open protel 99 database in Ultiboard

[davidp1232]

I seem to be having some problems opening a Protel 99 database in Ultiboard.  I keep receiving an error message:  .ddb was not recognized as a valid file format.

I was wondering if anybody else experienced this problem, and if there was a possible solution.  I am using Ultiboard version 10.0.343.

Thank you in advance for any help.

[lacy]

I am not sure of your problem. Are you trying to open a design that was created in Protel? If that is the case it should open it from the file menu. Is it possible may to post the Protel file so that we can try it? Maybe we can figure out what is happening if we had the file to try.

[davidp1232]

I have attached the Protel database file.  Please let me know of your progress.

Thanks

[lacy]

Is this file a PCB Layout file? I ask this question because when I view the file in a text editor it doesn't look like a PCB file. If it isn't a Layout file then I don't believe Ultiboard is going to be able to open it.

If you are trying to import a component database from Protel, then I would have to defer this to someone with more experience Protel than me.

Maybe the NI Support team has more information about this than I do and can help better in this situation.

Sorry, I gave it a shot but I am not experiienced enough with Protel to give you an answer..

[davidp1232]

I tried to open the Protel .pcb file in Ultiboard and it appeared as though Ultiboard imported all the layers from the Protel design but didn't render the graphics correctly.  I'm not sure if I can explain the problem properly, so I have attached the Ultiboard file and a .jpg of what the Protel design looks like.

Thank you again for your help.

[lacy]

I see exactly what you see. This is an issue that NI Support Team will have to address because of my lack of knowledge about Protel. The way it looks to me is that the .pcb and .dds file would have to be loaded and if you can't load the .dds file then there are no components available to display.

This goes to a compatibility issue that I do not have enough knowledge about to give much advice. I will defer this to NI and hopefully they can provide you with a solution or a definitive answer about Protel files and how to load them or if they are compatible.

[davidp1232]

Lacy

Thank you for all your help.

[kittmaster]

protel <---------------------------> UB

I input translators have a tough time with this type of thing. Even Orcad is tricky when bringing in schematics. The safe bet would be manually recreate what is needed in UB.