Is it possible to export from Kicad schematic to a format readable by orcad? Is there a tutorial on this?
Not that I have seen, but let us know if you find something.
For the other direction, there is a altium2kicad on github, and I think OrCAD SCH is similar to Altium SCH
You could look at that, and use it as a base to recode for the KiCad -> OrCad dirn ?
You can export netlists in other formats, from either KiCad SCH or PCB, if that helps.
There is no native support for anything other than importing Eagle6 PCB. There are very few developers and the proprietary formats make it extremely difficult to provide a translator, so no work is typically done on such translators. Some independent hackers have developed various tools to import from other formats but I don’t know of any projects to translate KiCad pcbs to another format.
It would be up to Cadence to support their customers by developing an importer. Not impossible as they know their own format and KiCad is open for them to decode
For PCB import to Allegro, a SKILL coding can be used. I’ve created something similar to import from Eagle way before 17.0, which now has it by default.
I know there is a schematic scripting available for orcad, but I didn’t use it so far. I know it has some limitations in creating schematic symbols so this should be a real challenge.
Trying to revive this old topic. There is a netlist button that seems to offer to export the net lists in OrcadPCB2 format (whatever OrcadPCB2 means…) See attached snapshot for reference. But it does not seem to be able to be successfully be imported into Allegro even through third party or ORCAD CIS import.
Does anyone have any success with creating a netlist from EESCHEMA? Is there some other alternative or technique?
Any help is much appreciated.
-GigaVolt.
Netlists are usually fairly simple ASCII files, so you are best to find a working example from the toolchain you target, and then compare the exported ASCII file.
Sometimes only the header needs editing (I found that with the PADS netlist export)
Or, you may find NET import has many choices, and you may be able to find a common format.
I want to revive this old topic because, unfortunately, OrCAD is used widely, is not all that cheap, and companies have invested in it and don’t want to give up their investment. Are there any options to convert between OrCAD/Allegro and KiCAD? Even if one has to go through an intermediate step like Eagle? Even OrCAD netlists into KiCAD pcb would be a giant step forward. Googling around, a found the site schematics.io, but its OrCAD-to-Eagle converter does not seem to work right with OrCAD 17.x (at least on Win10) and they don’t say anything about KiCAD. In this forum, there is also a thread about exporting an OrCAD netlist to KiCAD pcb (see Import external netlist, bypass Eeschema [from Orcad RINF]), but that effort, too, seems has stalled.
The github links there for bobc’s work look ok at a glance, but as he says, the .RINF file lacks component footprint info, which seems a large missing piece.
Maybe you can find options, or another net format, that does include some attribute/footprint info, as you ideally want to be able to define the footprint inside OrCAD and then export that info as well as the NetNames and PinLists ?
For completed PCBs, KiCAD imports PCAD formats quite well, which Altium can export, so you may be able to do a dual-hop conversion, of import into Altium, then export as PCAD ASCII.
orcad capture can export EDIF… so for orcad to kicad import one can try EDIF to Kicad translator…
but i guess there has been every less activity on this project for some time… and i’m not sure it supports kicad v5
you can try diptrace… it can import kicad files & export to multiple formats. i guess you may find one that can be imported into orcad…
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@PCB_Wiz: Thank you for your response.
In my stock KiCAD 5.1.4 for Ubuntu 16.04, I don’t see any option to import PCAD files. The only import options I see are Eagle Project and Spectra session.
Under File, there is Import Non-Kicad Board File, but I think that only shows when you start pcbnew, stand-alone ?
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@PCB_Wiz: Wow! Thank you! I confirm that in my KiCAD, if I start pcbnew by itself, under “File,” there does appear the extra option “Import non-KiCAD Board File”. I will try the OrCAD→Altium→KiCAD conversion route and its reverse when I get to work.