Shape Builder

Cadence APD/Allegro calls its conductors, that are not traces or pads, shapes. In order to export shapes to APD from AutoCAD we must do two things: 1) make sure they are expressed in AutoCAD as Zero Width Closed Polylines 2) assign them a shape property and a conductor subclass for export to APD.

ZWCP must be given a shape property for export to APD

Shape Extended Data - You can verify that an entity is a shape by using the Utility called Xdata Viewer. This utility allows one to see any extended data that has been attached to an AutoCAD entity. LayoutGen uses Xdata to hold the intelligence it is adding back to the AutoCAD drawing.

In this example, the small oval slot has an object property=shape, a parent (the polygon that contains it) and a Cadence conductor subclass called TOP_COND.

Xdata Viewer showing shape properties