Multisim and Ultiboard Idea Exchange

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A dark mode in Multisim would be great, not only in sheet, but also in all the other elements like toolbar, because sometimes my eyes hurt because of default setting.

I posted the following in the main Multisim - Ultiboard forum but it was suggested I post it here.  Sorry for the duplicate posting.

 

Digi-key and other distributors are providing schematic symbols and footprints via Ultra Librarian in many formats (e.g. OrCad, Altium, Cadence, even Eagle!!) but NOT for Multisim or Ultiboard.  I have asked the Ultra Librarian people why this is and they say they have tools to support it but are having trouble getting required information from NI to complete the work and make a release.  

 

What does it take to get Ultra Librarian the information they need?  Who is the right NI contact?  Why do we MS/UB users not have the same tools as the other package users?  

 

We are a user of Multisim and Ultiboard and have been for many years.  We have appreciated that there are user fields in the data base that we can populate with our company specific information including Part Numbers and descriptions. 

 

Here is the Good idea . . . We would like to be able to have our Part Numbers display on schematics and appear in BOM reports and also transfer to Ultiboard.   Transferring to Ultiboard is important so that the Part Numbers appear on the Centroid Output.  Currently this can be done in Multisim by copying and pasting the PN into the Label field however, this a very tedious task and it leads to errors especially on large schematic designs.  As for BOM reports, it is also a very tedious task that takes a long time.  

 

With Ultiboard, this is also a manual process of copying the Part Numbers from the schematic to the Centroid output for our machine machine programs.  (SMT)  

 

This seems like these would be very useful tools for an operation who is using your software for both design and manufacturing.  Please consider adding this feature to the next update. 

I would like the option to change the color of the PCB. This feature allows a versatile look before sending file to manufacturing.

Red, blue, purple, etc please 🙂

 

Thanks.

bits4bots@gmail.com 

 

 

Bits4Bots | Nibble MC DevBits4Bots | Nibble MC Dev

It would be hugely beneficial to be able to print/export an Ultiboard silkscreen design, where the output is a searchable PDF.

 

Currently Multisim when printed to PDF is searchable. However Ultiboard draws the text differently and therefore it does not get recognized as text in the PDF output.

Hello,

 

I am missing a functionality which is common to few other design tools.

 

Description:

 

1) Select component

2) Type on keyboard: srx 30

3) Result: Selected component is moved relatively 30 units in x direction 

 

This is very efficient way how to position components on the board. You do not have to watch coordinates and carefully = slowly operate with mouse to place component in correct position. 

 

Best regards,

Jirkus

 

Hello to all,

 

it was cool, if we have MultiSIM 3D virtual breadboard view for myDAQ and Digilent boards like we have for the Elvis boards.

 

This seems to have become worse and worse in recent revisions of MS and UB.  When the spreadsheet is open on a net or part tab in UB or MS every time I touch a net or part or row in the spreadsheet it redraws the screens over and over and over for many many iterations before calming down.  At least 3 times but sometimes as many as maybe 10 or more times.  And it's not very fast either.  It is becoming VERY irritating.

More and more PCB fab vendors are asking for OBD++ output.  Eventually I think you are going to have to support it.

UB differential pair groups should be able to specify how close to equal length is required.

 

There is almost always some amount of length matching error.  Not being able to specify allowed error means you will always get a DRC when you have matched length nets.

The only way to do a horizontal cylinder is a resistor body between pins.  Often other configurations of horizontal cylinders are needed.  i.e. tubular radial resistor that lays over on it's side, some relay bodies, and various mechanical objects that don't have axial electrical pins. 

 

I've had to resort to horizontal rectangles to do this, which does not convey the image very accurately.

It would be helpful in more complicated designs to have an option to color nets. Currently Ultiboard offers only "Highlight net" option, but it highlights only one net, with a predefined color and disapperas after doing something else. Net coloring allows to glance and see, for example, power pins locations.

