Any way to export a footprint?

[silverfox]

This question is related to an earlier one I posted. The engineer who
created the design that I am working on is gone, as is his custom
footprint library. Layout has all the footprint information but since
the custom library file is not there, when I try to do an AutoECO, it
fails because it can't find the footprint in a library. I guess it
isn't smart enough to extract the footprint information that is
embedded in the design. Anyway, it would be nice if I could just
export the existing existing footprint to a LLB file so that I don't
have to redesign it. Probably it isn't that hard to design a
footprint, but I am green at this and in time pressure so would rather
not have to learn that in addition to everything else I am learning at
the moment. Any way to do it?

 

[Peter Bennett]

This question is related to an earlier one I posted. The engineer who
created the design that I am working on is gone, as is his custom
footprint library. Layout has all the footprint information but since
the custom library file is not there, when I try to do an AutoECO, it
fails because it can't find the footprint in a library. I guess it
isn't smart enough to extract the footprint information that is
embedded in the design. Anyway, it would be nice if I could just
export the existing existing footprint to a LLB file so that I don't
have to redesign it. Probably it isn't that hard to design a
footprint, but I am green at this and in time pressure so would rather
not have to learn that in addition to everything else I am learning at
the moment. Any way to do it?

I assume from your previous messages that you are using ORCAD - it
would be nice to mention that in each message so we don't have to look
for older messages, or make wild guesses.

Not having used ORCAD, I don't know if my Protel-based suggestion is
useful: Protel has a command to create a PCB footprint library from
the current PCB file - you might see if such a command exists in
ORCAD.

 

[[email protected]]

This question is related to an earlier one I posted.  The engineer who
created the design that I am working on is gone, as is his custom
footprint library.  Layout has all the footprint information but since
the custom library file is not there, when I try to do an AutoECO, it
fails because it can't find the footprint in a library.  I guess it
isn't smart enough to extract the footprint information that is
embedded in the design.  Anyway, it would be nice if I could just
export the existing existing footprint to a LLB file so that I don't
have to redesign it. Probably it isn't that hard to design a
footprint, but I am green at this and in time pressure so would rather
not have to learn that in addition to everything else I am learning at
the moment.   Any way to do it?

The footprint information is definitely present in your max file. You
can open a max file in the footprint library, in fact when orcad was
MAXEDA (15 years ago) that is how libraries worked, they were just max
files with lots of components and no nets.

Somehow you have confused the ECO into thinking that a component is
new because if the footpring field in schematic hasn't changed then
the ECO should leave the component footprint alone. You might try
adding your max file as the first file in the library editor before
running the eco. This shouldn't be necessary but it will force the ECO
to use local footprints first.

Hopefully you are not trying to run an ECO to just change a component
value, use the simplest ECO which just ECO' on a footprint or net
change.

Colin

 

[qrk]

This question is related to an earlier one I posted. The engineer who
created the design that I am working on is gone, as is his custom
footprint library. Layout has all the footprint information but since
the custom library file is not there, when I try to do an AutoECO, it
fails because it can't find the footprint in a library. I guess it
isn't smart enough to extract the footprint information that is
embedded in the design. Anyway, it would be nice if I could just
export the existing existing footprint to a LLB file so that I don't
have to redesign it. Probably it isn't that hard to design a
footprint, but I am green at this and in time pressure so would rather
not have to learn that in addition to everything else I am learning at
the moment. Any way to do it?

You are using the wrong AutoECO type. You don't need to reimport
footprints on an existing board unless you made a bunch of footprint
changes. Thus, choose a different type of AutoECO. On version 10, you
can't easily export the footprints from a board if there are any on
the solder side of the board. The obstacle and text data is messed up
when you pull the footprint info. You can copy the board to another
name and add that to your library if you're hell bent on trying to
reimport footprints. You can use MAX files as a library.

 

[silverfox]

I assume from your previous messages that you are using ORCAD - it
would be nice to mention that in each message so we don't have to look
for older messages, or make wild guesses.

Not having used ORCAD, I don't know if my Protel-based suggestion is
useful: Protel has a command to create a PCB footprint library from
the current PCB file - you might see if such a command exists in
ORCAD.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
GPS and NMEA info:http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron:http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

Yes, sorry I forgot to mention it was OrCAD.

 

[silverfox]

The footprint information is definitely present in your max file. You
can open a max file in the footprint library, in fact when orcad was
MAXEDA (15 years ago) that is how libraries worked, they were just max
files with lots of components and no nets.

Somehow you have confused the ECO into thinking that a component is
new because if the footpring field in schematic hasn't changed then
the ECO should leave the component footprint alone. You might try
adding your max file as the first file in the library editor before
running the eco. This shouldn't be necessary but it will force the ECO
to use local footprints first.

Hopefully you are not trying to run an ECO to just change a component
value, use the simplest ECO which just ECO' on a footprint or net
change.

Colin

Oh thanks very much! I didn't know I could open the MAX file in the
library manager. That solved that problem but it turns out that I
didn't need to do that either. I reran the ECO, this time AutoECO
Override Attrs. It still asked for the footprints that it couldn't
find at the specified mbedded footprint path, but this time I saw that
there was a Local library choice and everything was in there. Since I
am very new at this, there is a learning curve and I am trying my best
to climb it as fast as I can. Sometimes I feel pretty dumb when I
miss the obvious. But thanks for the help!