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Netex-G Revision History


v2.08 (5/9/2024)

ODB input can now come from network path on Windows

Both the ODB GUI and library were mistakenly failing to distinguish a local path from a network path. This has now been fixed by treating a network path as a literal one after recognizing it by looking for a beginning pair of backslash characters in the path.

Bug fix to orientation of nested non exploded ODB++ user symbols

The problem was found with nested user symbols contained in exploded ones. When ODB conversion is done without exploding all symbols, some of the symbols are exploded anyways if there is a change in polarity or dynamic text is floated to be resolved later. This has been fixed by forcing these nested symbols to be exploded as well.

Added memeory map files for speed optimization of ODB++ attributes

Odb2gdx64.dll library outputs "attrlist_all.db and "userattr.db" memory map files. This is an optimization for the odb2gdx64.exe ODB feature interpreter engine. This allows the attribute database to be created once and subsequently read in directly by odb2gdx64.exe each time it's called to translate each symbol and layer instead of having odb2gdx64.exe create it every time it's launched. Otherwise, this can be time consuming if there are a high number of attributes to search for in addition to a high number of symbols and layers as the database is being created.

Chord error table fix when concidering surface holes and islands

Chord error table fix when concidering surface holes and islands Each entry in the table has a polarity field. The mistake was to only use the surface polarity to help determine which entry to use for a given surface curve. What was needed was to also consider whether the curve was part of a hole or island. This has now been fixed.


v2.07h (11/23/2023)

Added support for additional ODB++ symbols

Added support for additional ODB++ symbols

Type Name                         ODB SYMBOL NAME
RoundedSquareThermalOpenCorners_type  s_ths
LineThermal_type                      s_thr
HomePlate_type                        hplate
InvertedHomePlate_type                rhplate
FlatHomePlate_type                    fhplate
RadiusedInvertedHomePlate_type        radhplate
RadiusedHomePlate_type                dshape
Dogbone_type                          dogbone
DPack_type                            dpack

Updated Boolean Components

The Boolean libraries used by ODB2GBR have been updated to the most recent version.
Updated the Gerber validation module.




Version 2.07g 8/25/2023

GUI Extents of profile

In certain cases, the profile extents incorrectly displayed "unknown". This has now been fixed so that when the profile information has been found to be correct, the extents will be displayed instead of "unknown".

Added ODB++ Cross symbol support

Added support for type name Cross_type and ODB++ Symbol name cross.

Report of unsupported symbol names

When the symbols below are encountered, a warning is reported. Before, nothing was reported.

Type Name                         ODB SYMBOL NAME
LineThermal_type                  s_thr
HomePlate_type                    hplate
InvertedHomePlate_type            rhplate
FlatHomePlate_type                fhplate
RadiusedInvertedHomePlate_type    radhplate
RadiusedHomePlate_type            dshape
Dogbone_type                      dogbone
DPack_type                        dpack

Updated Boolean Components

The Boolean libraries used by ODB2GBR have been updated to the most recent version.
Updated the Gerber validation module.




Version 2.07f 7/26/2023

Fixed GUI Lib for Memory Crash Involving "-step" and "-excludel" arguments

The memory used to support these arguments was only 260 bytes long. It has been changed to be dynamically allocated to the length of these arguments.

Software Updates

Fixed ODB2GDX library to include component layers in ODBTREE functions.

Updated ODB feature file converter (ODB2GDX ENGINE)

  • Added support for barcode filtering
  • Added command line options -filter_barc, -filter_barcode and -nobarc
  • Updated Boolean Components

    The Boolean libraries used by NETEXG have been updated to the most recent version.
    Updated the Gerber validation module.




    Version 2.07e 6/21/2023

    Software Updates Major Speed Improvements

    Optimized ODB++ file existence check for speed (Windows only). This generated a speed up of about two to five times.


    Version 2.07d 5/27/2023

    Software Updates

    Added support for ODB++ oblong thermal types.

    Added warnings for referenced undefined ODB++ symbol types.

    Bug fix to dropped ODB++ arcs with point precision smaller than output grid. These were mistakenly treated as small arcs and output as pads. The data point precision required to calculate the angle precision needed to be 10x the greater of data point precision and output grid. Otherwise, the arc data would be considered a small arc and drawn as a round pad the start point.


    Version 2.07c 4/27/2023

    Case Sensitive symbol in ODB++ Import

    User symbol were left undefined because of differences in upper and lower case letters in the names. A directory search is done to ensure the exact letter case is used in the name. This fixed the problem.

    Net names with '\' characters in Net Node clipping

    Nets were being dropped during net node data clipping. The escape characters in the net name were being confused with line continuation delimiters so that net names were being mistakenly truncated and generating undefined nets. The parsing of the net and node names associated has been fixed to prevent this.

    Software Update

    Updated net computation engine.
    Updated Boolean components.


    Version 2.07b 3/30/2023

    Software Update

    Dropped Padstacks - Custom RS274X round apertures which were to be used for padstack definitions were mistakenly segmented with default accuracy (arcres 9 degrees and arcsag 0) even though different values were being specified.
    As a result, the pad definition generator failed to recognize some polygons as being round vias in some instances (larger vias). This has now been fixed. The custom apertures are now segmented to the specified values.

    Ensure Leonov Polygon output uses full union booleanization - This prevents partition lines from appearing in final output.

    Force polygon format to be cutlines when it's Leonov for DXF and GDSII - A warning to that effect will be output if this is the case.


    Version 2.07a 3/15/2023

    Software Update

    This version drops boundaries from output during clipping stage if they have less than 4 vertices.


    Version 2.07 3/2/2023

    Empty Drill File Issue

    This version fixes a problem which occurred when there was an empty drill file and multi threading. The net computation engine has been updated to deal with this problem.

    Added materials alias support

    The file "ntxgmatalias.txt" contains material alias names for any given material name specified in the "ntxgmatlib.txt" file.
    Its format for each entry is as follows :
    [Material Name from "ntxgmatlib.txt"] [List of Alias Names]
    Items for each line are separated by spaces or ','. Each item can be quoted for spaces in a given item. An example is shown below :
    Gold "My gold" "His gold" "Her gold" "Their gold"
    FR4 "FR-4" "FR 4" "F R 4"
    Copper "My penny" "His penny" "Her penny" "Their penny".

    Software Updates

    Updated Boolean Components.
    Updated Gerber validation components.
    Updated IPC2581 importer:

  • Add silkscreen and solderpaste as board types.
  • Allow for IPC2581 stackup thickness to be preserved.
  • Convert IPC2581 stackup thickness to output unit.

  • Version 2.06 2/3/2023

    Added Ignore Missing Drill Files

    Added "Ignore Missing Drill Files" check box to "Drills" dialog box. This forces Netex-G to ignore drill files that do not exist.

    Software Updates

    Updated Boolean Components.
    Updated Gerber validation components.
    Updated IPC2581 importer to use QT.


    Version 2.05a 9/9/2022

    Increased execution speed time by 30-50%

    One optimization reduced sleep times between program launches (wrunbat update).
    Reduced the number of times the clipping program (ascexfilt64.exe) read an input file and internal boolean handle creation was removed from acsbool. The handle creation was opening and closing files unnecessarily for each boolean operation.

    Software Updates

    Fixed parsing problem of the STEPHDR files during ODB++ import. There was a problem handling space characters around '=' character.
    ODB++ importer uses version information from version.txt
    Implemented safe round ended thermal draw.
    Updated Boolean Components.
    Updated Gerber validation components.


    Version 2.05 9/21/2021

    Adjust settings to input units after ODB++ was read

    The input unit cannot be known until after, when output units are set to be same as input units.

    Use Chord Error inch unit specifier in ODB++ import

    This is done to guarantee use of desired value regardless of odb data units imported.

    Fix to Preference using same units as ODB++ imported data

    It was broken when ODB importing started using odbgui64.dll and odbgui_main64.dll instead of odb2gbr.dll. It was always being imported as MM. This has now been fixed.

    Additional Updates

    Update boolean engine.
    Allow multi threading in net computation.
    Gerber validation was updated.
    Gerber interpreter was updated to handle large layer count with over 50000 layers.


    Version 2.04 4/13/2021

    Dropped data with respect to isolated vias

    This condition caused all nets but the one(s) containing non-connected vias to appear. This has now been fixed.

    Fixed interpretation of X multiplication in Gerber Macro

    The 'x' multiplication operator was being supported but not the 'X'. This has now been fixed.

    Scaling large files over 2GB

    Scaling would fail and report error when some of the intermediate files were over 2GB. This has now been fixed.


    Version 2.03 3/18/2021

    Added a net information output file with GDSII export

    When a GDSII output file is generated, a net information file is generated (base_name_netinfo.txt

    NetexG Windows Library ODB++ Scan

    The bin folder contains odbscan_exec64.exe executable.

    The odbscan_sample folder contains the odbscan_exec64.exe sample code.

    The lib folder contains odbscan64.lib library. The DLL, odbscan64.dll, is currently loaded dynamically, but the .lib file is provided for static builds.
    Remove _ODBSCAN_LIB_RUNTIME_LOAD_ preprocessor define and include odbscan64.lib for static build.

