Electronic – How to mark unused component in Orcad

You can't do that directly. You could generate the xref file and use that plus a one-part-per-line BOM and merge them in Perl or Excel.

OrCAD does have a feature for automatically assigning designators in a hierarchical design.

Suppose, your design has following schematics (folders):

• Schematic1 has components C1 and R1
• Schematic2 also has components designated C1 and R1
• Schematic3 is a Top Block Diagram. It's set as a root. It's highest in the hierarchy. Hierarchical blocks for Schematic1 and Schematic2 are drawn on Schematic3. If some schematic is not drawn in the root*, then it's not in the hierarchy and OrCAD will not treat it as a part of the design.

* Or in one of the root's children. It's recursive. You get the idea.

Here are the steps for automatically assigning incremental designators:

1. Bring up the design window
2. In the design tree, click on the design itself. (It's the node, which contains all of the schematics.)
3. Menu: Tools -> Annotate...
4. Select Reset all part references to "?"
5. Click OK.
6. Open Schematic1 and Schematic2. Notice that designators became C? and R?. Go back to the design tree.
7. Again, menu: Tools -> Annotate...
8. Select Incremental Reference Update
9. Click OK.
10. You should have incremental designators throughout the design.