DESIGN ENTRY CIS RENUMBERING?

1.  I don't normally do this but I think this can be found in the annotation tool under "Advanced..."

1. Not seen OrCAD not use last_ref_des+1 in a while so perhaps someone with experience can speak to this...

1.  I don't normally do this but I think this can be found in the annotation tool under "Advanced..."

1. Not seen OrCAD not use last_ref_des+1 in a while so perhaps someone with experience can speak to this...

The version I have does not seem to have advanced button under annotate.  That said, I have all versions at my disposal, just need to know which one;  This is such an obvious need;  If I have one section of design for Bluetooth and one section for Wifi, I make all Bluetooth x500 and all Wifi x600;  then when I lay out PCB I know exactly how to group parts.  Renumbering parts on a single page basis vs entire design is quite intuitive.  In fact, one could just create new schemo, move a page of design to new schemo, renumber, then move back IF NUMBERING COULD START AT A SPECIFIC NUMBER.

as for "last_ref_des+1", as not really that;  rather was just next available in that series.  FOr example, if you have R100, R101, R102, R104, R105....If I copy R100, paste, it becomes R103.  It "Fills the holes".   This worked great up until about 2012, then it SUDDENLY quit working!  

Ahh...the way Cadence approaches the idea of groups of parts such as you describe is through the "ROOM" property that's been around *forever*.  Allegro honors that.  You can use it to place only parts of a certain ROOM, then move the ROOM, etc... or just renumber the ROOM.  It's a great feature to solve the issue you're trying to do by using ref designators instead.  I personally prefer to have my designators sequenced on the board so I can find my parts easily but to each his own.

As far as the advanced property, in OrCAD that feature is certainly in 17.2 but not sure what hotfix it might require.  I am using the latest hotfix.  It does not exist in 16.6 tho.  And as I'm sure you're aware, once you switch a design to 17.2 you're stuck.  No moving back to 16.

The ref des feature you're looking for has been under the miscellaneous settings (Auto Reference>Automatic->Design Level).  When "design level" is turned off it picks ref_des+1, otherwise it will use the "gap" like you're looking for.

Thanks, I will review ROOM property to see if it will help.  Again, I want parts in that "ROOM" to be numbered starting at my discretion, not at "1";

As far as "design level" Option, just tried it, it does NOT solve the issue.  I copied "C305", pasted it, now I get "C1" which is not the gap, rather COMPLETELY at the other end of the spectrum.  I expect to get "C322" as it was the next open in that RANGE.  This is how the tool USED to work, not sure why it is now broken...

Renumbering from Allegro will allow you to filter any components with specific ROOM property and then you can give rules as to how it renumbers.  The poorly documented "fst_ref_des" variable will direct Allegro to start its numbering with whatever you set that variable to (100, 200, etc..).

Regarding the schematic, I do find as well that it finds the "first available" ref des -- not sure how to get it to select the range as you mention.

Again, the range assignment USED TO WORK.  I am unclear why it suddenly quit working;