    The artwork folder contains odbscan64.dll.

    The examples/odb_input folder has odb_test_scan64.bat batch file and 220_array.tgz ODB++ example file.

    NetexG Linux Library ODB++ Scan

    The bin folder contains odbscan_exec64.exe executable and a odbscan_exec script for setting up environment.

    The odbscan_source folder contains the odbscan_exec64.exe sample code.

    The lib64 folder contains libodbscan64.so shared object.

    The artwork folder also contains libodbscan64.so shared object.

    The examples/odb_input folder has odb_test_scan.sh script file and 220_array.tgz ODB++ example file.


    Version 2.02d 3/3/2021

    Software Updates

    Boolean and Gerber validation components have been updated.
    This version was compiled with VS2015. VS2008 is discontinued.


    Netex-G V2.02c Windows 2/9/2021

    Software Updates

    Boolean components were updated.

    Gerber validation components were updated.

    Merging stage (gdsfilt64.exe) input/output synchronization was fixed on Windows.


    Netex-G V2.02b Windows 1/28/2021

    Software Updates

    Suppress output of component pin vias in ANF output. These vias (entries starting w/ V) are not needed since component pins (entries starting w/ X) are already provided.

    Updated boolean modules and Gerber validation modules.


    Netex-G V2.02a Windows 1/18/2021

    Software Updates - Improved ANF Export

    Add support for polygon pad shapes in ANF output.
    Bug fix in the boundary to path conversion when ANF output is used.
    Restore polygon formatting to be before boundary to path conversion.


    Netex-G V2.02 Windows 1/7/2021

    Boundary to Path Fix

    This is done because the conversion cannot currently work with leonov polygons. As a result, polygons with holes are not properly unionized. This has now been fixed.

    Software updates

    Mount holes are taken from drill sets. Without drills messages were popping up regarding empty files. This has now been fixed.

    When a drill's start layer was below the end layer in the stackup it went missing. This has now been fixed. In this case, the importer is automatically reversing the drill's start and end layer in the NJB output instead of dropping it.

    Ensure output file name always have an extension - This is done when the output file name is missing a file extension. Without an extension, the shell and manager become confused and erroneously report a failure when there isn't one.


    Netex-G V2.01b Windows 10/20/2020

    Software updates

    Layer names in 3d output now appear as basenames of Gerber files created from OBB++ importing or from a user instead of the designations found in the 2nd column of B_LAYERS or B_AUX_PROPS sections of .njb file.

    This version includes updated boolean engine and library to fix several bugs involving crashes and dropped data.

    Updated ODB++ import executables and libraries.

    Updated 3Di, XT, and Step output engines and libraries .


    Netex-G V2.01a Windows 8/27/2020

    Misc updates

    This version has a revised boolean operations for the 274hdr, asc2anf, ascexfilt, prfshpgn, and xtrctmh modules.

    Internal boolean operations are thread controlled - The maximum thread count can come from the OS or it's user specified.

    This version fixed boolean error log problems in ODB++ feature file translation.


    Netex-G V2.01 Windows 8/5/2020

    Fixed incorrect associations of node text to nets with wires

    This occurred when multiple identical net labels on separate physical nets were employed. This caused the associations of nets to net numbers to be misaligned by the number of physically merged nets found in GDSII and DXF output. This has now been fixed.

    Revised Preference Dialog

    This version includes ODB Import Settings sub dialog in the PReference menu.

    Misc updates

    odbgui64.dll and odbgui_main64.dll are used instead of odb2gbr64.dll

    "Preferences", "Drill", and "Output Formats" menus - Saving these to the registry used to depend on whether a .njb file was not opened. It is now always done regardless of any .njb file being opened or not.

    Improved log files.


    Netex-G V2.00b Windows 1/9/2020

    Fixed Padstack Generation

    Padstack generation finds, for each via, the largest Gerber flash on each metal layer the via traverses. If the flash size is greater than the via size filter, smaller than the via drill size, or it's on a scratch layer, the flash is ignored.
    The via drill size is the default size to use when no Gerber flash can be found. To obtain the correct flashes, the fix was done as follows :

  • Changed flash database ordering and scanning for padstack creations.
  • Reduced via center approximation from 10 to 5 grid.

  • Netex-G V2.00a Windows 11/25/2019

    Software Updates

    This version includes enhancements to the boolean engine with respect to validation.
    Unionization has been improved to be nearly thread independent.


    Netex-G V1.99f Windows 06/7/2018

    IPC356 Update

    IPC-D-356 307 Opcode are treated now the same as 327 opcode.

    Boolean Engines

    Updated boolean engines.


    Netex-G V1.99e Windows 06/2/2018

    ODB++ Importer Fix

    This release handles large attribute values. When encountered, these could potentially cause the importer to crash. This has now been fixed..

    Node Text for DXF and GDSII

    This text is generated and clipped to the composite of extraction and ROI windows.


    Netex-G V1.99d Windows 03/5/2018

    Unit Parsing

    ODB++ import was updated to fix a problem with unit import.

    Mass Parameter Fix

    Split274x components were fixed to handle a problem with a file that included consecutive empty mass parameters.


    Netex-G V1.99c Windows 01/9/2018

    Windows 64 bit release

    All relevant executables and DLL's have been ported to 64 bit Visual Studio 2015.
    Safenet USB licensing is no longer supported - Flexid USB keys are now supported for node locked and floating license.
    Gerber viewer included.


    Netex-G V1.98 Windows 04/25/2017

    Bug fixes and revision to DXF output and Wire Tier

    The DXF error, Undefined group code 2, was appearing during an Auto-CAD load. This has now been fixed.

    Wire vias that were used to form GDSII output are now dropped in DXF output by design. There is no need for them with 3D extrusions.

    Wire data appearing as flush ended paths was mistakenly represented as boundary data when the "Output Paths" option was selected. This has been fixed to remain as paths to later be treated as wires.

    Path data converted from boundary data when the "Output Paths" option was selected was being treated as wires even though it was not on any wire stack ups. This caused a failure in generating DXF output. This has now been fixed.

    NetexG Shell Revisions

    Licensing has been changed from a single to a multi-key model. Licensing has been altered to hold one license feature for each of the available output and import licenses relevant to the shell. Only one of the licenses are released during output execution while other programs acquire, hold and release it. Import licenses are held during the life of the shell. All are released when the shell is closed. The old behavior was to test import and output licenses and only hold one of the output licenses.

    (b) Solder mask reversals have been set to be on by default. The previous behavior was to have it off.



    Netex-G V1.97e Windows 03/16/2017

    Implemented daisy chain licensing

    A. Netex-G manager now makes use of daisy-chain soft key licensing. Previously, each licensed module would acquire and release its own license during program flow.
    Now the manager holds on to the license until either a license error occurs or program flows completes normally. The manager also guarantees that no license tampering occurs during program execution by refreshing the license periodically. This minimizes network traffic associated with floating licensing and avoids compatibilty issues between modules built with older version of FLEXLM and newer FLEXLM daemons. In addition all latency issues that might occur when making use of WAN licensing are minimized.

    B. Both floating and nodelocked licensing tied to FLEXID Type 9 dongle was tested and demonstrated to work without any issues.



    Netex-G V1.97d Windows and Linux 02/28/2017

    Bug Fix and Enhancements

    Fixed issue in v1.97c when the AUX_PROPS section in the NJB file was omitted resulting in bad GDSII output.

    Fixed an issue with layermap and WIREBOND entries in the NJB file.

    A Qt based help pop up now provides help information on Windows and Linux.



    Netex-G V1.97c 02/14/2017

    Bug Fix - Missing Vias

    Vias were being dropped because they were mistakenly left broken apart by the data partitioning applied during unionization. This has now been fixed. All such data partitions are now always unionized.


    Added Usage Info Window for "netexgmgr.exe"

    The window is launched by double clicking on the executable and describes the available command line arguments. The contents of the description are taken from a text resource file, "netexgmgr_usage.txt"


    Support Unit Specifiers for command line parameters

    Prior to this version of netexmgr, the units of any command line arguments were assumed to be in the input file units - which must be either inches or mm. From this version forward the user may add a unit specifier to each parameter that includes a physical size or coordinate if so desired. For example when specifying arcsag parameter the user could force the units to um in the following manner:

    -arcsag:0.3um

    The absence of a unit specifier, for an argument's value that could take one, defaults the the previous behavior of using the input file units.


    Output Resolution/Grid Control

    Added a command line argument, -outgrid <value>, that manually controls the output precision. For example if you want a resolution of 0.0001 enter this value. Note that there is no checking to verify that this combination of output grid and the units of the output file won't produce a coordinate overflow.


    Bug Fix: Incremental File Handling

    The file handle is now closed before program termination to allow deletion of working directory contents.


    Updated asc23di.exe (to 1.36) to produce netlist

    The module, asc23di.exe, which is used to produce 3Di output, now also produces a netlist text file. The netlist file is only valid if the user has assigned Nodes (i.e. pin labels). The purpose of this new function is to aid package designers who are building daisy chains and need to produce a netlist. This function is only available for 3Di as the main output.


