Regions in Allegro PCB

In the simplest of terms, (some steps skipped), you need to add a region (add->line or add->rectangle to "Constraint Region", "Layer" via the option box).  Edit its properties to add a Region Name (BGA08MM for example). 

Over in Constraint Manager you should see a Region with BGA08MM now.  Change its Referenced Physical Cset to use the one with the via you want.  You may want to create a Physical Constraint unique for this region.

If it's all working correctly, you should see Allegro use the via you call out for that region. 

 I wish you would not skip steps, for a newcomer to this tool it causes problems, since the documentation is not complete and the tutorials never cover this stuff in detail.

Here is what I did:

"Add >  Rectangle" and in the options menu set Active Class to "Constraint Region" and "All" (since the via will be on all layers)

Then with my selection filter set to shapes I did:

"Edit > Properties" and selected the rectangle.  I got "No valid items selected for the current operation, exiting".

 So how did you do step two, that is editing its properties?

 Attempt #2

 This time I tried creating it only on the TOP layer and it did let me update the properties, well not really.

 I get this error:

 E- (SPMHDB-363): A Region_Name property can only be set in a Symbol.

 I found the method.  It is partially covered in this app note:

http://www.cadence.com/rl/Resources/technical_papers/spb_Allegroconstraints_hickey.pdf

The one point not mentioned in the app note is that you have to have the regions already defined in the Constraint Editior before creating the regions on the PCB, since the only way that I could find to assign it was with the options menu.

 Hi,

I hope it's working now.  It was simpler in the 15.x series but limited in some ways.  The sequence does matter now where it did not before.

 Be sure to check your PMs...

Bill