<!DOCTYPE html
  PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<!--
Copyright (c) 2006 UGS Corp.

All Rights Reserved.

This software and related documentation are proprietary to UGS Corp.
-->
<html>
   <head>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
      <title>IDF file formats</title>
      <script language="javaScript">
        abridged="false";
        displayConditions=new Array();
      </script>
      <link type="text/css" href="../css/main_styles.css" rel="stylesheet">
   </head>
   <body class="bodydocs" onload="top.pageLoader()" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
      <div class="title_topic3" id="xps10_pagetitle">IDF file formats</div>
      <hr noshade="true">
      <p class="para_topic">The IDF represents basic board and component geometry information along with design constraint information such as keepin and keepout regions. The entities supported in the IDF are intelligent design entities, not simple graphical representations of design entities. As a result, design data is exchanged between ECAD and MCAD through the IDF without losing the functional intent of the data. Entities supported by the IDF are:</p>
      <div class="title_division"> Comparison of IDF V2.0, IDF V3.0 and IDF V4.0</div>
      <table border="3" align="center">
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td"><em>Entity</em></p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td"><em>IDF 2.0</em></p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td"><em>IDF 3.0</em></p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td"><em>IDF 4.0</em></p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Board Shape (including cutouts and thickness)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Routing Outline</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Placement Outline</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Routing Keepouts</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Placement Keepouts (with height restrictions)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Via Keepouts</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Placement Group Regions</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Component Placement</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Component Placement (including mounting offset)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Holes</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Hole types</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Component Shapes (including heights)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Panel Definition (including board placement)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Note Annotations</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
         <tr>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">Component Properties (including thermal)</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1"></td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
            <td colspan="1" rowspan="1">
               <p class="para_td">X</p>
            </td>
         </tr>
      </table><br><div class="title_division"> Non-standard IDF formats</div>
      <div class="title_division"> Support for Autotherm's IDF 2.5 format</div>
      <p class="para_division">Although these files do not conform to the IDF2 spec, PCB.xchange will read variant IDF2 files written by Mentor Graphics' TM AutothermTM application.</p>
      <div class="title_division"> Support for comments inside IDF data blocks</div>
      <p class="para_division">You can include comments inside the IDF Data Blocks to be read by PCB.xchange. Although this contrary to the IDF specification, PCB.xchange ignores comment lines (beginning with the # character) and echo these lines to a log file.</p>
   </body>
</html>