My question is one of deciphering the Allegro ALG ascii file used for board outputs.
We are importing footprints into Altium which requires an ascii export from allegro using extracta. I'm able to do that okay, but Altium handles padstacks differently and we lose custom pads on our paste layer (offset and size are different from top). This information is in the ALG file, but I'm told Altium ignores that layer on the import since the mask/paste are defined automatically by Altium.
What I need to do is move the lines in the alg file containing pastemask in the pad definitions to another area, perhaps a mechanical layer so it won't be ignored. I then I can just change the gerber outputs to point to that layer rather than the padstack. I can write a Word macro to automate that if I understand the file format.
Bottom line, can someone direct me where to go to understand the ALG file and how it handles data, or help with the solution in another way?
Kevin