Maker Pro
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PCB Designing tutorial

D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
Please see the tutorials and comment & keep visiting this page as i
will be updating all the nice information i have gathered with u all
on this page.

http://simpaltechnologies.googlepages.com/knowledgebase

u can also mail on my personal ID
[email protected]

regards,
Pallav Aggarwal

Oh look, it's my PCB Design tutorial!
Of course I'd prefer people download it from here instead:
http://www.alternatezone.com/electronics/pcbdesign.htm
As a bonus you also get better targeted Google Ads! :->

Dave.
 
M

Marra

Jan 1, 1970
0
Oh look, it's my PCB Design tutorial!
Of course I'd prefer people download it from here instead:http://www.alternatezone.com/electronics/pcbdesign.htm
As a bonus you also get better targeted Google Ads! :->

Dave.

PCB design is a bit of a black art.
The rules are:
Keep tracks as fat as possible.
Keep tracks as short as possible.
Round off corners, dont have 90 degree corners.
Try to keep nets as short as possible.

My software does this automatically !
www.ckp-railways.talktalk.net/pcbcad21.htm
 
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John Larkin

Jan 1, 1970
0
PCB design is a bit of a black art.

Anything's black art if you don't understand it.
The rules are:
Keep tracks as fat as possible.

Unless impedance matters.
Keep tracks as short as possible.

Not bad, in general.
Round off corners, dont have 90 degree corners.

There's nothing wrong with 90 degree corners, below several GHz.
Try to keep nets as short as possible.

Motherhood and apple pie are good, too.
My software does this automatically !

I don't want any software making decisions for me about stuff like
this.

John
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
PCB design is a bit of a black art.

Rubbish. You obviously don't understand it enough then.
The rules are:
Keep tracks as fat as possible.

On DC and low frequency stuff, yes, for high frequency stuff where
signal integrity matters, no.
Keep tracks as short as possible.

Sure, but not at the expense of having crappy non-orthogonal tracks at
any old angle (as shown on your PCB software) - yuck.
Round off corners, dont have 90 degree corners.

Nothing electrically wrong with 90 degree corners (unless you want to
talk many many GHz), and only then mechanically on the finest tracks.

Worse than 90 degree corners are corners >90degrees as your software
appears to generate, esp on fine tracks. Think etching...
Try to keep nets as short as possible.
Sure.

My software does this automatically !www.ckp-railways.talktalk.net/pcbcad21.htm

So it automatically generates those awful looking tracks at weird
angles huh? and I see a few 90 degree ones in the screen shots too,
care to explain?. And the necking looks atrocious.
If that's the best example of what your software can do, I suggest you
remove all automated functionality, and then someone might actually
considering buying it.

Dave.
 
J

Joel Kolstad

Jan 1, 1970
0
David L. Jones said:
Worse than 90 degree corners are corners >90degrees as your software
appears to generate, esp on fine tracks. Think etching...

These days this is somewhat board house specific -- many board houses don't
have etching problems on tight corners, at least for modest angles beyond 90
degrees.

I only mention this because I've met too many PCB "designers" who learned
their art back in the '70s and at the time were told that vias in pads are
never OK, angles >90 degrees are never OK, lowercase on a silkscreen is not OK
(!), etc.
 
M

Marra

Jan 1, 1970
0
Rubbish. You obviously don't understand it enough then.


On DC and low frequency stuff, yes, for high frequency stuff where
signal integrity matters, no.


Sure, but not at the expense of having crappy non-orthogonal tracks at
any old angle (as shown on your PCB software) - yuck.


Nothing electrically wrong with 90 degree corners (unless you want to
talk many many GHz), and only then mechanically on the finest tracks.

Worse than 90 degree corners are corners >90degrees as your software
appears to generate, esp on fine tracks. Think etching...


So it automatically generates those awful looking tracks at weird
angles huh? and I see a few 90 degree ones in the screen shots too,
care to explain?. And the necking looks atrocious.
If that's the best example of what your software can do, I suggest you
remove all automated functionality, and then someone might actually
considering buying it.

Dave.

Well dome Dave you caught me out !
I did that not the software !
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
Well dome Dave you caught me out !
I did that not the software !

Then don't give up your day job to become a board designer.

Marra, if you are serious about selling this software then can I
suggest the following:
- Get a proper domain name, and make your page look more professional
- Put your pricing up there.
- Have a trial download version available.
- Fix those screen shots to show some professionally laid out boards.

Regards
Dave.
 
M

Marra

Jan 1, 1970
0
Then don't give up your day job to become a board designer.

Marra, if you are serious about selling this software then can I
suggest the following:
- Get a proper domain name, and make your page look more professional
- Put your pricing up there.
- Have a trial download version available.
- Fix those screen shots to show some professionally laid out boards.

Regards
Dave.

Thanks for the advice Dave.

But I dont intend selling it as a business !
I sell a few copies via ebay to get feedback on the software.
Its basically to keep my hand in at programming in case i decide to go
back inti it professionally.
The last thing I need is to be run off my feet with business.

In the last year or so it has been a hobby.
I converted it from Delphi to C# which was quite a task.
But it got me into C# and .net v2.0

My latest version uses .NET v3.0.
 
M

Marra

Jan 1, 1970
0
Then don't give up your day job to become a board designer.

Marra, if you are serious about selling this software then can I
suggest the following:
- Get a proper domain name, and make your page look more professional
- Put your pricing up there.
- Have a trial download version available.
- Fix those screen shots to show some professionally laid out boards.

Regards
Dave.

But I have designed hundreds of PCB's over 25 years.
They clearly worked or I wouldnt have stayed in a job !

I have met numerous PCB designers and they all try to make the job out
to be much harder than it is.
Its called "self justification"

As an electronics engineer I found my view of PCB design to be quite
different to none electronic engineer layout people. I was quiet
astounded by them at times doing things like tracks to crystals
running half way around a board !
They should be as short as possible and right next to the micro.
We got fed up at times of having to inspect layouts and ring up the
PCB guy to tell him what a crap layout he had made. It often went
round and round in circles causing delays.
Hence in the end we took it on ourselves instead !
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
Why not? You say "expense" as if it matters.

There are several reasons why professional PCB designers don't do it:
a) Aesthetics, it simply looks ugly and unprofessional. If you did
this in a professional PCB design house you would be laughed out the
door.
b) It can take up valuable routing realestate when the track density
gets high enough.
c) It can make future editing much harder, esp in the case of dragging
tracks together for minimum DRC clearance for the purposes of freeing
up realestate as in b).

Those are the reasons why *all* professional PCB packages will limit
you to 45/90 tracks by default, and most professional designers will
never deviate from that.

Dave.
 
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