Importing a Design from CR-5000

Altium Designer includes the capability to import Zuken® CR-5000 files through the Import Wizard. The Wizard is a quick and simple way to convert CR-5000 design files to Altium Designer files. The Wizard walks you through the import process and handles both the schematic and PCB parts of the project, as well as managing the relationship between them.

To access the CR-5000 importer in Altium Designer, the Zuken CR5000 Importer software extension must be installed. This extension can be installed or removed manually.

For more information about managing extensions, refer to the Extending Your Installation page (Altium Designer Develop, Altium Designer Agile, Altium Designer).

Preparing Zuken Binary Files for Import

The Zuken CR-5000 Importer requires ASCII files, so the native Zuken CR-5000 binary files will need to be converted to ASCII format before using the Import Wizard.

Converting Zuken binary files to ASCII format requires a special license from Zuken.

Use the following steps to convert the Zuken CR-5000 binary PCB database files to ASCII files:

  1. Convert the binary file <basename>.ftp into an ASCII file: In the cdb directory, extract <basename>.ftf using the DOS (or command script) command: ftout.exe<basename>. For example, C:\cr5000\bin\ftout.exe basename.
  2. Convert the binary file <jobname>.pcb into an ASCII file: In the pcb directory, extract <jobname>.pcf using the DOS (or command script) command: pcout.exe<jobname>. For example, C:\cr5000\bin\pcout.exe jobname

To convert the Zuken CR-5000 schematic binary file (*.sht) to ASCII format (*.eds), run the Zuken edifWriter.exe utility. This opens a GUI for creating the ASCII format file.

The Zuken CR-5000 Importer requires two ASCII files to import a Zuken CR-5000 PCB design, and an ASCII schematic file to import a schematic.

  • An ASCII layout file which contains placement and layer symbols, layer count, units, etc. (*.pcf)
  • An ASCII representation of the footprints used in the design (library) (*.ftf)
  • An ASCII representation of the schematic (*.eds, *.edf)
  • An ASCII representation of the symbol (*.laf)
  • An ASCII representation of the symbol (*.smb)

Using the CR-5000 Importer

The Zuken CR-5000 design file importer is available through Altium Designer's Import Wizard  (File » Import Wizard) by selecting the Zuken CR-5000 Design Files option on the Wizard's Select Type of Files to Import page. The Wizard provides options for nominating design files (schematic and pcb) and library files, and also CR-5000 to Altium Designer layer mapping options for both footprints and PCB layouts.

Note that if you import a PCB (.pcf) file and do not import a footprint library, or the footprint library does not provide any information about a pad, it will be imported as a through-hole with a default size and shape. Similarly, vias will not be imported correctly as well.

Zuken CR5000 files translate as follows:

  • Zuken CR5000 ASCII PCB Layout (*.pcf) files translate to Altium Designer PCB files (*.PcbDoc).

  • Zuken CR5000 ASCII representation of the footprints files (*.ftf, *.laf) translate into Altium Designer PCB library files (*.PcbLib).

  • Zuken CR5000 ASCII representation of the schematic files (*.eds, *.edf, *.smb) translate to Altium Designer schematic files (*.SchDoc) and schematic library files (*.SchLib). 

If any warnings were generated during the import process, a *.LOG file is created showing the warnings. 
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Feature Availability

The features available to you depend on which Altium solution you have – Altium Develop, an edition of Altium Agile (Agile Teams or Agile Enterprise), or Altium Designer (on active term).

If you don’t see a discussed feature in your software, contact Altium Sales to find out more.

Legacy Documentation

Altium Designer documentation is no longer versioned. If you need to access documentation for older versions of Altium Designer, visit the Legacy Documentation section of the Other Installers page.

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