01 - What is OrCAD X Capture CIS?

OrCAD® X Capture CIS (referred to as Capture CIS or CIS elsewhere) is a part management system available as an option for use with  Capture CIS and helps you manage part properties (including part information required at each step in the printed circuit board design process, from implementation through manufacturing) within your schematic designs.

Capture Component Information System (CIS) provides access to local (preferred parts database) and remote part databases that contain all relevant information for the parts used in your designs. This information may include company part numbers, part descriptions, PCB layout footprints, technical parameters (such as speeds, tolerances, and ratings), and purchasing information.

With CIS, you can select a part from your preferred parts database or a remote database and place it directly in your schematic design. You can configure CIS to transfer any or all properties associated with that part to the schematic when you place the part. CIS maintains a link to the engineering database part so that you can retrieve other part properties at any time. Linking placed parts to your preferred parts database gives you access to complete part information during the schematic design process.

If you need a part for your design that is not yet in the parts database, you can create the part in the design and add the part to your part database immediately or at a later time. You can also link a non-database part you’ve created before to a database part at any time.

CIS and PCB Design Process

You can use CIS in Capture to do the following:

• Select parts with associated properties from the database and place them on schematic pages in a design.
• Check the status of placed parts and update placed part properties to reflect changes to the database.
• Generate bills of materials and other reports using both design and part database information.
  

To use CIS in your printed circuit board design flow, the following setup tasks need to be performed:

• Create the preferred part database.
  This involves creating and entering the part data appropriate for the database.
• Set up the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) data source to point to the preferred part database.
• Configure the part management system.

CIS Work Environment

The CIS work environment includes the following specialized windows that help you manage your local part database and explore sources of part data.

All the CIS functionality for these windows is integrated into Capture menus.

CIS Explorer Window

The CIS explorer window allows you to search for and retrieve a variety of part information.

The main window contains the  Local Part Database window.

The following table lists the windows available for each tabbed window:

The CIS explorer window displays in one of the following three modes, depending on which of the following CIS features you are using:

• Placing a database part
• Linking a database part to a placed part
• Viewing the database properties of a placed part

The mode is displayed as part of the window title bar.

Part Window

The  Part window displays the Capture library part associated with the currently selected database part. If the part has a convert (such as a DeMorgan equivalent), you can select it. For a multiple-part package, you can select the specific part in the package.

Relational Table Window

The  Relational Table window displays the relational table data for the selected part.

Visibility Window

The  Visibility window displays the default settings for which part properties are visible on your schematic page. You can use the  Visibility window to override these default settings. You can also set custom visibility settings for the current part selection.

You can also use the  Visibility window to display a compact summary of the part properties and their contents for the part you have selected in the database parts window. You can see more of the properties and contents in this view because the Visibility window displays them in rows rather than columns.

Explorer Window

The  Explorer window allows you to search for parts using local data from your preferred part database. The window contains two tabbed sections— Explore and  Query. In the explore tab, you can search for parts using a hierarchical tree organized by part type. The  Query tab allows you to further filter your selection based on parametric or field data and save them.

Database Parts Window

The  Database Parts window displays the results of your part browsing and database queries.

• Roll the mouse wheel up and down to scroll through vertically in the  Database Parts window.
• Hold down the SHIFT key and roll the mouse wheel up and down to scroll through horizontally.
• Click the mouse wheel button and drag it to the right or left in the database parts window to scroll horizontally.
• Click the mouse wheel button and drag it up or down in the database parts window to scroll vertically.

Part Manager Window

The  Part Manager window summarizes the status of all the parts in your design and provides a graphical interface for creating bill of materials variants.

The part manager window consists of two panes:

• Left Side Pane - Tree view
• Right Side Pane - List view

Left Side Pane - Tree view

The left side pane displays a tree view similar to Windows Explorer. The tree view is a hierarchy of groups, subgroups, and BOM Variants found in a design. You can quickly move components from Common to groups and subgroups to BOM Variants folders from the tree view. It allows you to create and edit groups, subgroups, and BOM variants. In the tree view, the core design is at the topmost level. Under the core design, there are the  Groups and the  BOM Variants folders at the same level.

You can show or hide the tree view using the  Show/Hide Tree View menu command and its corresponding button on the toolbar. This command toggles between the show and hide mode.

You can also expand or collapse ALL of the folders underneath a selected folder in the tree view using the  Expand/Collapse Tree Item command or the corresponding toolbar button. Folders on the same level, or higher than the selected, will not be expanded.

Right Side Pane - List view

The right side pane of the part manager displays a list view with the following information for each part in your design:

• Schematic page on which the part is placed
• Part reference designator
• Part value
• Part number
• Status of the placed part relative to the part database
• Database table that contains the placed part’s associated database part
• Capture source library from which the part was placed
• Capture source package to which the part belongs

You can configure the part manager window to show other part properties in addition to the standard part information listed above.

To hide or show part properties in the part manager, choose  Configure Part Properties Display from the  View menu.