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Creating a prototype area on a PCB using orcad

K

Kunal

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I am making a PCB for students of a class and need to have a large
prototype area on the board. What would be the easiest way to do this
in ORCAD?
Some things I have tried
1) There is a automatic matrix place feature but for that you have to
first place all the parts on the board, select them and then say
auto-place. But I will have about a 1000 holes and I dont want to do a
place part for each of them.
2) I tried to use the 'free via matrix' feature, but cant control the
placement of the vias. The vias in consequtive rows are placed at an
offset. This make a netted structure rather than just straight rows and
columns

I am sure there must be a much easier way to make the prototype area. I
hope you guys can tell me.

Kunal
 
J

Jeroen

Jan 1, 1970
0
Kunal said:
Hi,
I am making a PCB for students of a class and need to have a large
prototype area on the board. What would be the easiest way to do this
in ORCAD?
Some things I have tried
1) There is a automatic matrix place feature but for that you have to
first place all the parts on the board, select them and then say
auto-place. But I will have about a 1000 holes and I dont want to do a
place part for each of them.
2) I tried to use the 'free via matrix' feature, but cant control the
placement of the vias. The vias in consequtive rows are placed at an
offset. This make a netted structure rather than just straight rows and
columns

I am sure there must be a much easier way to make the prototype area. I
hope you guys can tell me.

Kunal

Just place a lot of for example SIL arrays,or 50 pole IDC connectors and
optionally remove the silkscreen; or make a component in the library with a
lot of pads. It's a bit tedious, but I know of no other ways.

Hope this helps,
Jeroen
 
S

Scott Miller

Jan 1, 1970
0
I did something similar in Eagle PCB... I just dropped a 36-pin 0.1" pin
header on the board and repeated it as needed. If it's something more
complex than a bunch of holes, I'd probably build a custom library part with
the required pattern, maybe repeated a few times, and then place as many of
those blocks as necessary. Your mileage may vary with ORCAD... I haven't
used it on a regular basis since an old DOS version.

Scott
 
K

Kunal

Jan 1, 1970
0
That would take too long.
I think PCB design software users make prototype areas realtively
frequently, so there must be some feature that facilitates this.
I have a lot of protoype area and it isnt a regular polygonal shape. So
itll really take me a long time to place individual parts.
 
B

Boris Mohar

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I am making a PCB for students of a class and need to have a large
prototype area on the board. What would be the easiest way to do this
in ORCAD?
Some things I have tried
1) There is a automatic matrix place feature but for that you have to
first place all the parts on the board, select them and then say
auto-place. But I will have about a 1000 holes and I dont want to do a
place part for each of them.
2) I tried to use the 'free via matrix' feature, but cant control the
placement of the vias. The vias in consequtive rows are placed at an
offset. This make a netted structure rather than just straight rows and
columns

I am sure there must be a much easier way to make the prototype area. I
hope you guys can tell me.

Kunal

In DOS Orcad - PCB386 you can place a test point. Than you just do a block
copy 2,4,8,16 etc.. Gets there pretty quickly. Can you do a block copy?




Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I am making a PCB for students of a class and need to have a large
prototype area on the board. What would be the easiest way to do this
in ORCAD?
Some things I have tried
1) There is a automatic matrix place feature but for that you have to
first place all the parts on the board, select them and then say
auto-place. But I will have about a 1000 holes and I dont want to do a
place part for each of them.
2) I tried to use the 'free via matrix' feature, but cant control the
placement of the vias. The vias in consequtive rows are placed at an
offset. This make a netted structure rather than just straight rows and
columns

I am sure there must be a much easier way to make the prototype area. I
hope you guys can tell me.

Kunal

What about creating a, say, 10x10 pad matrix as a single footprint and
then put down 3 x 4 of them or whatever.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
K

Kunal

Jan 1, 1970
0
That would work fine but it is crude.
I was looking for a easier solution. Infact in the few hours since I
put up the message, I have already finsihed the prototyping area, in
the manner you are talking about.
I though there would a solution where:
eg. I would place a rectangle over the area I wanted as prototpe area
and the s/w would place holes at 100 mils distance except where it
would cause a DRC (inside place outline etc).
I guess there is no easy wasy to do it.
 
P

Peter Bennett

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I am making a PCB for students of a class and need to have a large
prototype area on the board. What would be the easiest way to do this
in ORCAD?

In Protel, I place a 20 pin DIP package, for example, then "ungroup"
it (this breaks the DIP footprint into its individual entities), then
just copy-and-paste the columns of pads as needed - typically, I'll
place two or three columns of pads each side of the original
footprint, then place tracks to connect rows of pads together. If I
want a larger area, I can just copy-and-paste the initial pattern, as
often as needed.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
 
B

Boris Mohar

Jan 1, 1970
0
That would work fine but it is crude.
I was looking for a easier solution. Infact in the few hours since I
put up the message, I have already finsihed the prototyping area, in
the manner you are talking about.
I though there would a solution where:
eg. I would place a rectangle over the area I wanted as prototpe area
and the s/w would place holes at 100 mils distance except where it
would cause a DRC (inside place outline etc).
I guess there is no easy wasy to do it.

The process I described takes few minutes in DOS Orcad. You can speed it up
if you use a macro.



Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things) http://www.viatrack.ca
 
L

Leon Heller

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jeroen said:
Just place a lot of for example SIL arrays,or 50 pole IDC connectors and
optionally remove the silkscreen; or make a component in the library with
a
lot of pads. It's a bit tedious, but I know of no other ways.

With the Pulsonix software I use I simply place a free pad and copy/paste it
repeatedly, expanding the selection as I go. It only takes a few seconds.

Leon
 
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