    Revised usage box for gdsscale.exe

    gdsscale.exe (a utility shipped with the Netex-g release) has a nwe usage box which can be accessed by double clicking on the executable. The contents of this usage box are taken from the resource text file named gdsscale_usage.txt.




    Netex-G V1.97b 01/22/2017

    Program Updates

    Updated boolean engines to handle data that caused a crash.
    Fixed a problem in the ODB++ import to handle empty text attribute string.




    Netex-G V1.97a 01/17/2017

    Net Computation

    Enforce single thread run for net computation.

    njb file syntax

    Tab characters are now supported in the njb job file.




    Netex-G V1.97 01/10/2017

    AIF Import supports Ref Designators

    The AIF importer now supports user defined reference designator for node labels on the DIE and BGA side. This is useful for producing a netlist by asc23di.exe.

    asc23di.exe 1.36 netlist output

    a patch is available (will be incorporated in next release of Netex-G) for asc23di.exe. The new version, 1.36, produces a netlist at the same time as the 3Di output. This netlist generator supports reference designators either when they are present in the node label (a dash must be used between the ref_des and the pin label) or if no ref des is present in the node labels the stackup layer is used as a substitute reference designator.

    If no node labels are present at all, the net list file will be empty.




    Netex-G V1.96a 12/21/2016

    Update for Linux and Windows

    Fixed a problem where the command line of the netexg manager didn't handle correctly arguments with quotes.

    Fixed a problem with getting wire layer color in GDSII map file generation.

    Updated licensing to check for WAN Enabler




    Netex-G V1.96 9/1/2016

    Update for Linux and Windows

    New release for both Windows and Linux.




    Netex-G V1.95 8/10/2016

    Support Gerber files with same base name

    Files with same base name and different extensions were being treated as the same file. (e.g. 56040.gtp, 56040.in2, 56040.in3, 56040.gtb)This has now been fixed.

    GDSII Layer mapping has been affected by this change. This renders older GDSII layer maps invalid.

    GBRVU must be version 3.45 or later to work with the new layer names.

    DXF and EGS Layer Fix

    DXF and EGS output no longer are generated with an uneeded layer called "_fmtbest_gbr." These suffixes appeared in Netex-G v1.94 due to Gerber validation routines that were introduced forcing the precision to 3.5 in MM or 2.6 in INCH.




    Netex-G V1.94 7/25/2016

    GUI Behavior

    The "View Output" Button in the Main Dialog is disabled until successful execution; disabled whenever a new .NJB file or ODB++ file has been loaded.

    Gerber Precision (Format) Adjusted

    The format of the Gerber data is "adjusted" to 3.5 when units of MM and 2.6 when units of inch in order to produce the highest quality output.

    Error Recording when Silent Mode is in Effect

    In "Silent Mode" (as opposed to Single Display Mode and "Fireworks" modes [each program displays its own progress] errors and warnings are recorded in the detail log. A message box still pops up if warnings and/or errors are detected. They can then be reviewed with the "View Log/Details" button.

    Bug Fix and Update in Network Floating License

    Floating licensing fix to several of NETEX-G's modules. Previously failures occurred for floating licensing in conjunction with FLEXLM servers running FLEXLM higher than v11.3.

    Footprint Algorithm Optimized

    The algorithm to generate a foot print based profile has been optimized. (Programmer - need some details here, please.)

    Visual C Version

    MSVC 2008 Builds.

    3Di Output

    Update 3Di output.

    Log File Details Increased

    More information about the conversion is entered into the log file. The Log file now includes:

      netexgmgr program id information - Version, Date, and License Type

      split274x log information - Information on Gerber input conditioning

      Start, end, and total elapsed time.

    Backside (bottom) ODB++ Import bug fix

    Backside pin placement and orientation have been corrected. Previously, component pins were missing or misplaced and the component orientation may have been incorrect.

    GDSII and DXF Output fix

    Previously, components on the bottom were not mirrored on output. Now they are mirrored as needed.




    Netex-G V1.93a 3/31/2016

    Clipping of solder mask layer

    Bug fix to clipping of soldermask layers. This was fixed.

    ODB++ Import Updates

    Support UNITS=[MM|INCH] in feature file.
    Support UNITS=[MM|INCH] handling of .copper_weight and .layer_dielectric attributes.
    Fix parsing of components attributes to which prevents duplicating .comp_height from appearing multiple times

    Netex-G V1.93 1/15/2016

    3Di export

    Remove 3di for STEP export option.
    Incorporate latest 3Di engine 1.21

    Minimum ODB++ Threshold

    Remove Minimum ODB++ Threshold of metal and dielectric layer thickness.

    Wire and Die Info

    Allow wire and die information to be passed to GDSII and DXF output.
    This was done to restore support of wires in the intermediate ASCII to [GDSII | DXF] flow. Before, the flow was from intermediate GDSII to [GDSII | DXF].

    Wire support

    Add wire and wire via support to GDSII layer mapping.




    Netex-G V1.92 11/4/2015

    Add Circularize to 3Di output

    Add circularize to 3Di output. This option will reduce 3Di file size.

    Detail log

    Information was deleted or misrepresented by certain executables. This has now been fixed.

    New Licensing

    Adopted new Flexlm license model, and no more support for disk serial number.




    Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.91a 9/14/2015

    Rout Layer Error

    The problem occurred when mount holes appeared inside rout areas. This has now been fixed. To avoid this problem, unionization of routing and mount holes is applied.




    Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.91 7/21/2015

    Rout Data

    Rout data completely inside profile data creates voids while other rout data is used to trim edges.

    Component pins over mounting holes

    Component pins over mounting holes are detected and removed.

    Drill Control

    Control over number of drill sides has been modified. 45 Degree restrictions has been removed from arc recognition control - A user can select coarser value than 45 degrees (e.g. 60 degrees).

    Improved IPC2581 Import

    XML parsing is more robust and can handle missing elements. XML parsing now handles problem with stackup layer material type - The space characters appearing in the name are replaced with '_'. LayerRefs ARE SYNCHED TO LayerFeatures.

    Support for new ACS Softkey Licensing

    OEMs wishing to use ACS Softkey Licensing will require a uniform supplemental soft key kit, a customer vendor key file, and two static vendor files.

    OEMs should follow these instructions to properly compile and use the soft key license test program:

    • Install Netex-G and select "OEM licensing scheme".
    • Install Netexg-G Softkey Kit after item a)
    • Artwork will provide a password protected zip file with required libraries and documentation. Unzip this and put the files as shown below:
    • 
      File Name                       Description         Instructions 
      ---------                       ----------- ------------ 
      vkf.txt                         Vendor Key File     Place in [Installdir]\bin 
      
      acsvendor_s.lib                 32 bit Softkey Lib  Place in [Installdir]\lib 
      
      acsvendor64_s.lib               64 bit Softkey Lib  Place in [Installdir]\lib 
      
      gbr_import_manual.pdf           Help Manual         Place in [Installdir]\artwork 
      
      OEM_user_interface_help.pdf     Help Manual         Place in [Installdir]\artwork 
      
      netex-g_help_index.txt          Help Manual Index   Place in [Installdir]\artwork 
      
      

    • Open solution file in [Installation_Directory]/softkey_sample_vs2008 using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and compile win32 and x64 target programs.
    • Run the batch files already provided in the njb_input and odb_input subfolders under the examples subfolder or run softkeyshell.exe or softkeyshell64.exe in a similar manner as indicated below.
    • [Installation_Directory]\bin\softkeyshell.exe 
           "[Installation_Directory]\artwork\gbrunmgr.exe" [Program_Arguments]               
               "-acsp:[VKF_Directory]\vkf.txt" 
      

      Read [Installation_Directory]\documentation\oem_readme.txt for more detailed instructions.




      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.90a 12/17/2014

      CADNAV Fix

      CADNAV output has been fixed to support large number of pins.

      ODB++ Import updates

      Program crash has been handled in Gerber file generation.
      Fixed to handle bad definition pins with zero dimensions.
      Circular recognition has been improved.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.89a 9/4/2014

      Silent mode deletes job file

      The "netexgmgr.exe" program was still sometimes mistakenly being launched more than once for a given execution run. This has now been fixed.

      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.89 8/26/2014

      Components were dropped when drill treated as mounting hole

      If all nets are generated, all components in clipping window(s) will be included regardless of any holes appearing in clipping window(s) (i.e. net connections will not be considered here). If a subset of the nets is requested, the previous behavior will take effect (i.e. if there is no net connection for component pins, the component is dropped).

      Component outline not showing up in 3Di

      Circle outlines were not being handled for components. This has now been fixed.

      Added support for dummy/Silhouette layers

      A new "Layer Type" has been added to the shell called "Silhouette" When the layer type for a given metal layer is set to Silhouette, the output of the layer is replaced by ROI profile information including mounting holes and applied routing.

      Problem importing circular information to profile

      Circular information in Gerber files set to be imported as profile data was not being imported correctly. Arc resolution and chord error were not being passed correctly during Gerber interpretation. This has now been fixed.

