Defining Constraints in Cadence PCB Editor
Introduction
The PCB mills in Peralta have certain capabilities, so PCBs must be designed with their limitations in mind. The full specs of the machines can be found here: https://peraltastudios.engineering.asu.edu/pcb-mill-specs/
Getting Started with Cadence PCB Editor
What is a printed circuit board (PCB)?
See the What is a Printed Circuit Board? page for more information about PCBs and the general design flow for creating a PCB.
Manual Routing in Cadence PCB Editor
How do I manually route a design in PCB Editor?
Your design should have a board outline and components placed, and blue lines (the “rats nest”) between the components (see example, Figure 1). These blue lines are not traces, but rather points that are connected on your schematic and should be converted to traces in your design.
Measurement in Cadence PCB Editor
How do I measure the spacing between pins to make sure my footprint matches the Datasheet?
See the How to check your footprints using the OrCAD PCB Editor Measurement tool video
PCB Text
Introduction
Text is important on PCB layouts to identify the designers, project, version, components, etc. Typically, text can be placed on a silkscreen layer that sits on top of the copper. However, our manufacturing process in PRLTA 109 only supports text that is milled on the TOP COPPER or BOTTOM COPPER layers.
**Note: **It is required that all PCB designs have your name, course, and team number so that the Peralta Engineering Studios staff can distinguish your board from others.
Placing and moving components in Cadence PCB Editor
While it is easy to place components using the mouse, most designs require precise placement of some components (e.g., to align parallel headers). This tutorial walks through how to place components at a specific X-Y coordinate, determine the X-Y coordinates of a component, measure the distance between two components, move an existing component to a specific X-Y coordinate, and move an existing component relative to its current location.
Steps and additional notes for Board Layout
In the hopes that it will help anyone that is still working on the PCB, here is a list of the steps needed for this homework assignment with the corresponding blog posts and some of my comments. I also added some links at the bottom for specific errors I have seen mentioned so far. Please comment if there are any parts of the process that you would like more details on and I will try to add to this post.
