User Guide

Interfacing to Board Layout Products
295
Common Syntax
Each file (.xmp, .xnt and .xpk) consists of a number of
lines. Empty lines and those starting with the ‘#’ character
are ignored. Otherwise, a line consists of one or more
comma-separated identifiers followed by either an AKO
specification or a replacement string.
An AKO (A Kind Of) specifier consists of the keyword
AKO, followed by an identifier. PSpice Schematics looks
up AKO definitions until it finds a definition that is not an
AKO, then uses this new definition (circular AKO chains
are not allowed).
The replacement string is processed further by PSpice
Schematics and then becomes an entry for the part in the
Partlist section of the layout netlist.
Examples:
DIODE DIODE,@PART
2N2220,2N2221,2N2222 TRNPN
1N914,1N915 AKO DIODE
The first example is a replacement string rule. This says
that the string
DIODE is to be replaced by the string
DIODE,@PART. The second example shows how more than
one identifier can reference the same replacement string.
The third example shows an AKO specification. In this
case, the string
1N914 references the DIODE rule. This is a
replacement (that is, not another AKO), so the net result is
that PSpice Schematics will replace
1N914 by
DIODE,@PART.
A target identifier may end with the ‘*’ character to
indicate a match with a pattern containing the same
leading characters up to the ‘*.’ For example,
LCC*
matches LCC20, LCC28, etc.
Rules are tested in the order found in the file. A default
rule specified anywhere in the file will be used when no
matching pattern is found. Rules can be empty (that is, a
line may consist of a pattern or patterns, only).