      DXF Layer name issue

      Program was creating bad layer names when name was greater than 32 characters. This has been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.88 6/26/2014

      Added ability to set CADNAV "Pin Pad Size" per Component References

      The "CADNAV Settings" dialog has a check box labeled "By Component" which enables a button labeled "By Component..." to allow a user to set the sizes for each or a group of component references. The list displayed is filtered by the "Min. Component Pin Count".

      Pad Metal Filter

      Remove flatten requirement from pad metal filter. This is for GDSII and DXF advanced output settings.

      CADNAV

      Added CADNAV functionality to GDSII advanced settings.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.87 5/21/2014

      Netex-G ODB++ and IPC2581 import update

      Netex-G ODB++ and IPC2581 importing have been altered to prevent default output of paths designed to cover break lines formed in polygon formatting which is set to cut lines or butting edges. In certain cases, the default behavior caused niblets to appear for lack of a correct Gerber D-Code assignment for those paths.

      Pad Metal Filter

      Remove flatten requirement from pad metal filter. This is for GDSII and DXF advanced output settings.

      CADNAV

      Added CADNAV functionality to GDSII advanced settings.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.86 4/25/2014

      GUI Updates

      Added "Advanced..." button to "GDSII Settings" controls in "Netex-G Output Formats" dialog box. This launches new "GDSII Advanced"dialog box.
      Layer mapping settings have been moved from "Output Formats" dialog to "GDSII Advanced" dialog.

      Revised DXF output

      Support output of pass thru layers. These pertain to non net specific layers that are not solder mask or silkscreen layers. See notesbelow for description of structure hierarchy and layering.
      Pad metal filter option has been added to DXF advanced output settings to prevent the metal intersections of pad stacks from appearing in output. This only works with flatten option.

      Revised GDSII output

      Output has been made to be similar to DXF. See notes below for description of structure hierarchy and layering.
      Option to use new Component Library sections is provided.
      Option to flatten data is available.
      Pad metal filter option has been added to GDS advanced output settings.
      "profile" layer entry has been added to layer mapping to allow user control of what layer data type is assigned to profile data.

      Bug fix

      Support longer key names greater than 32 characters for component attributes.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.85 4/4/2014

      Revised DXF Output

      New layers of information provided - Components, Profile, Solder mask, and Silkscreen.
      3d output option provided.
      Option to use new Component Library sections is provided.
      Option to flatten data is available.

      Clipping of Soldermask and silkscreen layer has been fixed

      Data that was completely outside of clipping regions (ROI or window extractions) were mistakenly included. This has now been fixed.

      Component Information

      New component attribute information added caused problem. This information was quoted and arbitrary in form.
      (e.g. DESCRIPTION='HEADER PLUG 2WAY 1ROW TOP ENTRY 13MM LONG'). Before there were only attribute of the form attribute=value (e.g. comp_height=329.921000). This has now been fixed.

      Changes in new Component Library sections were also handled. Example of definition and reference section is shown below. New lines are tagged as NEW(description).

      ================== Component Library Section ==============
      B_COMP_LIB
      
      
      B_COMP_DEF
      2 "220-01720-05a_PKG1" "PL2HR-P2_A84D50E25"
      
      
      B_COMP_POLY 1
      B_COMP_VERT 6 P
      -98.819000 48.819000
      98.819000 48.819000
      98.819000 -48.819000
      -88.976000 -48.819000
      -98.819000 -38.976000
      -98.819000 48.819000
      E_COMP_VERT
      E_COMP_POLY
      
      
      B_COMP_WH 197.638000 97.638000
      
      
      B_COMP_PIN
      1 "1" -50.000000 0.000000 1   5
      2 "2" 50.000000 0.000000  1   -
      E_COMP_PIN                ^   ^
                                |   |
                                |___|
                                  |
            NEW(Last 2 fields are top & bottom pad stack index,  Before there was only one for all)
      
      
      
      B_COMP_ATTR
      comp_mount_type=2
      comp_height=329.921000
      PART_NUMBER='240-00020-68'
      ALT_SYMBOLS='(PL2HR-P2_A84D50E25)'
      COST='0.0151'
      DESCRIPTION='HEADER PLUG 2WAY 1ROW TOP ENTRY 13MM LONG'
      HEIGHT='8.38'
      INSERTION_CODE='RADIAL'
      PARENT_PART_TYPE='CONN2'
      PARENT_PPT='CONN2'
      PARENT_PPT_PART='CONN2_RADIAL-240-00020-68'
      PART_NAME='CONN2'
      PART_NUMBER='240-00020-68'
      SMD_OFFSET='90'
      STATUS_TEXT='SSA'
      UNICAD_CODE='PL2S'
      VALUE='PL2HR'
      VERSION='V1.0'
      E_COMP_ATTR
      
      
      E_COMP_DEF
      
      
      E_COMP_LIB
      
      
      
      ================== Component Library Reference Section ==============
      
      
      B_COMP_LIBREF
      
      
      B_COMP_REF
      "J4" 2 4507.874000 717.717000 270.000 M0 1 T "240-00020-68"
      B_COMP_ATTR                                ^
      E_COMP_ATTR                                |
      E_COMP_REF                                 |
                                                 |
            NEW ( Added T / B field indicates TOP or BOTTOM component placement)
      
      
      E_COMP_LIBREF
      


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.83 3/1/2014

      New Circular output option

      The "Preferences" dialog has new check box control labeled "Circularize" to output circularized data. Currently, this only works for ANF output.

      Component values

      Added component nominal values from ODB++ import to ANF component output. Improved better component output part names from ODB++.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.81 12/12/2013

      Silk Screen Support

      Added Silk Screen Support for 3Di output.

      Licensing problem

      Fixed a licensing problem with respect to 3Di and STEP.

      Reversed Solder Mask

      When reversal was selected, the solder mask data was missing in GDSII output. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.80 11/25/2013

      GDSII Output with no components

      A crash sometimes occurred under this condition in a stage that removes component data so as to process it later. This has now been fixed.

      Missing Vias

      When drill file counts were more than two, layer assignments were overlappig, causing some via information to be subtracted away. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.79 11/7/2013

      ODB++ and IPC2581 arc with large width

      ODB++ and IPC2581 importing have been fixed to handle arcs with large widths. Widths are considered large if half its value is greater than or equal to the radius of the arc.

      Large stackup count

      A bug fix was implemented with respect to larger stackup counts. In some cases, Netex-G would crash because it was trying to allocate memory in quantities exceeding 32 bit program limitations. The crash would happen during merging steps of unionized data. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.78d 10/23/2013

      Gerber Interperter Fixes

      Gerber interpreter has been fixed to handle Gerber Custom apertures coming from files drawn in incremental mode.

      Fixed problem that generated folded polygons resulting in data being dropped during unionization stage. This problem arose from not correctly keeping track of pen up and down states from within a G36/G37 block (block for closed region).

      Gerber files with high format statements or multiply defined apertures were potentially wrong because of an incorrect dependency on a deprecated DLL which was replaced. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.78c 10/10/2013

      Metal Extent Computation

      Any Gerber file name having more than one '.' character was problematic in determining the correct file name containing extent information.
      Metal extent computation is done when there is any number of reversals or when dielectric profiles are created in 3Di output. When this fails, Netex-G exits. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.78b 9/23/2013

      ANF output includes component pins

      Revised ANF output to embed component pins into the GEOMETRY section to allow rectangular footprints to be displayed for the pin collection of a specific component. This is now handled for any component input (i.e. ODB++ and IPC2581 imports or IPC356 file and accompanying bill of material file).

      ASCII to 3Di properly includes material type

      Integrated latest 3Di formatter (asc23di.exe). This was done to properly pass material types.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.78a 9/13/2013

      ODB++ Extraction of Stackup thickness

      This information comes from attributes specified for each metal layer and the corresponding dielectric layer below it. Metal thickness is derived from .copper_weight attribute and dielectric from layer_dielectric attribute. The thickness values that are not found or less than a certain value are set to a default value.

      The default values and minimum acceptable values are shown below:
      Attribute Min. value Default_value
      .copper_weight 1 mil 1.0
      .layer_dielectric 10 mils 5x (Thickness from .copper_weight)

      Default Material

      This version assigns default material when unnamed one is encountered.

      Stackup_type Material

      Soldermask / Polyamide
      Metal / Copper
      Dielectric / FR4
      Wbond / Copper


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.78 9/3/2013

      Smoothing value

      This version makes sure that smoothing is at least 5 times smaller than any specified nonzero chord error.

      Incremental execution

      Incremental execution has now been fixed. This problem was introduced in v1.76b (05/30/2013). This version, which included the ascecfilt.exe.manifest file instead of embedding it in the ascexfilt.exe file, failed to launch ascexfilt.exe during incremental runs as a consequence. This has now been handled.

      Bug fixes

      For GDSII output the following was done:
      Fixed failure to save layer mapping state.
      Component geometry is now shown as non-unionized path outlines instead of unionized boundaries.
      Fixed node text height scale to be correct for differing unit outputs.

