Specctra is a commercial PCB
auto-router originally developed by
John F. Cooper and
David Chyan of
Cooper & Chyan Technology, Inc. (CCT) in 1989.
The company and product were taken over by
Cadence Design Systems
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (stylized as cādence), headquartered in San Jose, California, is an American multinational computational software company, founded in 1988 by the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Inc. The company produces software, ...
in May 1997.
Since its integration into Cadence's Allegro PCB Editor, the name of the router is Allegro PCB Router. The latest version is 17.4 - 22.1 (October 20 2022).
Specctra routes boards by presenting graphical data using a "shape-based" technology which represents graphical objects not as a set of points-coordinates, but more compact. This increases the efficiency of routing printed circuit boards with a high density of components, provides automatic routing of the same chain of tracks of different widths and more.
Specctra uses adaptive algorithms implemented in multiple trace runs. The routing is carried out in three stages:
# preview routing
# autoroute
# additional processing of autoroute results
On the first pass, the connection of all conductors is performed, regardless of the presence of conflicts, which consist in crossing the conductors on one layer and breaking the gaps. On each subsequent pass, the auto-router tries to reduce the number of conflicts by breaking and re-building connections (the
ripup-and-retry router method) and pushing the conductors by pushing the neighboring ones (the
push-and-shove router method). Electromagnetic compatibility can be tested in Specctra through the "SPECCTRAQuest SI Expert" module.
The program is compatible with many
design systems for printed circuit boards, thanks to the use of industrial-standard DSN design file format for project description and Do-files to specify routing strategies.
The results are returned to the board editor via SES session files as well as RTE files. Protocol command execution is recorded in Did-file, which after editing can be used as new Do-files.
The DSN/SES file formats are also supported by a number of other auto-routers including
KONEKT ELECTRA,
,
Alfons Wirtz's
FreeRouting and
RL-based DeepPCB.
List of EDA tools supporting Specctra
* ACCEL PCB
*
Cadence Allegro
* Cadnetix
* CADVANCE V / α
* DK-/DK-Magic
* DREAM CAD
*
EAGLE
Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, j ...
(via BRD_TO_DSN.ULP etc.
)
*
KiCad
KiCad ( ) is a free software suite for electronic design automation (EDA). It facilitates the design and simulation of electronic hardware. It features an integrated environment for schematic capture, PCB layout, manufacturing file viewing, ...
*
Mentor BoardStation
* MyPCB
*
OrCAD Layout
* PADS Perform / PowerPCB
* PLANET
* PLASMA
*
Protel Advanced PCB
* Providence
* SCS-1
*
TARGET 3001!
TARGET 3001! is a CAD computer program for EDA and PCB design, developed by Ing.-Büro Friedrich in Germany. It supports the design of electronic schematics, PCBs, and device front panels. It runs under Windows and is available in English, Ger ...
* U-Art
*
ULTIboard
NI Ultiboard or formerly ULTIboard is an electronic Printed Circuit Board Layout program which is part of a suite of circuit design programs, along with NI Multisim. One of its major features is the Real Time Design Rule Check, a feature that wa ...
* Vanguard PCB
* WorkBrain
*
Zuken CR-3000 /
CR-5000
*
Zuken Visula /
Zuken CadStar
See also
*
OrCAD
OrCAD Systems Corporation was a software company that made OrCAD, a proprietary software tool suite used primarily for electronic design automation (EDA). The software is used mainly by electronic design engineers and electronic technicians to ...
*
Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus (; Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, ''Prōteus'') is an early prophetic sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the " Old Man of the Sea" ''(hálios gérôn)''. ...
*
P-CAD
References
Further reading
*
*
*
* (16 pages)
*
External links
* http://www.cadence.com/products/pcb/pcb_design/pages/default.aspx Official website
* http://www.dsioffe.narod.ru/myspecctra
{{CAD software
Electronic design automation software