Last update 2005-May-1
The design created in Design Architect does not have reference designators assigned, and has not been associated with a specific printed circuit board geometry. The do_package script takes care of these details for you. Use the second command window you opened previously for running do_package, as you may wish to leave Design Architect open.
The arguments to the script are the name of your design (osc1 in our example), the name of the board geometry you wish to use, and the vendor who will fabricate the boards. The board name must be of a very specific form. For ENGR357, you should use "brd_engr357". The general form for boards other than the special ENGR357 style, is brdx_dimensionxy_dimensionnh, where the dimensions are in units of mils, or thousandsth of an inch. The nh at the end specifies "no mounting holes". If you wish to have four 0.125in holes spaced 0.25in in from each corner, then leave off the nh. The brd_engr357 is a special board for ENGR357, with the two 8-pin connectors prepositioned on each side of the board, and provisions for a RF shielding can to be soldered on the board. You only need to specify the board the first time you package your design or if you decide to change the board size.
ENGR355 Embedded Systems students should you the size of board specified by your instructor. For the past few years we have used a 5.5 x 3.2in board size, which would have a board name of: brd5500x3200nh (no mounting holes).
The choices of vendor are: apc (Alberta Printed Circuits), wwc (Walla Walla College, i.e., you), and gen (general vendor - usually Advanced Circuits). For ENGR357, you will be etching your boards in the Projects Lab, so specify wwc for vendor. Embedded Systems (ENGR355) project PCB's use the "gen" vendor, and are fabricated by either Advanced Circuits or Imagineering.
You only need to specify the vendor for the first run of do_package on a design.
hoodoo:/home/stirra/classes/engr357/pcbtut> do_package osc1 brd_engr357 vendor=wwc
using board: brd_engr357
... lots of lines ...
$set_transcript_output("osc1/package.transcript", @nopad, @window);
... long pause, followed by more lines ...
---------------------------------------------------
No Errors
---------------------------------------------------
If you see errors instead of the "No Errors" message, please paste the
exact error messages and the command line you typed into an email message to
me,
rather than come to me and say
"I got some errors". I can't help you very much if I don't have the
exact error messages.
If you change any components in your design, you need to rerun do_package before going back into layout. Some changes, such as reducing the number of instances of a logic gate, may require you to use the '-del-refs' command line option when you run do_package. You can see all the options available by typing 'do_package' with no options.
hoodoo:/home/stirra/classes/engr357/pcbtut> do_package
first time:
do_package.pl design_name board_geom < fab_vendor>
after first time:
do_package.pl design_name <-del-geoms=geom1,geom2> <-del-refs> <-vendor=fab_vendor> <-newbrd=brdname>
-del-geoms deletes geometries geom1,geom2,...
-del-refs deletes all reference designators.
-vendor specifies PCB fabricator (wwc or gen), which
determines which padstacks will be used.
-newbrd specifies a new board geometry to use (old board
geometry will be deleted, along with any added text).