      For ANF Output, all non polygonal pad types are converted to Rectangle types.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.77 8/13/2013

      IPC356 Components in ANF

      The output dialog has an added "Advanced" button in the "ANF Settings" Group. This launches a dialog box which allows a user to specify whether or not the use of IPC351 components is desired instead of any other components that may have been imported (e.g. ODB++ import).
      If usage is desired, the items to specify are:

    • IPC356 File Contains Net, Reference Designators, Pin ID's Stackup, X and Y Locations, and Pad width, height and rotation
    • B.O.M. (Bill Of Material) File Contains Part names for reference designators and the nominal element value for a given part.
    • X and Y Specify in Gerber input units, the offset applied Offset to location information. Values for this can come from the offset used for net labeling from IPC351 import in "Labels" dialog or viceversa.
    • IPC356 parsing less strict to allow longer reference designator

      In previous versions names exceeding their assigned column space (21 - 26) were truncated and the subsequent information (i.e. X and Y locations, pin Id's, etc.) was lost. As a consequence of this added flexibility, more net labels can be applied for net naming.

      Allow resource anf_cmp_typ_list.txt to define component types
      The syntax of each entry for any number of them is:
      
      REF_HDR_PREFIX COMP_TYPE_HEADER [OPTIONAL_DESCRIPTION]
          where
      
            REF_HDR_PREFIX   -- String of alphabet characters only
      
            COMP_TYPE_HEADER -- B_CAP (capacitor), B_IND (inductor),
                                   B_IC (integrated circuit),
                                   B_RES (resistor),
                                   or B_PINPLATE (discrete device - default)
      
            OPTIONAL_DESCRIPTION -- Can be any text
      
      An example is shown below (Note: fields may or may not be quoted):
      
            # Component Type Resource File
            "C"    "B_CAP" "capacitor"
            "CONN" "B_IO"  "connector
            "J"    "B_IO"  "jack_connector"
            "JP"   "B_IO"  "jumper"
            "L"    "B_IND" "inductor"
            "OSC"  "B_IC"  "oscillator"
            "P"    "B_IO"  "plug_connector"
            "Q"    "B_IO"  "transistor"
            "R"    "B_RES" "resistor"
            "S"    "B_IO"  "switch"
            "SW"   "B_IO"  "switch"
            "T"    "B_PINPLATE" "transformer"
            "TEST" "B_IO"  "test"
            "TP"   "B_IO"  "test_point"
            "U"    "B_IC"  "integrated_circuit"
            "V"    "B_IO"  "vacuum_tube"
            "X"    "B_PINPLATE" "transducer"
            "Y"    "B_IC"  "oscillator"
      
      Boundary to path conversion

      Improved algorithm to convert more boundaries to path.

      Two adjacent paths set to be extended at their intersecting point will not be unless points set to be extended are next to each other.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.76c 7/10/2013

      Empty nets

      Empty nets are filtered out. This was done to accommodate 3Di output of empty net pin entries in TABLE NET_PINS section. The only empty entries are non empty nets which have no pins.

      Solder Mask layers

      ODB++ and IPC2581 importers were revised to restrict solder mask layers to use only one top and one bottom layer, each found to be adjacent to the metal stack up layers. All other layers tagged as solder mask are re-tagged as solmsk and are initially set to Layer Type: Pass Thru) in "Other Files" dialog launched from "Other Files..." button in main dialog.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.76a 5/28/2013

      Component reference designators

      Component reference designators starting with a '#' character were not supported correctly. This has now been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.76 4/28/2013

      ODB++ and IPC2581 Updates

      An issue with mirrored bottom components was corrected. Before pin geometries and component outlines were presented incorrectly in the ADS layout window and 3DVU.

      Pin geometries whose origin did not coincide with 0,0 were displayed incorrectly. This has been fixed.

      In order for a layer to be considered as a candidate stackup layer, it must be either be of context Board or of type signal between top or bottom component layers. This allows wirebond layers to be added to the stackup.

      Soldermask and Wire Support

      Added Soldermask and Wire support to ADFI output.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.75 1/28/2013

      IDF Output

      IDF output type has been added to "Netex-G Output Formats" dialog.

      The .bdf file has been revised to support the following:
      Cutouts appear in the board outline for noncircular holes.
      Circular data is translated into nonplated holes in the drill section
      Component placement information now relies on the COMP_LIB and COMP_LIBREF sections instead of the COMP section.
      Components with no shape information no longer appear in the component placement section.

      The .ldf file has been revised to support the following:
      Component information now relies on the COMP_LIB section instead of the COMP_SHAPES section.
      Components with no shape information no longer appear in this file

      Ansoft output type in "Netex-G Output Formats" dialog. will no longer output any IDF files.

      Default thickness

      The assignments of default thickness values has been changed in the following manner:
      Assign default thickness to layers w/ 0 thickness or just after ODB++ import. Unlike IPC2581, ODB++ has no layer thickness information. These assignments use to only be done for layers w/ an unspecified material name.

      The values assigned have been changed to the following:

      LAYER TYPE      INCH      MM
      Metal           0.001     0.02
      Dielectric      0.025     0.50
      Soldermask      0.001     0.02
      

      IPC2581 update

      IPC2581 importer has been updated to provide correct stackup order for soldermask layers. This was done to help identify which soldermask is top and which is bottom.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.74 10/2/2012

      STEP Output

      STEP 3DI output compliancy is ready now.

      Margin and Corner Settings

      Problem arose when unit or data scale was applied. The settings were not scaled accordingly. This has been fixed.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.73 05/30/2012

      Fix to 3Di die body creation with no shape

      A .njb file that does not contain a profile shape was causing a crash for 3Di output when creation of die electric bodies was requested.
      Ordinarily, when an ODB++ or IPC2581 import is done, the shape information is provided. This has now been fixed. If the shape information is not provided, an extent box will be used to create that body.

      Mount hole detection

      Mount hole detection along with output via removal is now provided. The drill dialog provides controls for both.

      Fix to Padstack generation

      Any flashes appearing in a resulting Gerber Clear layer will no longer be considered in the pad stack generation.

      Revision to Padstack generation

      AIf arc resolution or chord error in the Drill Dialog is valid, these will be used for detecting round vias instead of the arc resolution or chord error specified in Preferences.

      Back drill checking on/off enables/disables drill snapping

      Note that the back drill checking is currently not fully working.

      IPC2581 import partially supports stackup information

      The thickness and material type is passed along, but those names that are not in the material library would have to have their properties defined. Currently, there is no warning about such properties after import.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.72 05/09/2012

      IPC2581 Support

      Added support to the IPC2581 format.

      ACIS Output

      Removed ACIS Output.

      Barcode support

      Added support to barcode in the ODB++ importer.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.70 2/15/2012

      Wirebond Handling

      Command line program applies filter dcode to wire scanning also.
      Before, this was only applied to the full netex-G execution flow.

      The GUI can now automatically import wires for Tier entries having no wires when opening a .njb file.
      Before, wire importing would only take place when:

    • A stackup's "Layer Type" was changed to "Wirebond" for an existing stackup file.

    • A "Stackup" file was selected while its "Layer Type" was set to "Wirebond"

    • The GUI's wire importing also takes into account the dcode filtering found in a .njb file.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.69 12/14/2011

      Net name check

      Net name checking has been added in ADFI output converting non alphanumeric characters to underscore.

      Board Name

      The board name in ADFI output is set to the base name of the output file name.
      For example c:\tmp\odb.txt ==> BRD_odb.

      Color Set

      The default color set for ADS Auto cycles red, yellow, blue, magenta and cyan for metal layers, while dielectric are green.

      Back Drill

      Back drill checking has been added for top and bottom entry points.
      This is activated in the Drills dialog box.

      String Search

      String Search capability has been added to the detailed log dialog.


      Netex-G Linux and Solaris V1.67 12/05/2011

      Job file with multiple "."

      The netex-g engine failed when a job file contained multiple "." (dot character) in the job file name.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.68a 11/11/2011

      Incremental run

      The shell was never running in incremental mode while the auto view log option was not set. This has been fixed so the shell runs incrementally as it has before when the auto view log option was set.

      Component Output

      Fixed component compatible output to preserve polygon format.
      Before this fix, the output for the following formats was always outputting Leonov:

    • GDS Ascii with Vias
    • ANSOFT
    • 3Di
    • ADFI

    • This has now been fixed so that:
    • ADS always outputs butting edge polygons for ADFI and Leonov for 3Di
    • AWR always outputs Leonov polygons for 3Di
    • Standard preserves allowable polygon format

    • Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.66 9/13/2011

      Wires drawn as boundaries

      Wires drawn as boundaries are now supported. This means that in addition to wire as a Gerber draw, wire rectangles and wire outlines using G36/G37 G-Codes are imported as wires.

