NetList and PartList Conversion
- Bill OLeary
- Erik A
The input netlist file contains verbose information about the design, including nets, net connections, net properties, pins and pin properties, and parts and part properties. The files are built for machine processing and are not friendly for user viewing.
The netlist conversion operation in NetBom creates a set of reports containing important data from the design files that are easy to read, filter, and sort.
When the user selects the Convert NetList operation, NetBom extracts the input data into an internal database of the parts, nets, connections, and properties attached to each item. Using this database, the Excel and web reports are created for immediate user viewing, along with a CSV file for easy post-processing and a netlist in CadStar RINF format. It also builds a web partlist (BOM) report, and a CSV version for easy importing into MRP tools like Arena and AGILE.
NetList Reports
In-Browser (Web) Report
The browser netlist is created with a column for Net#, total node count, net name, net volt, and the list of nodes on the net.
Any row where the total node count is 1 will be highlighted in red to bring attention to a single-node net.
Each individual node in the node list has a tooltip popup that shows the detailed part information for that node.
The report headers in this report, like all NetBom web browser reports, are customizable using the NETBOM_REPORT_SETTINGS CSET.
Note: if there is no voltage property in the netlist, the voltage is inferred from the net name using a highly customizable net name voltage extraction system. More information on this can be found in the NetBom Voltage Matching documentation.
PartList Reports
In-Browser (Web) Report
The contents of the part number property are controlled by the PART_NUMBER_PROPS CSET which lets the user specify more than one property to be used for the part number. This is useful when there is more than one part property that could be a part number in the part list.
The report headers in this report, like all NetBom web browser reports, are customizable using the NETBOM_REPORT_SETTINGS CSET.
Additional part properties can be added and displayed in the partlist inf report by simply adding the name of the property in the partlist to the NETBOM_REPORT_SETTINGS configuration file NetBom Report Settings | Table Column Orderarchived
CSV
The CSV report is a Comma Separated Value File that can be imported into Excel for easy viewing. It can also be imported as a Bill of Materials (BOM) into MRP tools like Agile and Arena.
Note that when working with the Chrome browser, due to some strange behavior, the CSV file will be downloaded with the .xlsx extension and cannot be opened directly in Excel without first changing the extension of the downloaded file to a .csv extension. The Firefox, IE, and Edge browsers do not have this problem.