PCB Design Programs

PCB123 is the name of Sunstone Circuit’s software. This PC board manufacturer shares that they serve MIT, Purdue University, the US Naval Research Lab, General Electric and Intel with this full service PCB design program. PCB123 imports CAD vendor lists and features 145,000 parts in its library. The program also creates solder-masks and up to six signal layers. Free email customer support ensures that users can easily export PCB designs to Sunstone circuit’s manufacturing center. Learn more at pcb123.com.

OrCAD PCB Assembly Designer is produced by Cadence, an independent software developer. The software’s interactive environment allows multilayer editing. According to the manufacturer, OrCAD PCB Designer contains a “fully integrated design flow that includes a constraint manager, design capture technology, component tools, a PCB editor…and an auto/interactive router.” Increasing productivity through application integration makes this program a comprehensive PCB design solution. OrCAD PCB Designer includes a project management system, unlimited databases and split pain support for customizing drill legends. The company website is cadence.com.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology recommends ExpressPCB CAD software because it “makes designing PC boards simple for the beginner and efficient for the professional.” Use of ExpressPCB requires downloading their free installer. The installation process adds ExpressSCH, a schematic drawing program, to your system. ExpressPCB supports drag and drop design elements. By linking your schematic drawing to the PCB, ExpressPCB will automatically highlight pin wiring areas. As proprietary software, they make sending the design to their manufacturing center easy. By clicking on “Order Boards Via The Internet” an order form will open. The software supports PC operating system. The product website is expresspcb.com.

Send your layout files to the manufacturer, and wait for your finished boards to come back.

Split up your components into the functional groups you decided on, and lay out each group separately. Don’t worry yet about where on the board each group is, but get the groups themselves well organized. Components connected to each other should be close together, and similar components should be arranged similarly. For example, lay out all diodes and other polarized parts with the cathode facing the same way, and all ICs with the number one pin in the same position. Lay out resistors in neat rows.

Open your software, and follow the instructions in your software’s documentation to set the size of the board and the number of layers. Boards can have many different layers of copper traces which are connected together with holes in the board called “vias.” Multilayer boards can get very complex, but single layer boards are difficult to lay out without using wire jumpers. For your first simple project, use a two-layer board. Most of the components will go on the top layer, and most of the traces will go on the bottom.

FreePCB is an open-source program, which means that a community of designers work on these projects. Free PCB Assembly is compatible with Microsoft Windows. The program operates under the GNU General Public License, which means that users can share and manipulate the program as they see fit. The target audience for this software program is beginners, but it does have some advanced features that professionals can use. Users can create boards with up to 16 copper layers and boards up to 60×60 inches. The system features autosave, which automatically saves a user’s work as he is working. The program also comes with both a Footprint Wizard and Footprint Editor. This way, users can quickly create and edit footprints (data for component parts). The system comes with a user guide to help new users.

The OrCAD design suite produced by the EMA Design Automation company is a powerful tool for anyone wishing to design a printed circuit board, or PCB. OrCAD’s ultimate …