John, I have no direct experience with the "netlister" that you speak of.
I have not used Mentor Graphics Board Station Version 6 (or are you referring to something else being "V6") since the last time I was "on lab" at JPL in 1989, and while I did write a couple of interesting little Utilities that did a couple of different things to the "wires" file (or possibly it was called the "routes" file instead (?)), such as "rotate" the "routes" (routed traces) for the board (so the entire board could be rotated 90, 180, or 270 degrees), since in Board Station 6, (or at least 6.2) only an unrouted board could be rotated (it would not allow you to rotate the board along with placed traces). My solution to this limitation was to copy the "wires" file, and then delete it, and then rotate the unrouted board by the amount that you wanted to rotate it, and then rotate the "traces" in the "wires" file using my little Utility, and then copy back the rotated traces in the rotated "wires" file into the design directory, and walla! - instant rotated board with traces intact. Another thing I wrote a Utility to do, was to move selected layers in an already routed board down in the stackup a specified number of layers, so that a certain number of additional layers could be added in the center of the board. This too was accomplished by manipulating the "wires" file. If I remember correctly, Board Station 6 ran on an Apollo platform (at least the ones that we used at JPL did), and I had to copy the "wires" file over to a PC via the network, and then copy the "wires" file off onto a diskette, and then take it home and work my magic on it on my own PC at home, and then copy it back to a diskette and then go back across the network. Unfortunately, I never did any playing around with the netlist. And I can't remember if there ever actually was an intermediate (seperate) netlist file involved in the processing of a schematic. If there is an intermediate (separate) netlist file, it will show you the required format, and you might be able to do a quickie examination for compatability to the output from the Protel "formatter(?)" to the format required for Board Station 6. However, if such an intermediate (separate) file is not used, one thing that I do remember about Board Station 6, was that every single operation or keyboard entry, generated a corresponding entry in a "script file" that was about 37 and a half miles long, that accounted for each and every minute operation that would ever be performed, and the one thing that was unique about this "script file", was that if you ever lost or corrupted your design files for any reason, you could completely recreate them from scratch simply by "executing" the "script file" (or relevant portion thereof) from scratch. Ok, so what this means practically, is that minimally you should be able to determine the format of a netlist by simply looking at either a netlist file, or if that is not directly available, by looking at the "script file" that results by compiling a schematic (or associating it, or whatever it was that we did to it (it has only been a short eon and a half ago since I did any of this, and the cells in that corner of the brain are a little oxidized)), and seeing how that compares with what is generated by the Protel "formatter(?)". Anyway, I believe that in the worst case, you would only have to make a netlist look like a script file to be able to "execute it" and enter it into Board Station 6. You might want to run this by your guy with Board Station 6 and see what he has to say about all of this. But now if you wanted to take your gerbers and generate a "wires"file of traces . . . Just kidding . . . JaMi ----- Original Message ----- From: "John A. Ross [Design]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Protel EDA Forum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 6:44 AM Subject: [PEDA] Mentor Board Station Netlister Due to time constraints I need to issue one of our partner companies with a netlist rather than a completed board. They use MG Board station as their layout tool. Has anyone used the Board station V6 netlister in 99SE successfully? Or can offer any advice on re-formatting or combining the files generated by 99SE? I have already searched on MG Support Net for information on the netlist format for EN2002 but cannot find it (unless it is hidden in some other manual) Thanks Best Regards John A. 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