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Tools for viewing DSN file and allegro netlist.zip

Lance Gingerly

Hello,

We were given some old hardware design files by a customer for redevelopment. The files came in the form of .dsn and zipped files. I tried the Allegro Free Physical/MCM Viewer and got the following errors:

Error (SPMHDB-238): the database is corrupted. - with the .dsn files

Error (SPMHDB-180): database revision 1024.x is newer than current program version. - with the allegro netlist.zip or gerbers.zip files.

Suspecting these could be OrCad Capture files, I then tried the free OrCad ViewReader which turned out to be a translater rather than a viewer. The latest attempt was to download an OrCad 16.6 Demo Software and see if that's any good but apparently it takes time.

While I'm waiting for the download to finish, could anyone shed some light on this issue? What tools is it likely to be that I needed for viewing these design files?

Many thanks 

  • oldmouldy

    The Allegro viewer, which you have, will open a BRD file, likely you don't have one of those unless the data is relatively new.

    OrCAD Capture, which you are getting, should open the DSN file, provided that it was actually craeted by OrCAD Capture.

    The  netlist is likely to be text, but may not be if the PCB is not a BRD file.

    The Gerbers you should be able to open with a Gerber file viewer, there are a number of free ones available to download.

  • steve

    *.dsn could be either an OrCAD Capture schematic design or an Allegro Specctra Router design file (also *.dsn). More that likely it will be the first. The netlist files pstchip.dat, pstxnet.dat and pstxprt.dat can all be opened with a text editor. If you also have *.brd then this is the actual board file that you can open with the free viewer or the demo software.

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