An ECAD Area specifies where you can place electrical components or cannot place them to avoid interference with other electric
components or electrical routing. You can create an ECAD area as a sketched cosmetic feature of an electrical board part.
However, since this area is sketched, you cannot dimension or regenerate it.
The ECAD area can have a closed 3D volume represented by a quilt. Use these quilts to perform a clearance and interference
check on the neighboring electric components. You can access the geometry of the ECAD area feature by using standard Creo TOOLKIT functions such as ProFeatureGeomitemVisit() and ProSolidQuiltVisit().
Feature Element Tree for the ECAD Area
The element tree for the ECAD Area feature is documented in the header file ProEcadArea.h. The following figure demonstrates the element tree structure:
Feature Element Tree for an ECAD Area
The information about the elements in this tree is as follows:
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PRO_E_FEATURE_TYPE—Specifies the feature type; should always have the value PRO_FEAT_COSMETIC. |
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PRO_E_IS_ECAD_AREA—Specifies whether the created cosmetic feature is an ECAD area. This element must have the value PRO_B_TRUE to distinguish this feature from other cosmetic features. |
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PRO_E_STD_FEATURE_NAME—Specifies the name of the ECAD area feature. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_TYPE—Specifies the type of ECAD area in the form of the enumerated type ProEcadAreaType. Specify the value of this element as one of the following:
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_PLACE_KEEPIN—Specifies a keepin region. You can specify the depth of the area above and below the electric board while creating this region.
The default depth value is zero. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_PLACE_KEEPOUT—Specifies a keepout region. You can specify the depth of the area above and below the electric board while creating this
region. The default depth value is zero. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_PLACE_REGION—Specifies a group area section. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_ROUTE_KEEPIN—Specifies a routing keepin region where routing actions are permitted. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_ROUTE_KEEPOUT—Specifies a routing keepout region where routing actions are not permitted. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_VIA_KEEPOUT—Specifies an area where you cannot create vias. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_FLEX_REGION—Specifies a region created using flexible modeling features. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_USER_DEFINED—Specifies an user-defined area. |
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PRO_E_STD_SECTION—Specifies the sketched region for the ECAD area. For more information on how to populate the section elements of the sketched
region, refer to the Element Trees: Sketched Features section. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_3D_VOLUME—A ProBoolean element that specifies whether the ECAD area appears with a 3D quilt. Only PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_PLACE_KEEPIN and PRO_ECAD_AREA_TYPE_PLACE_KEEPOUT types of ECAD areas accept a 3D volume on one or two sides. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_TYPE—Specifies the depth type in the form the enumerated type ProEcadAreaDepthType. The depth options are applicable only if the element PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_3D_VOLUME is set to PRO_B_TRUE. These options are as follows:
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_ONE_SIDE—Creates the ECAD area with a 3D volume on one side of the electrical board. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_TWO_SIDES_SYM—Places the created ECAD area with a 3D volume at the top and bottom of the electrical board symmetrically. |
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PRO_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_TWO_SIDES_NOT_SYM—Places the created ECAD area with a 3D volume at the top and bottom of the electrical board asymmetrically. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH—Specifies the depth for the ECAD area. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH2—Specifies the other depth value, which is applicable only if the element PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_TYPE is set to PRO_ECAD_AREA_DEPTH_TWO_SIDES_NOT_SYM. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_XHATCH—Specifies whether the ECAD area is created as a meshed region. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_TRIM_BNDRS—Specifies whether to trim the boundary of an ECAD area, where the ECAD area exceeds the boundary of the electric board. |
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_COLOR—Specifies the color of the ECAD area. The default color of the ECAD area is set in the Creo Parametric Options dialog box. Use the function ProElementEcadAreaProColorSet() to set the color of the ECAD area. Specify a defined ProColor structure as input argument. The data from ProColor structure is copied to the element PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_COLOR. When you redefine the element tree, the data copied from ProColor structure is used to set the color of the ECAD area.
The function ProElementEcadAreaProColorGet() returns the color of the specified ECAD area.
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PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_USER_DEF_TYPE—Specifies the name of the user-defined area. Similar to the other types of ECAD areas, the color of the user-defined ECAD
area is also set using the element PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_COLOR. You can also set the name and color of user-defined area in a comma separated value (.csv) file. The .csv file contains 2 columns, the names of user-defined areas and the names of the colors associated with each area. The names
of the colors set in the .csv file must be defined in the *.dmt file.
Set the path to the .csv file using the configuration option ecad_usrdef_area_type_file_path.
If you specify the name of a user-defined area from the .csv file, then the ECAD area is created with the color specified for that area in the .csv file. For an user-defined area that was created from the .csv file, if you use the element PRO_E_ECAD_AREA_COLOR to set the area color, then the color set by the element overrides the color set by the *.csv file.
Refer to the Creo Parametric ECAD Help for more information on how to create the .csv file and set colors in *.dmt files.
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