doug,
It seems to me your customer is asking for a "diff" of the gerber files.
I think you are right, the engineer should be able track the net list
changes, this should be a function of the schematics. I would think
if the engineer can provide a net list with all the changes then you
would be in business. BUT, this doesn't help you in you current situation.
Can you do a "diff" on the net lists ? Or write a script to do the same.
Are you on UNIX or windows ?
There is one other way that I know of that might help you, ADI Pro-Circuit
Builder is a gerber tool with intellegence. It is able to read a net list
and compair it to the gerber database. It seems a powerful tool to me.
I think this could help you find the differences in the two revisions of
a board. ADI reads both the gerber files and a net list. To find the
differences you could provide the gerber files for the current board,
along with the net list from the old one. This should produce a list of
differences. You would need to call them to find out if it can do all
the stuff you'll need.
Contact:
Robert Lowry
ADI
703-742-9400x21
Automata, in Sterling Virgina, a board shop, uses this tool.
let me know how it works out.
joez
>
> We are an independent Service Bureau
>
> A year ago we completed a board for a customer. The board had
> roughly 7200 individual nodes. Recently the customer asked
> us to incorporate revisions affecting approx 500 of those nodes
> (some parts deleted, several new parts + other changes.)
>
> Revisions are, of course, dynamic, so we received approx 4 up-dated
> net lists during the process. The problem is that he had numerous
> unnamed nets. The schematic capture system would assign random names
> to those nets each revision. Our system doesn't care if names change
> as long as the integrity of the overall net list is preserved.
>
> When we gave him the check plots he asked us for a printout of
> just the changes, presumably so he could check just those. Since
> most of the nets were renamed several times,
> we didn't see how we could meet his request, but he insists that we
> should be able to.
>
> So I'm looking for your input.
>
> 1. Isn't it the engineer's job to keep track of changes if he wants an
> audit trail?
>
> 2. And isn't our job to implement them and create a design that matches
> the netlist that he says is the final and correct one, but not to maintain
> his audit trail of changes? (in particular, a "net-diff" list from two
> net lists with randomly assigned net names?)
>
> 3. If a schematic capture system assigns names to the nets, isn't there
> a way to fix those assignments and make them permanent?
>
> I'm not looking for sides, here, but a way to see this problem coming
> and be able to solve it next time.
>
> Thanks for any input
>
> Doug Brooks
>
>
>
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