      Gerber D-Code filtering

      A new section has been defined for the Netex-G job file (*.njb) to support Gerber D-Code filtering.
      The example below illustrates D-Code filtering applied in the following manner:

          (a) Filter 117 and 118 dcodes on   all  metal stackups
          (b) Filter  13 and  14 dcodes on 3,5,7  metal stackups
          (c) Filter  15 and  16 dcodes on     5  metal stackup
          (d) Filter  16 and  17 dcodes on     7  metal stackup
      
          Each line in the ADD_ARGS subsection must be in the format:
      
      GBR2GDS METAL [[stackup_numbers] | ALL] -filterdc:[dcode_numbers]
      [stackup_numbers] - comma separated integers
      [dcode_numbers]   - comma separated integers
      
      Example:
      
          B_CUSTOMIZE_FLOW
      
          B_ADD_ARGS
      
          GBR2GDS METAL ALL -filterdc:111,112
          GBR2GDS METAL 3,5,7 -filterdc:13,14
          GBR2GDS METAL 5 -filterdc:15,16
          GBR2GDS METAL 7 -filterdc:16,17
      
          E_ADD_ARGS
      
          E_CUSTOMIZE_FLOW
      


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.65 6/20/2011

      IDF board and library files generated with ANF output

      For ANF output, the following files are generated:

      NAME FORMAT       DESCRIPTION
      file_name.anf   ANF Output file
      
      
      file_name.cmp   ANF Component file
      
      
      file_name.bdf   IDF Board file
                        Contains: Header, Board Outline, Drill, and Placement sections
      
      
      file_name.ldf   IDF Library file
                        Contains a series of Electrical sections describing shapes of component packages.
      


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.64e 3/15/2011

      Wire Model Output

      The first JEDEC parameters were output incorrectly. This has now been fixed.

      NETEX-G GUI

      The following checks have been added:
      Layer Details dialog and upon execution: JEDEC values must be greater than wire diameter, and Die thickness must be greater than zero.

      Upon execution:
      Die "Connect to Layer" must specify an existing metal layer that it is attached to. Drill information must exist for the following output formats: - ASCII with \"Output Via\" set ANF, ACIS and 3Di.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.64c 3/03/2011

      Trace Conversion

      Fixed a bug where traces were being generated even if they were wider than the user defined max trace width. [Reported by Advantest] This applies especially to ANF output.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.64a 2/25/2011

      GBRVU.EXE

      Netex-G shell was revised to find GBRVU.EXE better. The shell will search in the following order:
      NETEX-G registry (Advanced Preferences Setting)
      gbrvu registry (Gbrvu installation directory)
      User Prompt for gbrvu.exe

      Ansoft Component Pins

      Ansoft output includes component pins.


      Netex-G/Netex-ODB V1.64 2/16/2011

      Speed Improvements

      Major improvements in processing speed have been made due to customer submissions of very large boards (20-50 conductor layers.) Several key modules were improved including: pad definition generator, net computations, associating vias with nets and proximity metal extraction. For example, an ODB++ file that took 70 minutes to process in V1.63 now processes (on a 4 processor machine) in 5 minutes.

      Units

      Units for parameters such as Chord Error and Smoothing now conform to the units of the input ODB++ file when the unit preference setting "Same as Input" is selected.

      ANF Antipad

      Previous versions did not generate an antipad in ANF when a pad stack passed through a "negatively" drawn layer. This has been fixed.

      Ansoft Component File

      When ANF output is selected an Ansoft component file (CMP) is now produced. This can be imported into SI-Wave so that components are properly located in the simulator. This is only generated for ODB++ input files that have netlist/components in them.




      Netex-G V1.63 1/24/2011

      Boundary to Path

      Boundary to Path conversion has been improved to capture more paths by using extent areas versus polygon areas along with line to width ratios. Adjustments have also been made to prevent conversion of some polygonal areas which resulted in bad shapes for a given max width value.

      Proximity

      Proximity computations for 3Di and ASCII outputs now include vias that intersect with the expansion of the extracted nets.


      Netex-G V1.60 12/16/2010

      RS274X mass parameters

      Gerber interpreter has been revised to handle larger RS274X mass parameters. This meant that Gbrunion executions, Netex-G executions, and Gbrvu displaying failed for mass parameters larger than 64K. The problem was fixed by changing this threshold to 2M.

      ODB++ components import

      ODB++ import components have been updated to the latest Odb2Gbr v1.84.

      Other enhancements

      Drill to Gerber engine has been updated to reflect the changes made on December 12 and listed below.


      Drill to Gerber Upgrade 12/2/2010

      New command line option -drlautoscan

      Added a new command line option -drlautoscan on all platforms to retrieve the following drill parameter values from the specified set of priorities:

      • Drill Format
      • Drill Units (inch or mm)
      • Zero Inclusion (decimal, leading, or trailing)
      • XY coordinate mode (absolute or incremental)
      Priority 1: Values specified through any of below options to drl2gbr explicitly:
      -drlformat, -drlunits, -drlzeroinc, -drlxymode Priority 2: Values present in the input drill file.
      Priority 3: Values present in the reference apt file.

      Each of the values are determined as they are found going through the priorities. Any undetermined value will fall to a default setting:
      Drill Format - 2.4
      Drill Units - inch
      Zero Inclusion - trailing
      XY coordinate mode - absolute

      New command line option -refaptfile:apt_file

      Added a new command line option -refaptfile:apt_file on all platforms.
      The -refaptfile:apt_file argument has been added to apply Gerber settings (unit, format precision, zero suppression, and XY incremental or absolute mode) from an aperture file.


      Netex-G V1.57 09/09/2010

      Thread control

      Added thread number control in the Advanced Preferences dialog.

      Unit Scaling problem

      Unit scaling had been fixed for ASCII and ANF output.

      Other enhancements

    • Preference "Output Units" state is saved for any ODB++ imports.
    • Layer section thickness is scaled in ANF.
    • Overflow problems from unit scaling have been addressed with grid reduction for UM and MIL output units and changing integer computations to floating point..
    • ODB++ import components have been updated to v1.80.
    • 3DI engine has been updated addressing rotation errors and missing metal in pad stacks.

    • Netex-G V1.55a 06/12/2010

      First official release with ODB++ support

      First NETEX-G release with ODB++ import support.

      Netex-G V1.51 01/12/2010

      Wire Support

      Updated the netexgmgr.exe manager to look for the presence of wire data in the job file and to generate the wire endpoints based on that data. This was needed so that a calling application could use NETEX's wire sorting and via generation routines without depending on the NETEX-G GUI. [Requestor: Knights/Magma for BoardView]

      Netex-G V1.50 01/04/2010

      Ported the NETEX-G engines only to Linux

      ported the NETEX-G engines (32 bit) to Linux and tested it on the following platforms: RH4 64/RH5 64/SUSE 10 64. [Requestor: Knights/Magma for BoardView]

      includes

        drl2gbr engine

        netexmgr

        netex engine and boolean engine/libraries

      does not include an engine for reading IPC-D-356 or AIF or for processing Wire Layers as these were part of the NETEX-G GUI that was not ported to Linux.




      NETEX-G V1.49 10/19/2009

      IPC Import fix

      IPC356A import fix to support missing X and Y sign token.


      Ndified Padstack Tab

      This tab was used for defe-3 grid.

      Reset Geometry Changes

      The button failed to maintain the values that were restored in the padstack definition editor. This has now been fixed.

      Padstack scan incorrect grid

      The padstack scan in Labels page used incorrect grid. This has been fixed.


      NETEX-G V1.49 10/19/2009

      Revised "Labels" Dialog - Modifie-3 grid.

      Reset Geometry Changes

      The button failed to maintain the values that were restored in the padstack definition editor. This has now been fixed.

      Padstack scan incorrect grid

      The padstack scan in Labels page used incorrect grid. This has been fixed.


      NETEX-G V1.49 10/19/2009

      Revised "Labels" Dialog - Modified Padstack Tab

      This tab was used for din shape, x and y dimensions, and the drill size. The shapes provided are: CIRCLE, RECT, SQUARE, ELLIPSE, and OBROUND. The "Reset Geometry Changes" restores the padstack geometries to their initial scanned state or first save state if the definition is new, user specified, rather than scanned.

    • The references can only have their names modified to one of the available definitions. Any number of references can be selected for modification..
    • Hitting the "Pan to Padstacks" button pans to a single reference selected.
    • Hitting the "Scan for Padstacks" button will obtain padstack references and their corresponding definitions from the drill information provided. It is currently the only way to add references..
    • Hitting the "Clear Padstacks" button will remove all definitions and references..
    • Hitting the "Select Label" check box, when set, places Gbrvu in a mode which allows the user to choose a padstack or other label with a right mouse click on a given text marker..

    Boundary to path improved

    Paths found are extended to center of connecting vias.
    More work has been done with connectivity.

    Revised All Label Tabs

    All "Labels" dialog tabs can turn displays on and off for nets, nodes, and padstacks.


    NETEX-G V1.48 8/6/2009

    Boundary to path for Arcs

    Boundary to path conversion has been updated to improve upon connectivity. This version supports creation of curved path with width.

    Hole Validation

    Minimal hole validation has been implemented in unionization.


    NETEX-G V1.47b 11/4/08

    Long Path

    This image fixes AWR's Netex-G problem with long path. A buffer in the gdsfilte.exe engine was too small for the path length provided. It is now fixed.


