OrCAD 16.x Import Support

Altium Designer supports the importing of a wide range of files from other design software packages, including OrCAD® Capture™ schematics and libraries. With this new release of Altium Designer, its importer and translator now supports the 16.x version of OrCAD design files (*.dsn).

Design files from other tools are imported and translated to the Altium Design project structure using the Import Wizard, where ‘OrCAD Designs and Library files’ can be selected in the Importer’s file type page. The wizard guides you through the import process and provides a range of intuitive translation configuration choices along the way.

The Import Wizard will translate OrCAD 16.x design schematics and library files into Altium Designer Schematic (*.SchDoc) and Schematic Library (*.SchLib) documents respectively. The translated files are grouped within an Altium Designer PCB project (*.PrjPcb), and stored in an associated Imported xxx folder, where xxx represents the source OrCAD design file name.

The Import Wizard provides a range of useful translation configuration choices during the process that define how the imported design files are interpreted.

The success or otherwise of the import process can be viewed from the compiler listing in the Messages panel,  which provides an interactive listing of the error, warning and status messages produced during the import.

The Messages panel will automatically open following the design import process – error and warning messages can be interactively viewed in the workspace.

For further information on importing design files from OrCAD and other design tools, see:

* Imported OrCAD® design file for the TI AM335x EVM board courtesy of Texas Instruments®.