gEDA-user: Orcad binary file format

[Stuart Brorson]

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006, Patrick Doyle wrote:

> On 10/27/06, Patrick Doyle <wpdster at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello Friends,
>> 
>> Does anybody on this list know where I could learn the binary file
>> format of Orcad schematic files?  Ultimately, I would like to create a
>> set of tools to convert back and forth between gschem and Orcad
>> designs.  (Ideally, somebody has already done this, and I don't have
>> to).  I've looked a little at olib, but it presumes an older format.
>> 
>> --wpd
>> 
> I just noticed that Orcad (10.5 is what I'm running, which I should
> have mentioned previously) has an "export to EDIF" option.  Suppose I
> were to export my design to EDIF, import it into gschem, play with it
> there, and reverse the process...
>
> Does an EDIF<->gschem translator exist?
> Would it be ridiculous to write one?  (Anybody can step in here and
> say, "Well, you could write one, but you would never get the library
> interface to Orcad to work because they don't document the frozbazz
> interface and that is absolutely required", etc...)
> Would this be of use to anybody else in the universe?
> Any other thoughts?

The problem is that EDIF is just a netlist format, and doesn't hold
info about the actual component's symbol (like is it a box, triangle,
where are the pins, etc).  As such, any schematic you create from it
would be confusing at best.

Stuart