Reference Designer

Allegro SKILL Tutorial | Forms

So far we have dealt with simple form that has only one or two elements of form. We will now created a little bit of complicated form, which will have preactically anything that goes in the form. Once you run this skill, it will pop up a form and and with different fields. You need to fill up the form and press Run. At this stage it will gather all the inputs of the form and will put them in an output file.

Copy the following code in a file advanceform.il and save it in the directory C:/cadence/setup/skill (or the directory that allegro.ilinit points to).

 
axlCmdRegister( "advanceform" `advanceform)
; -----------------------------------------------------------------
procedure( advanceform()

	les4_form = axlFormCreate( (gensym) "les4.form" nil 'les4_form_Action t)
	axlFormDisplay(les4_form)

); end of procedure
; -----------------------------------------------------------------
procedure( les4_form_Action(les4_form)
	case( les4_form->curField

		("Close_button"
        	axlFormClose( les4_form )
		 	axlCancelEnterFun( )
      	); --------------------------

 		("Run_button"
			les4_form_run()
      	); --------------------------	
	); end case
	
); end of procedure

; -----------------------------------------------------------------
procedure( les4_form_run()
	; Create output file to write report
	cl_file = outfile("check_list.rpt" "w")

		; ------ Print Header 
		fprintf(cl_file "**********************\n")
		fprintf(cl_file " Check List Report\n")
		fprintf(cl_file "**********************\n\n")
		
		axlUIWPrint(les4_form getCurrentTime())

		; ------  Print CurrentTime
		fprintf(cl_file "CurrentTime : %s \n" getCurrentTime())

		; ------  Print Designer Name
		fprintf(cl_file "PCB Designer Name : %s \n" axlFormGetField( les4_form "name"))

		; ------  Print Design Name
		fprintf(cl_file "Design Name : %s \n" axlCurrentDesign())

		; ------ Print value of check box
		if( axlFormGetField(les4_form "check1") then check = "YES" else check = "NO" ); end if 
		fprintf(cl_file "Do you check DRC? : %s \n" check)		

		; ------ Print	value of popup
		fprintf(cl_file "Exist SMD in this project : %s \n" axlFormGetField( les4_form "pop1"))

		; ------ Print	value of slidebar
		fprintf(cl_file "Layers number : %d \n" axlFormGetField( les4_form "slidebar1"))

		; ------ Print value of group
		if( axlFormGetField(les4_form "both") then 
			silk_side = "Both" 
		else 
			if( axlFormGetField(les4_form "top") then silk_side = "Top" else silk_side = "Bottom" ); end if 
		); end if 
		
		fprintf(cl_file "Silk exist on : %s \n" silk_side)
		; ------
		
	close(cl_file)
			
); end of procedure
; -----------------------------------------------------------------

Now creat another file called les4.form with the following content

 

 FILE_TYPE=FORM_DEFN VERSION=2
FORM
FIXED
PORT 40 40
HEADER "Check List Report"

#=== must define popup before using
POPUP "Yes" "Yes" , "No" "No" .

TILE
#========== using STRFILLIN
TEXT "PCB Designer Name"
FLOC 1 1
ENDTEXT

FIELD name
FLOC 20 1
STRFILLIN 15 20
ENDFIELD
#========== using CHECKLIST
TEXT "Do you checked  DRC?"
FLOC 1 5
ENDTEXT

FIELD check1
FLOC 20 5
CHECKLIST "Yes"
ENDFIELD
#========== using POPUP
TEXT "Exist SMD in this project"
FLOC 1 10
ENDTEXT

FIELD pop1
FLOC 20 10
ENUMSET 6
POP "pop1"
ENDFIELD
#========== using INTSLIDEBAR
TEXT "Layers number"
FLOC 1 15
ENDTEXT

FIELD slidebar1
FLOC 20 15
INTSLIDEBAR 2 2
MIN 2
MAX 30
ENDFIELD
#========== using GROUP
TEXT "Silk exist on"
FLOC 1 20
ENDTEXT

GROUP ""
GLOC 18 18
GSIZE 22 5 
ENDGROUP

FIELD top
FLOC 19 20
CHECKLIST"Top" "grp"
ENDFIELD

FIELD bottom
FLOC 25 20
CHECKLIST "Bottom" "grp"
ENDFIELD

FIELD both
FLOC 33 20
CHECKLIST "Both" "grp"
ENDFIELD
#========== using MENUBUTTON

FIELD Run_button
FLOC 2 27
MENUBUTTON "Run" 7 3
ENDFIELD

FIELD Close_button
FLOC 11 27
MENUBUTTON "Close" 7 3
ENDFIELD

#======================
ENDTILE

ENDFORM

Save the file in the same directory as you brd file. Assuming everything is right you can just type hello form at the Command and it will pop up a form.


If you fill the form as indicated, it will generate a file called check_list.rpt with the following contents

 
**********************
 Check List Report
**********************

CurrentTime : Feb 10 10:32:20 2013 
PCB Designer Name : Refernce Designer 
Design Name : KBox_TCxI3_RevB_08_temp 
Do you check DRC? : YES 
Exist SMD in this project : Yes 
Layers number : 4 
Silk exist on : Top 

Exercise

1. Change the form soo that the test - "Do you checked DRC ?" changes to "Did you check DRC ?".

We have not done any PCB related function, but you may have got the taste of it. You can embed the actions as we will learn later on.