Learning Forum

[Mario Di Marino]

Hi,

I'm using SIwave to do thermal simulation on my board and it was working fine until I started having problems importing ODB++.
Now, when importing the board, the components and pins are not imported correctly as shown in the attached screen.

I have already tried to reinstall both software but nothing has changed and the ODB files can be seen well with "ODB++ Viewer 2311"

Please let me known if you have any suggestions.

Thanks and regards,
Mario

[Dan Dv]

Hello Mario, Altium has a downloadable plug in exporter to output layout data in Ansys EDB format. I would recommend trying that instead of ODB++ to get the layout into SIwave. In general I see fewer issues with EDB exports out of Altium than I see with ODB++. Best regards, -Dan

[Mario Di Marino]

Hi Dan,

thanks for your reply.

I know the EDB format and the plugin you mentioned.
Unfortunately, before proceeding with the ODB format, I tried the EDB format obtaining terrible results as shown in the following screen:

Unfortunately I don't know why I'm having all these problems with the EDB format but seeing this behavior and being able to use the ODB format I haven't tried to fix it.

Thanks again for your support; if you have any other advice for me I would appreciate it.

Thanks and regards, Mario.

[Dan Dv]

Hello Mario,

Hmm, the EDB export looking the way it does  implies that there is something amiss on the Altium side of things. You may want to reach out to them as well. The only other alternative that comes to mind is trying to export and IPC-2581 file instead of ODB++ or EBD out of Altium. 

Best regards,

-Dan

[Mario Di Marino]

Hi Dan,

Thanks again for your time, I will try to contact Altium as well to see if they have any suggestions.
As for the IPC format, I tried it and I saw that it doesn't cause any problems except for some names in which it inserts spaces or other characters that don't allow you to launch the simulations but with a little patience I think I can overcome this problem.

Thanks again for everything, if you have any other ideas they are welcome.

Thanks and regards, Mario.

[armin.parsa]

Hi Mario,

Did you figure out a way to import your file? I have the same issue...

Thanks,

Armin

[Mario Di Marino]

Hi Armin,

Unfortunately no, after a few attempts I gave up.

I switched to the IPC format; I didn't notice any differences between simulations carried out using the different formats so I think they are equivalent. (I only did thermal simulations so I'm not sure).

The only differences I noticed are that the layers of the board must not have spaces in the name (I advise you to change the names in the layer stack manager inside Altium) and that the coordinates of the components change between the various formats therefore the component files created for ODB are not compatible with files made with IPC. (I actually didn't try to solve this problem, I preferred to restart the project with the IPC files).

I hope I was helpful to you.

Greetings,

Mario