Is the choice of PCB design software important?
Compared with mentor and cadence, the AD high-speed field seems to need to be strengthened. But it is undeniable that the users of AD in China account for the vast majority. At first I used orcad 9.2, and made 51 and ARM7 boards. Later, I found that the majority of people use protel, so I switched to protel.
In the end, I naturally got used to AD and used it to this day. But after touching the high-speed circuit, I found that the PCB files were all drawn with pads. This makes me a little disappointed with AD, and I plan to use pads as if I follow the trend. As time goes by, debugging is more often, especially hardware circuits with ultra-high-speed AD.
There are not so many 12-layer and 10-layer circuits for you to draw, either because time is too tight or there are ready-made hardware, the plan to learn new software is put on hold. Now that I go back and think about it carefully, in fact, everyone understands that the choice of PCB design software and the choice of software language are the same.
Belden's principles are equally applicable to PCB design software. Now I feel that people who have such ambivalence are unable to get along with themselves, so they have to choose well-known, full-featured, and powerful enough. As far as the matter is concerned, I will spend more time and energy to study AD thoroughly during the year in school, leaving behind the footprints of words.
If there are friends who are as contradictory as I did before, I think the following points can make sure to go all the way:
1. After all, PCB design software is just a tool, and AD or any one is enough to handle most circuit designs.
2. When debugging, there are too many files designed by pads or Zhongyi Software, and it doesn't take long to get started.
3. Hardware design focuses on experience, no matter how good the tool is, insufficient experience is zero.
4. PCB drawing is not based on the foundation, high-level system theory combined with engineering practical experience is the kingly way, so keep limited energy to learn other things and broaden your knowledge.
In order to give myself a deep impression, I will spend a part of my energy summarizing the commonly used functions in AD. (Note: I just write for myself, some are easy to operate, but the cumbersome explanations are covered in one stroke)
Project settings Project> Project Options> Options> Net Identifier Scope> Hierarchical. This ensures that the network label in the local schematic diagram has no electrical connection with other schematic diagrams, and the various schematic diagrams are connected by Harness with Signal Harness wires. This facilitates the modification and adjustment of the circuit.
2>The definition of poor classification!
Place the differential pair identifier on the paired differential line (location: Place> Directives> Differential Pair). At the same time, their network labels must end with P and N. You can view the set difference classification in the PCB window, as shown in the figure below.
Other common functions of the schematic diagram include: Sch List and Sch Inspector's batch processing function, right-click Find Similar Objects classification search function, Cross Probe (Note: Hold down the ctrl key to not return, the schematic and PCB components need to be synchronized in advance Check Tools>Cross Select Mode), Annotate Schematics (Note: For block components, you must lock the label in advance when refreshing the label to avoid confusion of block labels), Make Schematics/PCB library to make the components and packages one by one Correspondence (Note: After the package library is drawn, generate the schematic diagram and PCB package library of the current project, and exclude other libraries to facilitate the search and modification of the package), etc.