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Multisim Renumbers Parts and Confuses Ultiboard when Forward Annotating

I have a design with 8 different hierarchical blocks interconnected at the top-level.  Within these hierarchical blocks I have some connectors, ADCs, DACs, comparators, opamps, etc.

 

While working with my design, Multisim keeps renumbering my parts without warning.  For isntance, I have a connector J4 with sections J4A and J4B in on hierarchical block.  After making some additions or changes to the schematic, I forward annotate my changes to Ultiboard and find 3 connector land patterns in my Ultiboard project now - my original J4 and now J17 and J18.  I go back to my Multisim schematic, and sure enough, my J4 sections have been renamed to J17A and J18B.  When I attempt to change these sections back to J4A/B, Multisim warns me I cannot do that since there is another part in my design named J4.  Multisim renumbered one of potentiometers from J9 to J4.  I try to change the potentiometer back to J9, but now that's a different part.  And this continues for the rest of the design.

 

I've tried spending tedious hours renumbering my parts by hand in Multisim, back to their original numberings when I first transferred the design to Ultiboard.  This effort does not seem to work since now I have DRC errors in Ultiboard, relating to parts I have not placed in the board area.  For example, a potentiometer "Trimmer100" named J12 is throwing an error:

 

Pin "2" from part "J12" (Trimmer100) in net "X2.5" is missing from shape "PVA2"

 

According to Multisim, the only Trimmer100 I have in my design is connected between nets "X2.6" and "Ref_out" The net X2.5 connects a different potentiometer (J10, Trimmer5k) to another part.

 

So far the only luck I've had resolving this issue is starting over with a brand new ultiboard project.  Instead of "Forward Annotate to Ultiboard" I use "Transfer to Ultiboard" and give it a new project name.  I open two copies of Ultiboard - one with the old project and one with the new, and I replace all the parts by hand, copying coordinate information from the old design to the new.  I select all my vias and wires and copy past them from the old design to the new.  I then reassign all the wires/vias I've copied to the new net numbers in the most current version.  I did this twice yesterday, and now this morning the same problem has occurred again.  It only takes a few edits in Multisim before the designs become out of sync again and I need to start over.  I always forward or backward annotate between Multisim and Ultiboard when I switch from one program to the other during my workflow.  I've ruled out the possibility that I change things in Ultiboard and forget to backward annotate to multisim before changing things.

 

Another odd behavior I've seen is in relation to multi-device parts being renumbered.  Suppose I have an opamp, J1 in hierarchical block 1.  The actual device has 4 opamps, so I place J1A in block 1 and wire it, then I drop J1B, J1C, and J1D, and wire their inputs to ground.  I forward annotate this to Ultiboard and I see my new opamp with the pins connected properly.  After working with the design in Multisim and making changes to other portions of the design.  I forward annotate and 3 new chips appear in my Ultiboard unplaced part area.  I go back to hierarchical block 1 in Multisim and, sure enough, Multisim has renumbered my 4 J1 sections into sections J4A, J5A, J6A, and J7A.

 

 

Is this a bug?  And if so, is there a workaround such that I can update my schematic without having to start a brand new Ultiboard project each time?

 

Thanks.

-Pete

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Hi Pete,

 

Thank you for your feedback.

 

We also have noticed the problem of RefDes renaming. The root cause (that we know of) for this behaviour is the undo action. Undo seems to effect components inside hierarchical blocks and subcircuits and also multisection components. We are currently working on fixing this incorrect behaviour, but it is quite complicated and we are testing this extensively. The best work around that we have is to save often and revert from file if you need to undo any changes. This problem should be fixed by the next release of Multisim and Ultiboard.

 

Once again, we apologize for the incorrect behaviour and the inconvenience. We will rectify this soon.

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Yi
Software Developer
National Instruments - Electronics Workbench Group
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Thank you for the fast response.

 

I look forward to this update.

 

-Pete

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I believe I've found an issue that is possibly related to this one.

 

Nets within a hierarchical block are renumbered when I edit the Symbol / Title block at the next higher level.  I forward annotate chnages to Ultiboard before editing, and no changes are found.  Then I edit the symbol/title block and save it.  Then I forward annotate and the nets are all renumbered.

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