Hi, in the older Orcad Layout tool there was a library manager so one could organize their footprints into one Library file. You could also view your footprints in an easy way too, Basically all you had to do was click on the library file and browse the footprints contained in this file. Other cad systems such as Pads, Altium, Zuken, Mentor all have a similar way of handling footprint libraries. Similar to how symbols are handled in a capture library.
In Allegro my footprints are not contained in a single file but they are all flat if you will. One footprint multiple entities. For example suppose I have a dip-8 footprint for this particular footprint I will have dip-8.dra, dip-8.psm, dip-8.txt and finally the pads for that part in one directory. This is not very managable and I was wondering if there is a way to package all of my footprints in to one Library file.
The other thing is when I want to view these footprints there is not an easy way to do it or perhaps there is but it is not obvious to me. What I do is go to the PCB editor and open a .dra file to view the actual footprint. Then I have to load a .prm file to setup my colors so the footprint displays correctly. The whole process seems obtuse. I can only load one footprint at a time to look at them, I dont even want to perform edits but just basically look and review the footprint.
Is there a bettwer way to to do it ?
Thanks Scott