Introduction

A client of Artwork's was interested in exporting the top/bottom etch layers of a large PCB into SolidWorks in order to verify that the conductors did not lie under any clamps or heatsinks that could potentially short out should the solder mask be penetrated. The method chosen was to export the top and bottom conductor layers from the Allegro layout into SolidWorks and then perform an interference test against the 3D models of the housing and heatsinks that had already been designed in SolidWorks.

Artwork was able to supply both the AWROut software (a plug-in that runs inside of Allegro) together with an automation program that enables this export to be controlled by a script. We call this combination - BRD23D.

Flow from Allegro to 3Di to STEP/parasolid 3D format