Executing same command with value 0 will re-enable pop up messages:
cps::setSuppressDialog 0

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:45:25 GMT

Dear CadAP,

i realised that the values will be updated after reopen the design.

But after reopen i get the warning because of the Pulse.

May i ask if is it possible to avoid this warning after reopen? or update the custom variables value without reopening the design?

Many thanks

MOyan

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

MZ20250602835 — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:37:34 GMT

Dear CadAP,

many thanks for your reply. I get the result and it works with your codes.

Thanks a million again.

Moyan

RE: TCL/script to get the Custom variables variant specific Values and transfer to a customer variable?

CadAP — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:23:30 GMT

MZ20250602835

Please try the script below, as it will update the custom variable value by reading from the variant.

For the purpose of this example, I've taken the first value of the variable from Variant in case of multiple variants.

proc checkFuncVar {} {

# puts "entering check mode"
set toolVar [lindex [cps::getAppVersion] 0]

set lDesigName [sch::dbGetRootDesignName]
cpb::extractFile "worklib/$lDesigName/variant/variant.dat" {variant.dat}
set filename "variant.dat"
set pattern "CV_"
set fp [open $filename r]
set functiontest {}
while {[gets $fp line] >= 0} {
if {[string match -nocase "*$pattern*" $line]} {
# puts $line
lappend functiontest $line
}
}
close $fp
return $functiontest
if {[file exists $filename ] == 1} {

file delete $filename

}

}

set data [checkFuncVar]

set lCustVar {}
set regex {\{\s*(CV_\w+)\s*=\s*'([^']+)'\s*;?\s*\}}

set valuesOnlyList {}
foreach {full _ rawValue} [regexp -all -inline $regex $data] {
set innerDict {}
foreach pair [split $rawValue |] {
lassign [split $pair =] k v
dict set innerDict $k $v
}
lappend valuesOnlyList $innerDict
}

# Example: print each values-only dict
foreach d $valuesOnlyList {
# # puts "prop : [llength $d ]"
# puts "prop : [lindex $d 0]"
set lLength [llength $d]
for {set i 0} {$i < $lLength} {incr i} {

set lPropName [lindex $d $i]
incr i
set lPropVal [lindex $d $i]
# puts $lPropName
# puts $lPropVal
if {$lPropName == "DOC_PART_PCBA"} {
lappend lCustVar $lPropVal
}

}
}

# puts $lCustVar
set lVarVal [lindex $lCustVar 0]
# puts $lVarVal

set lCustomVar [cps::setDirectiveValue CUSTOMVAR TEST_V1 $lVarVal STRING]

saveAll
cps::reopenProject

Try and let me know your feedbcak.

SysCap – Tip of the Week: Adding Variant-specific properties

DesignTech — Mon, 01 May 2023 15:15:40 GMT

System Capture supports assigning variant-specific properties by using custom variables.

You can assign variant-specific properties while creating a new variant or use the Variants > Edit Variant option to modify the properties of an existing variant.

Refer to our earlier posts for details on Managing Variants and Custom Variables.

Team DesignTech
Cadence Design Systems