Creating PCB panels in PCB Editor

Not really like you are expecting.

When you create a PCB in the editor it will be an electrical representation of your schematic. That is 1 to 1. If you duplicate your board in the PCB editor which you can do you will no longer have that 1 to 1 relationship with the schematic.

What you need is a cam editor to create your Panel from the gerber files you created in the PCB Editor.

Normally when you send your gerber files to a PCB Manufacturer they will create the film for you from the gerber files.

Another way to think of it is this. The schematic and PCD contain electrical information such as Nets. The gerber file is just a graphical representation of your electrical Cad data.

The gerber file does not contain any "electrical" information per-se.. It is just a graphic.

Thanks Scott. 

  Yes I don't understand why there is not an easy way to panelize in orcad either, unlike Altium.

I did come across a company called  flowcad who have a plugin called "FloWare Apps for OrCAD and Allegro" which does what you are asking for, however it's very expensive.

Has anyone else came across a method which beats this on price/performance.

The procedure is quite lengthy

1,you should refrence designators in your SCH like, C21_1 and net names should also have "_1" in there end.

once you will have refdesg and netnames like these when you will copy the refdesg will automaticly increses and net names will need to replace from _1 to _2 and so on.

2, once you copy to the required quantity generate and load the netlist in Allegro PCB editor.

 3, now go to create module and make a module of your current PCB and open that module in new canves then go to export placement.

4,open the generated placement file in notepad and replace "_1" to "_2" and save the file

5,now go to import palcement and place the components at new palce and afetr that copy all clines and shapes ect from initial PCB to 2nd one.

6, repeat point 4 and 5 as many times as needed.

Regards

Nayyier 

 Hey Nayyierwajih,

 Well that method is defiantly cheaper, however I don't know if it's a good use of time, keep them coming!

Also does anyone have any good footprints of panels which they would like to share? I'm looking for an A4 size or 297mmx210mm.

Talk to your fabricator who can give you a list of standard panel sizes, tooling hole locations and fiducials should come from the Assembler. In regard to panelization why not just draw the steo and repeat information with just the board outline. This gives the manufacturer all the info he needs. He will probably want to copy the detail himself once he has run through there standard front end processes.

You can even create a new subclas under Manufacturing called Panel and then draw the outline, tooling holes, route detail and all you need to create the panel. Then make a new artwork showing this detail.