ODB++ support in Horizon EDA?

Hi all,

First of all, I want to say thank you to the team behind Horizon EDA. I just started playing with Horizon EDA and I am loving the approach to the library management so far!

I was wondering about whether support for odb++ is on the radar for Horizon EDA. I found this 2 yr old Eevblog post by Lukas, so it seems like there was some interest at some point in time on odb++.

Whenever the topic of odb++ comes up, people also point to IPC-2581 which aims to replace odb++, and question the value of odb++. I think odb++ export would be valuable to the community for the following reasons:

  1. We have SI/PI/3D EM software that take odb++ as inputs. Therefore enabling odb++ exports is a big boon to folks working on RF or high-speed designs.

  2. High end PCB/PCBA shops like working with the odb++ format.

  • PCB shops like it because odb++ is easier to import into their CAM system, and makes their DFM easier.
  • For PCBA shops, having richer data in form of odb++ helps them do x-ray inspections etc.

Again while IPC-2581 is supposed to enable the same things I wrote above, in my experience shops are still dragging their feet on IPC-2581 adaptation and want to stick to what they know (odb++).

Thank you!

At that time, one user was asking about ODB++ export for SI/PI simulation, that’s about it. Knowing that other people are also interested in it, I might have another look into implementing it.

I, too, could use odb++; the fabrication shops I work with seem to require it for automated testing; I suspect it’s the identification of net names in odb++ and not in gerber that enables it.

Tom

Mostly because I wanted to learn more about it and how it compares to Gerber, we’ve now got ODB++ output add ODB++ output · horizon-eda/horizon@d84af5e · GitHub

It not only includes the board image like gerber, but also includes nets and components.

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This is marvelous! Thank you.

This is fantastic news! Thanks so much. I’ll try to generate some odb files and consume them in signal integrity and manufacturing test tools to see if the outputs are coming in correctly.

Excellent, I’ve only tested with the ODB++ viewer available from https://odbplusplus.com/design/download/odb-viewer-v11-4/. I assume that all of the other tools from valor/frontline/mentor graphics/siemens such as genesis 2000 and valor NPI are based on roughly the same implementation since they have pretty much identical UI. So it’d be interesting to see how other tools that don’t share the valor heritage do with the generated files.

Are layers such as Outline Notes and the (layer-less?) dimensions included somewhere in the ODB++ output? Would be handy to include them somehow.