    NETEX-G V1.46 09/17/08

    Bug with GUI

    A bug was found in the Netex-G GUI having to do with changing Layer Types and not setting a Gerber File for the Metal Type. This caused problems afterwards when trying to open up the .njb file. It also prevented execution after having opened that same .njb file. This has now been fixed. Any layer input with a blank file name field is now ignored..

    Polygon missing after NetexG import

    This deals with a Gerber unionization process that handles illegal polygons. This has now been fixed..


    NETEX-G V1.44 04/10/08

    Bug with path output

    During the boundary to path routine, the program crashed due to memory management. Problem was fixed.
    The boundary to path routine was improved as well.


    NETEX-G V1.43 03/18/08

    Bug with path output

    Bug fix to exceptions that occurred in problem file from Robert Bosch.

    Added Output Path option to ASCII output

    The Output Settings now have controls to select this option (requested by Ansys).


    NETEX-G V1.42 02/14/08

    Bug with small arcs

    Program had a bug handling very small arc draws. This has been fixed.

    Latest union engine

    The latest boolean engine is included with better support for boundary to path.


    NETEX-G V1.41 01/10/08

    IPC Import

    Added support for UNITS CUST where no parameter follows (defaults to Imperial with 0.0001 resolution.)

    Path Output for Ansoft SI-Wave

    Added a new output option for Ansoft's ANF file format. If checked, this option attempts to recognize constant width paths/traces and output them as paths in ANF instead of boundaries. This is useful when the target tool is Si-Wave which uses different simulation algorithms for traces vs planes.

    Fixed Long Path/Filename problem with ACIS output

    When the path was long, ACIS output would fail. This was corrected

    Fixed Interaction due to Wire Layer and IPC Import

    IPC Import was failing when the stackup included Wire Layers. This has been fixed.



    NETEX-G V1.40 09/20/07

    3D Output

    Two new 3D output formats have been released: ACIS (.sat) and 3Di. Licenses are required for these outputs.

    New 3D Wire Models

    To accompany the new 3D outputs, 3D Wire modeling has been added.


    NETEX-G V1.39 08/02/07

    ANF Bug Fix

    A bug introduced into the ANF formatter that improperly defined voids in planes has been corrected.

    Transparency

    The ability to define transparency for each layer (in addition to color) has been added. This is primarily for the new 3Di and ACIS output file formats which support transparency and make visualization of complex geometries much clearer.

    Drill to Gerber Update

    Drill to Gerber was updated to support drill files from OrCAD and Cadence tools. These files have non conventional header in the drill file with the drill definitions.
    We have also added support to the R (repeat) command in the drill file.


    NETEX-G V1.38 06/21/07

    ACIS Output

    New ACIS 3D output format. 3D tools like SolidWorks, ProEngineer and other siumlation tools read ACIS files.

    Output Setting menu

    GUI Revision which moves output settings to a separate dialog. A button labeled "Output..." launches this dialog.

    USB key support

    This version is USB enabled.

    Gerber Custom apertures

    Gerber custom apertures are now booleanized during Gerber reading. This solves the AWR problem you sent recently.

    ASCII Output file when no path specified

    An output filename with no path would go to wherever the current working directory was. It is now forced to go to the output directory if no path is specified.


    NETEX-G V1.37 03/11/07

    Asymmetrical Wire Sets

    This has been fixed by reducing the grid to 3 decimal places for this situation.


    NETEX-G V1.36 02/14/07

    This image fixes the IDT problem with wire sets that are asymmetrical. In this case we needed to add more criteria to define which ends connect to dies and which to fingers. It is now fixed.

    Incorrect user defined windows

    In some cases the njb file indicated user defined windows but defined none. This condition caused the boolean operations to crash. This has now been fixed by guarding against this situation..

    Special characters in file name

    NETEX-G didn't support special German characters like 'รถ'. It was mistakenly being converted to ' ' because it was misinterpreted as falling out of an acceptable ASCII range. This has now been fixed..

    Empty njb files

    Any Current .njb file that is empty will remain the current .njb file. This file will instead be overwritten by the other .njb file that is being selected. Otherwise, the file selected will become the current .njb file.


    NETEX-G V1.35 01/26/07

    Paths greater than 128 presented a problem

    Fix the wrunbat.exe component to handle this problem. An old Windows IO function was being used which only supported up to 128 characters.

    Accumulation of temporary files

    The accumulation of temporary files presented a problem over time. The more stack up layers present in a given project, the more quickly the problems presented themselves. The error message reported was:
    "the input file is empty"
    The solution was to create temporary sub directories that are removed after a Netex-G execution is completed.

    error found in NETEX-G Neighbor Net Extraction

    The resulting GDSII file was illegal (as reported by Qkcvu) - it does not contain the large ground net one would expect to see..

    We have a new Net neighbor program which prohibits illegal constructs from appearing in GDSII output. The ground plane is also preserved.

    IPC Import Dialog

    Canceling out of this dialog caused program crash. This has now been fixed..

    CST OEM related issues

      The help buttons do not work. - Help files are provided for CST and standard versions nd context sensitive help has been added throughout various dialogs appearing from the shell; A help button was added to main dialog in shell; A resource file, "netex-g_help_index.txt", is used for the context sensitive help.

      File->Import/Export Technology should not change the name of the current *.njb file - Could not address this issue because we can't duplicate it.

      The file filter for drill files is broken - This was found to be working correctly and no change was made.

      The dialog box: "NetexG execution finished successfully" is not needed - The dialog has been suppressed.

      The ability to add labels using GBRVU (their GBR_IMP) is broken in 129A. - Gbrvu v3.07a addresses problems encountered with labels. 6. Switch from metal to wire bond generated soft key problem - Netex-g shell added soft key licensing to Gerber to GDS module required when such conversion is triggered.

    NETEX-G V1.29 06/09/06

    Engine Update

    The boolean engine used in NETEX-G has been updated resulting in greatly improved compute speed.

    IPC 356 Import Enhanced

    The importation of IPC356 files (used to annotate nets and nodes) has been greatly enhanced. Support has been added for generating nodes from IPC356 as well as filtering out nodes defined by vias.


    NETEX-G V1.27 08/28/05

    Polygon dropped

    The polygon formatter was mistakenly dropping holes in polygons. The job of this formatter is to deal with these holes by drawing cut lines or generating butting edge polygons depending on what the user selects. This is now fixed.


    NETEX-G V1.24c 05/27/05

    Bug fix for viewing multiple files

    Fixed "View All", "View Labels" and viewing for window preferences to support any number of stack up layers.


    NETEX-G V1.24c 05/27/05

    Boolean Engine Updated

    This release of NETEX-G uses a new boolean engine that can "repair" certain illegal polygons. This means that the likelihood that a polygon is dropped in the output because the boolean engine deemed it to be illegal (typically a small self-intersecting loop) is reduced or eliminated.

    Path to Boundary Conversion Fix

    fixed a bug when converting a short path (one where the length is less than the width) turn into a boundary. The old routine might generate an illegal polygon which would be dropped.



    Enhancement to the Drill to Gerber Module

      Improved Scan for Data

      Earlier versions of drill2gbr required that a % (percent sign) be present at the beginning of the file since this is the convention that indicates the end of the header and the start of the data. But many drill files created by well known PCB tools do not include the % sign. Therefore the old scan routine would indicate that it could not find any valid data in the file. This has been fixed. The % sign is no longer mandatory.

      Close Gerber File After Writing

      Earlier versions of drill2gbr did not close the newly created Gerber file -- this was a potential bug depending on what other applications might do with it.

      Improved Detection of Tool Size

      Previous versions required that the parameters associated with a T-code (the code used to select the tool for drilling) follow the Excellon syntax rigorously or the drill diameter could not be automatically determined. The new version has a "smarter" parser that attempts to determine the drill diameter even when the exact syntax is not followed:

      For eaxmple a line in the drill file such as

       T1      size: 0.010000    qty:69

      will now be understood to have a drill diameter of 0.01 even though this syntax is not the Excellon defined syntax.


    NETEX-G V1.24b 03/22/05

    Wire Bond Layers

    The wirebond endpoint detection and sorting routines were upgraded to support MCMs i.e. designs with mutliple chips. The wirebond layers for each chip must be separate -- NETEX-G now calculates a "center" for each Wirebond layer independently. [reported by IDT]


    NETEX-G V1.24a 02/15/05

    Dropped Data Bug Fix

    A bug was found where data from a complex metal layer was dropped in the output. This was traced to a Gerber file that had 157 internal layers of LPD/LPC which exceeded the amount that some of the NETEX-G internal engines would handle. This has been fixed. [reported by IDT]


    NETEX V1.23i 12/01/04

    Net Labeling Bug Fix

    A bug was found in the module that assigns net labels (names) when the polygon for the net being labeled had more than 8191 vertices (this may occur for large grouhis may occur fo is not supported by

    When creating a GDSII output file, NETEX-G will issue a warning if the user has specified parameters that exceed the limits of the GDSII specification. There are two current settings that can result in non-standard GDSII output:

      Leonov Polygons - if the user sets polygons to Leonov in the Preferences Dialog, the resulting GDSII output will have a special record type that is not supp

      When creating a GDSII output file, NETEX-G will issue a warning if the user has specified parameters that exceed the limits of the GDSII specification. There are two current settings that can result in non-standard GDSII output:

        Leonov Polygons - if the user sets polygons to Leonov in the Preferences Dialog, the resulting GDSII output will have a special record type that is not supported by GDSII readers. Users shouldrecord type that is not supported by GDSII readers. Users should select either Cut Lines or No Cut Lines for GDSII output.

