Creating a test poit report in Ultiboard?

[stressed_user]

Hi All,

I have a challenge for you all 🙂

We are having a subcontractor making us a needle-bed for testing boards in a testing frame.

There for they need: a DXF with all positions and a list with coordinates.

making the DXF works fine , no problem there.

But I need to generate an excel list (or csv) with the coordinates of the points (mainly TH pins) that I want to have a testing needle pointing at?.

Manually it is just a too big job (copying all positions) that will surely give errors (I tend to swap figures and numbers).

So I thought of creating a part which only has a mechanical layer, so I can add it to my design, without influencing the layout/silk etc...

I created such part, which only has a cross in the mechanical layer. 

I can place it, and select it as a part. so far so good.

Next I want to generate a list of these parts. I gave the tespoint location (thus the newly created part) an extra tag 'tespin', and I added this column to my 'parts centroids' table.

So it will be exported when generating a list. the I can select and delete the lines that I do not need.

And now the big problem... When I update my design in the future, I would like to keep the testpoints. 

But since they are defined as parts, when importing the netlist, those parts wil be removed, or I need to manually deselect them...

Is there a way to keep those parts in my design, even if I import a nwe netlist?

Until now I always need to do that with mechanical parts (screws etc) that I add to my designs...

When I update the design, I must manually check the list..

For 4 or 6 screws, that's easy, although I forget it from time to time (causing more stress) and the they're gone 😞

with over a 100 testpoints, that would be a disaster...

Is there a way to keep those parts from being removed? locking them doesn't work...

Oh, and I still use V10.1

stressed-user

[ThiCop]

Hello stressed_user,

Where your netlists made in Multisim?

Your testpoints seem to be linked to specific nets in your design, right?

In your post you are talking about importing a netlist.

Are you currently using forward annotation?

What do you exactly mean with "manually deselecting"?

If you can share a sample schematic and netlist, then I can take a look at it and see what ideas I can come up with.

PS: I must tell you in advance that the oldest version of Ultiboard that is installed on my pc is Ultiboard 12.0.1

[stressed_user]

Hi Thierry,

I'm using V10.1, so no annotations... 🙂

but my testpoints are not part of the schematic...

The test fixture is for a power board and I use the pins of connectors and TH parts as positions on which I want to measure.

as an example, it could be both pins of an electrolytic capacitor.

So I need the X and Y position of both pins of this capacitor.

For this I created this special component, lets call it a TPF (test point fixture) which in fact only has a cross in the mechanical layer.

I manually add these TPF components in the layout. In case of teh cpacitor, I added two TPF

So it is not part of the design (no copper, not a hole) , and not visible in the schematic.

As it is made as a component, it appears in the BOM and the P&P

so I can select all those  parts and add them to an excel table.

Those refereces go to the fixture builder, and he drills holes in the ficturen on the given X-Y locations 

All the above works fine...

But when I will import a new netlist in the design (with some minor changes), all these TPF will dissapear unless I manually deselct them in the changes list.

So the question would be:

How can I keep the TPF components in the design, so they're not influenced by a new netlist import or an annotation?

They are like a design behind the design, and there's no need to add them to the schematic...

So thes TPF parts need to be part of the layout without being affected bij netlist update or aanotations...

Is that possible?

Stressed_user

[ThiCop]

Hello Stressed_user,

You confused me a bit.

As far as I know it should also be possible to do forward annotations in Ultiboard 10.1:

I'm basing myself on the Release Notes I have at my disposal at my side:

http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/374478c.pdf

I must honestly admit that I have no hands-on experience with version 10.1, but I always thought it also contained (a form of) forward annotation.

I think you are already doing this with your import otherwise you wouldn't get a changes list.

So you want to keep a "virtual" component in your project/design that is not going to be physically placed on the PCB, but the virtual component does have to be kept in the design/project when doing an import/forward annotation.

What you can do (at least in version 12 and as far as I remember also 11) is the following:

- Lock all the "virtual components"

- Then do a forward annotation from the netlist.

- Sort the parts in the "changes" list

- Select the group of components you want to keep in the design.

If you have only locked the components that you should keep in the design, then you only have to select that (first) part of the list that has a status "Input Required".

Because you can sort the list based on status this should go very easily.

- Lastly you have to select the "Action in Layout" category and choose Ignore.

Can you perform these or similar steps in version 10.1?