Rename vias in ULP

On 10/03/2011 08:10 AM, Stephen Cole wrote:

Hi

 

is it possible within a ULP to rename vias?

I have the following situation, I have an RF board with polygons on 3 layers and several hundred vias linking these together.  The polygons all have the same name but the vias all have  diffrent names, i do not like the prospect of going throuch the NAME gui close on a thousand times.

I have tried NAME S$11 g in the command line (where S$11 is the name of a via as shown by the name dialogue) - this returns "unknown element: S$11 "

 

Have you tried grouping the vias and do a change name on the group?

Unfortunately you can not identify a via by it's name, since the name

reflects the name of its host net.

But, vias can be identified by coordinates.

You can't change anything in a ULP since they are read-only, but a ULP

can create a script that can be executed on exit from the ULP.  The

script needs to be of the form:

    name newNet (x y);

where "newNet" is the name of the polygon to which the via should

connect, and "x" and "y" are the coordinates of the via.  In the ULP you

can:

The next challenge is to spin through all the signals looking for vias

that need their name changed.  You can use a structure similar to:

string cmdBuf;

string exitScript;

board(B) {

        // Set the grid to mils

        exitScript += "GRID mil;\n";

        // Spin through the board's signals

        B.signals(SIG) {

            // filter out signals that we do NOT want to examine

            if (strcmp(SIG.name, "unwanted"))

                continue;

            // Spin through each via on this signal.

            SIG.vias(VIA) {

               // do other tests to eliminate vias that don't need

               // changing

            ...

               // collect vias to change

               sprintf(cmdBuf, "name %s (%f %f);\n", "newNet",

            u2mil(VIA.x), u2mil(VIA.y));

               exitScript += cmdBuf;

            } // End of vias loop

        } // end of signals loop

        // Set the grid back to what it was.

        exitScript += "GRID last;\n";

}  // end of board

// Execute the script we just built.

exit(exitScript);

Remember that the X and Y coordinates of the via are expressed in native

units, and need to be converted to whatever your grid unit is set to

before appending the script command to the exit string.  See the

u2mil(), u2mm(), and u2inch() functions on page 92 of the ULP manual,

ulp5110_en.pdf.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy,

    - Chuck

On 10/03/2011 08:10 AM, Stephen Cole wrote:

Hi

 

is it possible within a ULP to rename vias?

I have the following situation, I have an RF board with polygons on 3 layers and several hundred vias linking these together.  The polygons all have the same name but the vias all have  diffrent names, i do not like the prospect of going throuch the NAME gui close on a thousand times.

I have tried NAME S$11 g in the command line (where S$11 is the name of a via as shown by the name dialogue) - this returns "unknown element: S$11 "

 

Have you tried grouping the vias and do a change name on the group?

Unfortunately you can not identify a via by it's name, since the name

reflects the name of its host net.

But, vias can be identified by coordinates.

You can't change anything in a ULP since they are read-only, but a ULP

can create a script that can be executed on exit from the ULP.  The

script needs to be of the form:

    name newNet (x y);

where "newNet" is the name of the polygon to which the via should

connect, and "x" and "y" are the coordinates of the via.  In the ULP you

can:

The next challenge is to spin through all the signals looking for vias

that need their name changed.  You can use a structure similar to:

string cmdBuf;

string exitScript;

board(B) {

        // Set the grid to mils

        exitScript += "GRID mil;\n";

        // Spin through the board's signals

        B.signals(SIG) {

            // filter out signals that we do NOT want to examine

            if (strcmp(SIG.name, "unwanted"))

                continue;

            // Spin through each via on this signal.

            SIG.vias(VIA) {

               // do other tests to eliminate vias that don't need

               // changing

            ...

               // collect vias to change

               sprintf(cmdBuf, "name %s (%f %f);\n", "newNet",

            u2mil(VIA.x), u2mil(VIA.y));

               exitScript += cmdBuf;

            } // End of vias loop

        } // end of signals loop

        // Set the grid back to what it was.

        exitScript += "GRID last;\n";

}  // end of board

// Execute the script we just built.

exit(exitScript);

Remember that the X and Y coordinates of the via are expressed in native

units, and need to be converted to whatever your grid unit is set to

before appending the script command to the exit string.  See the

u2mil(), u2mm(), and u2inch() functions on page 92 of the ULP manual,

ulp5110_en.pdf.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy,

    - Chuck

On 10/03/2011 09:00 AM, Chuck Huber wrote:

On 10/03/2011 08:10 AM, Stephen Cole wrote:

>> Hi

>>

>> is it possible within a ULP to rename vias?

>> I have the following situation, I have an RF board with polygons on 3 layers and several hundred vias linking these together.  The polygons all have the same name but the vias all have  diffrent names, i do not like the prospect of going throuch the NAME gui close on a thousand times.

>> I have tried NAME S$11 g in the command line (where S$11 is the name of a via as shown by the name dialogue) - this returns "unknown element: S$11 "

>>

 

Have you tried grouping the vias and do a change name on the group?

 

Unfortunately you can not identify a via by it's name, since the name

reflects the name of its host net.

 

But, vias can be identified by coordinates.

 

You can't change anything in a ULP since they are read-only, but a ULP

can create a script that can be executed on exit from the ULP.  The

script needs to be of the form:

 

    name newNet (x y);

 

where "newNet" is the name of the polygon to which the via should

connect, and "x" and "y" are the coordinates of the via.  In the ULP you

can:

 

The next challenge is to spin through all the signals looking for vias

that need their name changed.  You can use a structure similar to:

 

string cmdBuf;

string exitScript;

board(B) {

 

        // Set the grid to mils

        exitScript += "GRID mil;\n";

I might add that you can skip the units conversion if you just use the

finest grid.

          exitScript += "GRID FINEST;\n";

 

        // Spin through the board's signals

        B.signals(SIG) {

 

            // filter out signals that we do NOT want to examine

            if (strcmp(SIG.name, "unwanted"))

                continue;

 

            // Spin through each via on this signal.

            SIG.vias(VIA) {

               // do other tests to eliminate vias that don't need

               // changing

 

            ...

               // collect vias to change

               sprintf(cmdBuf, "name %s (%f %f);\n", "newNet",

                     VIA.x, VIA.y);

               exitScript += cmdBuf;

            } // End of vias loop

 

        } // end of signals loop

 

        // Set the grid back to what it was.

        exitScript += "GRID last;\n";

 

}  // end of board

 

// Execute the script we just built.

exit(exitScript);

Enjoy,

    - Chuck