Converting CREO drawn netlists/schematics "stick/2d" drawings to usable Formats for Excel/Zuken

[RK_10982490]

I would like to easily Convert CREO drawn netlists/schematics in a "2d stick" format to usable Formats for Excel, Zuken, xpedition, ltspice and hyperlinx. 

In other words, Convert CREO unintelligent Wirelists for Cables into a useable intelligent format for other platforms such as Excel, Zuken, Xpedition, LTSpice and Hyperlynx.

Problem: When you try to select in CREO or PDF  text the text that is grabbed is not in order and tends to grab unwanted text making it an unsusable format for other programs such as excel.

Currently the method that I got from CREO gurus to grab text from CREO was to save the CREO netlist stick drawings onto separate sheets in CREO then export them out as selectable PDF files.

For Example:

1. You would  have to select the portions you want to be able to cut and past into excel on a singular page in CREO.

   a.  A page for just the netnames of one connector

   b.  A page for just the stick traces that represent the schematic connections

   c.  A page for just the net names of the second connector and so forth.

So after the export into PDF you would end up with selectable text etc from the exported PDF in the order that appeared in the CREO drawing so it could be selected and used in other programs like excel. The information described in 1a/b/c would be spread out over multiple pages.

Electrical Engineers often have to verify connectivity between assemblies for troubleshooting purposes, integrating new/updated CCA's and to leverage off of existing designs to create new designs. Designs are often stored as unintelligent schematic captures such as CREO, PDF's and VISIO. To pull netlists and connectivity details from these platforms can be VERY time consuming. An Engineer would like to be able to easily pull off netnames and schematic connectivity from those software packages. using a program or script in CREO to convert these commonly used unintelligent schematic/wirelist captures to intelligent schematic capture and Excel spreadsheets and this would be an immediate help to engineers.

Use AI to do text recognition, line recognition, connectivity recognition, graphical analysis, part number recognition and substitution, model acquisition, symbol acquisition, symbol creation and or substitution and intelligent AI reverification of equivalent design and save off in usable formats such as Zuken, Xpedition, hyperlynx, LTspice and verilog etc.

Is there any existing method to export the unitelligent drawing of schematics/Netlists in CREO into useable formats other then described above?

[RK_10982490]

Is there any existing method to export the unitelligent drawing of schematics/Netlists in CREO into useable formats other then described above other then one netname at a time (which can lead to human errors)?

[Radovan_DT]

I would export the schematics as dxf since its not obfuscated like drw or dwg. If you learn a little bit about it you can get straight x,y,z coords of anything from lines to text. This is for example rectangle drawn by AI chatgpt I have made recently. Its for sure doable in python, but except excell I have never worked with platforms you have mentioned. But I guess they are not that garbage to not be able to import x,y coordinates..

LINE
  5
9925
330
1F
100
AcDbEntity
  8
0
100
AcDbLine
 10
0.0
 20
0.0
 30
0.0
 11
5.0
 21
0.0
 31
0.0
  0
LINE
  5
4658
330
1F
100
AcDbEntity
  8
0
100
AcDbLine
 10
5.0
 20
0.0
 30
0.0
 11
5.0
 21
5.0
 31
0.0
  0
LINE
  5
9145
330
1F
100
AcDbEntity
  8
0
100
AcDbLine
 10
5.0
 20
5.0
 30
0.0
 11
0.0
 21
5.0
 31
0.0
  0
LINE
  5
40
330
1F
100
AcDbEntity
  8
0
100
AcDbLine
 10
0.0
 20
5.0
 30
0.0
 11
0.0
 21
0.0
 31
0.0
  0

1. LINE:

   • LINE: Indicates that a line entity is being defined.

2. Handle (5 code):

   • 5: Denotes the handle for the entity.
   • 9925, 4658, 9145, 40: Unique identifiers for each LINE entity.

3. Owner (330 code):

   • 330: Denotes the owner handle.
   • 1F: Owner handle for the entity (if applicable).

4. Common Group Codes (100 code):

   • 100: Marks the beginning of common group codes for all DXF entities.
   • AcDbEntity: Indicates the entity type.

5. Layer (8 code):

   • 8: Specifies the layer on which the entity resides.
   • 0: The layer is set to 0.

6. Entity Type (100 code):

   • 100: Marks the beginning of group codes specific to LINE entities.
   • AcDbLine: Indicates that the entity is a line.

7. Start Point (10, 20, 30 codes):

   • 10: X-coordinate of the start point.
   • 20: Y-coordinate of the start point.
   • 30: Z-coordinate of the start point.
   • For the first line: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
   • For the second line: (5.0, 0.0, 0.0)
   • For the third line: (5.0, 5.0, 0.0)
   • For the fourth line: (0.0, 5.0, 0.0)

8. End Point (11, 21, 31 codes):

   • 11: X-coordinate of the end point.
   • 21: Y-coordinate of the end point.
   • 31: Z-coordinate of the end point.
   • For the first line: (5.0, 0.0, 0.0)
   • For the second line: (5.0, 5.0, 0.0)
   • For the third line: (0.0, 5.0, 0.0)
   • For the fourth line: (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

9. Ending the LINE Entity (0 code):

   • 0: Marks the end of the LINE entity.

[RK_10982490]

Thank You.

[Lars_F]

Hi,

Perhaps this is no help but...
If you have made the schematic connections to (Creo) drawings then you can get the csv out of the drawing table (for final checks before release)...

Select the table and select "Save Table->Save As CSV"
You will get the CSV of the items that you have on your table... 

This is the table in cable drawing...

This is the imported csv from above drawing...

Br,

Lars

[RK_10982490]

Thank you for your response. Does this only work for tables? Most of the wirelists are not tables just lines with added text above them.

[Lars_F]

Hi,

We only use from-to wires and cables (from connector(s) to connector(s) using a specific wires or cables). We export the schematic xml to Creo and create the cable drawings. From those flat harness drawing tables we sometimes export the csv info.

We also once tried to make the From-To connection tables from the xml output of the schematic. The purpose was to get the connection information exported to Solidworks. For that project we used Python to parse the xml and create an excel xls-file. Fortunately we have now dropped the solidworks tests for now....

We haven't tried to export wires only or any other "partial" or batch data from schematic so can't help you with those.

Br, 

Lars

[RK_10982490]

All the Ideas below led to some interesting option to pursue but none of them completely answered the question.

1. There may be some data extraction tools like https://nanonets.com/blog/extract-data-from-pdf

and possibly Kofax that would allow pulling data off of a PDF generated from CREO or other formats and converting to an EXcel file in order to manipulate that excel file data to create intelligent drawings in another platform like xpedition.