        Max points greater than 8191 - the GDSII record structure limits the maximum number of vertices per boundary/path to 8191. It is possible in NETEX-G to set a value as high as 64000 but this requires that NETEX-G output consecutive XY records which many GDSII parsers cannot read.




      dth=650 align=left>

      Nsuhell (the GUI) where the available features and the licensed features did not align.


      NETEX V1.23e 09/16/04

      Incorrect Net Assignments

      Corrected a problem with unionization of the "bands." When such unionization failed and an exception was generated, the resulting incorrect output passed to subsequent modules and resulted in incorrect net assignments. This has been fixed [reported by Synaptics]

      This version also includes at least one module with the new FLEXLM node locked licensing routine.


      NETEX V1.23c 08/07/04

      Bug Fix - Long Filename Support

      If the NETEX-G input files or job file was placed in a very long directory name the program might not complete as various modules were called. This has been fixed. (Reported by AWR)

      Bug Fix - No more crash on Gerber files with overspecified size/precision.

      NETEX-G has a maximum of 8 places dynamic range. Some users were creating Gerber files with formats such as 3.6 or 4.5 which caused NETEX-G to behave in an unpredictable fashion. NETEX-G now will "clip" the input data using the following rules.

      If the input Gerber file is specified as M.N then it will be treated as if it were X.Y by clipping.

      Step 1

      
       if ((N < 1) || (N > 6))   then  Y = 6
      
                                 else  Y = N
      
      

      Step 2

      
       if ((M + Y) > 8 )         then  X = 8 - Y
      
                                 else  X = M
      
      

      Example M.N = 4.5

      Since N is neither less than 1 nor greater than 6, Y = N = 5

      M+Y= 4+5 = 9 which is greater than 8; hence X = 8-5 = 3
      
      the data is clipped to 3.5
      
      Updated Boolean Engine

      The boolean engine in version 1.23c has been updated to synchronize with general improvements in the boolean engine and the result is that version 1.23c is significantly faster for large complex input files.


      NETEX V1.23b 04/21/04

      missing DLL

      corrected a module for EGS output that linked to a missing DLL.


      NETEX V1.23a 03/03/04

      Fixed Floating License Problem

      Corrected a problem that occurs for a single user floating license -- the module that finds the wire endpoints for a wirebond layer was not releasing its license preventing a user from continuing.


      NETEX V1.22b 1/5/04

      Vias dropped in dual-CPU machine

      NETEX-G dropped vias in dual-CPU machine. This has been fixed.
      Reported by Fluent.

      New command line option -thrnum:

      argument to netexgmgr.exe so that if the user is running without the GUI, they can explicitly specify the number of threads to use. This is for OEM use of the engine.


      NETEX V1.22 11/20/03

      EGS Output Option Added

      NETEX-G now includes an output to Agilent's EGS archive format which is the native layout format for ADS. This will enable users of Agilent's ADS to import Gerber data after it has been organized by NETEX-G.

      User Settable Output Units & Scale Factor

      Previous versions of NETEX-G always output the data in either inches or mm depending on the Gerber file units. Some of our IC customers requested GDSII units in um. This feature has been added.

      You can now change the units of the output and the scale factor from the Preferences dialog. You can select inches, mils, cm, mm, or um as output units.

      If you are calling netexgmgr via command line use the argument: -outunit:< inch | mil | cm | mm | um > . To multiply the size by a scale factor, you can change the value in the shell, or use -outscale:<factor> on the command line (factor is a double-precision floating point number).


      NETEX V1.21 10/23/03

      Wire Output For GDSII

      Previous version of NETEX-G did not recognize the special wire layer when outputting GDSII. This version now accepts WIRE layers for GDSII output and automatically creates a "via" from the wire endpoint to the metal below it. The via is only created on the "outside" end of the wire with the assumption that the die pad is on the inside end.

      Licensing Fix

      FLEXlm node-locked license bug was fixed.

      Log File Improved

      The dialog that diplays the log file now allows the user to jump to each warning message.

      Via Recognition Fix

      The program's routine to automatically recognize vias (from round and square shaped pads) was occassionally "fooled" by large round objects that were not pads. A max via size parameter has been added to instruct NETEX-G that any object larger than this max value cannot be a via. (reported by Honeywell)


      NETEX V1.19 07/31/03

      Net/Node Label Fix

      Enables the user to label nets or nodes at the die end of bond wires. This is very useful as often the designer has the die pad coordinates and die pad numbers/net names.

      GUI Fixes

      Fixed an instability in the user interface that caused a program lock up.


      NETEX V1.18 07/22/03

      Improved Wire Bond Handling

      Version 1.18 updates the conversion of wirebonds to be consistent with Ansoft's wire bond requirements in the ANF file format. Wirebonds can be imported as a series of Gerber files and the program automatically sorts our the die end vs the package end of the wires. Pads are dropped onto the specified metal layer in order to connect the wire to the top metal in the ANF file format.


      NETEX V1.17 06/06/03

      Net Node Labeling

      This new feature allows interaction with GBRVU to add net and node labels directly from GBRVU.

      Padstack support for node labels

      Node labels that are added either through GBRVU or by importing data files can now have a padstack associated with them. This padstack will be passed to the Ansoft Neutral file; ANF requires such a padstack placed so that wires or solder balls can be attached to that point.

      Polygonal Selection Window Support

      This new feature enables a user to select a clipping region that is shaped as a polygon; for many types of circuits such as RF layouts and IC packages a polygon selection can easily isolate the desired retrings of text were encountered as net labeltput as text in the DXF file format. The text is now center/middle justified -- previously the text was lower left justified.

      Panning with middle mouse button in Gbrvu

      GBRVU has been enhanced so that one can pan from point to point by holding down the middle mouse button or wheel.

      Bug fix for identical net text

      If two identical strings of text were tput as text in the DXF file format. The text is now center/middle justified -- previously the text was lower left justified.

      Panning with middle mouse button in Gbrvu

      GBRVU has been enhanced so that one can pan from point to point by holding down the middle mouse button or wheel.

      Bug fix for identical net text

      If two identical strings of text were encountered as net labels the program would trings of text were encountered as net labels the program would fail. This has been fixed.

      Import Die pads from AIF

      The AIF import now allows the user to choose between die pads, fingers and ball pads when importing labels. This was added for better Ansoft NeuetWirebond coordinates can now be imported from an AIF II file and passed into the output. Net connectivity is established based on the "finger" end of the wire.


      NETEX V1.13 03/10/03

      Redefined Apertures in 274X files

      Fixed a bug where redefined apertures were not supported if the file prefix was the same from Gerber file to Gerber file i.e. testbd.gtl, testbd.gp2, testbd.gbl

      Window Selection

      Added the ability to define a "window" selection when processing large complicated files. Only the data within the window will be extracted. The window can be set either by entering the coordinates manually or by picking them from the GBRVU display. This dialog is available under Preferences | Advanced.


      NETEX V1.12 02/12/03

      Leonov Polygons are Now Supported

      Prior to this version one could not request Leonov polygons and get a correct proximity or neighbor net. This is now possible.

      AutoCAD Output Enhanced

      The 2D DXF output option now has the following enhancements:

      1. node labels are now written using strings of text instead of polyline strokes.

      2. node text justification is now centered

      3. node text height is user controlled

      4. node text layer is user controlled

      Bug Fix in the ASCII output

      Net names were preceded by "STRUCT" key instead of "NET" key whenever there was no labeling. This has now been fixed.


      NETEX V1.11c 01/22/03

      Neighbor Nets Fixed

      The extraction request for neighbor nets was fixed. Previous version output the proximity_net even if neighbor net was requested. Leonov polygons still not supported.

      Layer Stackup added to Output

      The layer stackup information (collected in the GUI and saved in the .njb file) is now included in the output ASCII file in its own section. This should make it easy for another program reading the ASCII output to apply the correct Z values and widths.


      NETEX V1.11b 01/17/03

      Extractions Added

      The ability to specify an extraction has been added. This includes the ability to get the proximity net or the neighor nets. However this function is not currently working if the output geometry selected is Leonov polygons. (Leonov polygons contain voids and the calculation to select nearby entities does not support voids. Will be addressed shortly)


      NETEX V1.10 01/03/03

      Updated ASCII Output

      The ASCII output now includes the node names on the same line as the NET allowing the receiving program to know which nodes are associated with which net.

      Updated Drill to Gerber

      The drill2gbr module has been updated to include the ability to specify a polygon and the number of sides for the polygon. This enables a much coarser via that is no longer dependent on the value of the arc resolution. (requested by Agilent.)


      NETEX v1.00 9/30/02

      Initial Release

      this is just a partial release for purposes of measuring the speed required to convert small and large layouts.




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