 

Regards,

Piotr Falkowski

Hardware Engineer, ZF TRW

Utiboard has some windows and fields to create net, buses and component groups in the "Group Editor" tool. The bus groups are required if you want to autoroute a particular bus. However, there's no creation of a bus group when you create a bus in Multisim, so this have to be done manually in Ultiboard, and the back annotate it to Multisim. So I think that is a good idea to have the same "Group Editor" window in Multisim, and also automtically add Buses to Bus Groups. Also, another related enhancement could be the creation of component's "Room Property" (like OrCAD) for components that need to be near in the PCB as passive components for medium to high speed IC's, and use this property to automatically create a component group, and also aid Autorouters to impose particular constraints for this group, like trace length, impedance, and maximum via count. This can increase success and speed of ultiboard Autorouter, or make manual placing and routing much faster.

aestay_0-1618845709713.png

 

The gerber output from Ultiboard should have either an option to turn off the targeting and cornering or just leave these out.  These were used back in the cave man days to line up the gerbers for a photo shoot.  Today, they are useless and make more work in deleting them on each layer.

Add the possibility to transfer components user fields from MS (MultiSim) to UB (UltiBoard) in TEXT variables (TEXT,TEXT1,TEXT2,...).

In UB add the possibility to have the component height (height + Offset) and user fields to the part centroids export

In UB add the possibility to export user fields in the BOM

On upgrade it would be interesting to automatically keep the circuit designer suite configuration, particuliarly for customized interface, user button and keyboard shortcuts.

 

Thanks

Hi

Was advised to post this here so here it is. (again, with tags this time)

Some problems I've encountered so far in no particular order:-

1. Part reference: When selecting a part, regardless of where the cursor is once selected, I would expect the part to jump to the cursor on its part reference.......it doesn't, it picks it up wherever you choose. I've tried the "change the grids" to smaller, but this seems ridiculous that you have to zoom in to pick a part on centre, or type in co-ords. The only way I've found is via the "part tab", but you can't keep going to that every time you want to move a component.

 

2. Printing: When printing out the board layers, top, bottom, ident etc. and selecting fit to page, it doesn't, it's like the preview is seeing another layer that is turned off. So you get a print that looks like it's seeing the drawing format.

 

3. Rotate component: CNTL R for 90deg. If another rotation is required it's by numerous clicks of the mouse. Why can't a specified increment be set up eg 45deg. via say CNTL,ALT R. If numerous components are being placed at a specified angle, to have to click select click select from a mouse right click sub menu is time consuming.

 

4. Toggle between preset grids via shortcut key.

 

5. Assign a net a colour: I generally turn 0V & +V off when placing to de-clutter. BUT, where certain nets need to be easily identified, like a locally used voltage, earth ground etc, this is useful.

 

6. Layers: Global turn ON/OFF of layers, having to double click (to grey, then off) is a pain.

 

7. Drawing blanks A2, A3 etc: To have said blanks saved as a default with standard commonly used notes, and have the fields/attributes (drawn by, date, drawing no, title, material, finish, etc) tabulated to fill in like an Autocad block.

 

So far, the manual and the net have failed me for answers.

That's it......for now.

 

Russ

 

In a recent design I had rule violations I was not aware of until ordering boards because teardrops added in did not generate errors on spacing violations, even when they were causing a direct short.  I would have to consider this a significant defect in UB.

UB14.1 Win10 64b

 

Discussion and spacing violation with no errors shown here:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Multisim-and-Ultiboard/Teardrops-and-design-rule-errors/td-p/3684720

It would be nice if the mask would show up in the 3D view of the board.  This would greatly help prevent forgotten or misplaced soldier mask areas when looking at the board in 3D. 

Hi,

This is my fourth advise about Ultiboard ideas.

We should have better FANOUT BGA routing in the ultiboard. The current one does not work well and is not able to complete BGA Fanouts. Everytime I should draw it manually to have better and complete Fanouts.