DEFINE YOUR PROCESS

 

While your component placement and routing processes are filled with endless opportunities for creativity, we think it’s good to start with a structured process in mind. This isn’t meant to stifle your creativity, but to simply provide a foundation with which your creativity can grow. Once you know the limits of the walls and where you’re going, then you can be free to design as you please. The process that we’ll be using to complete the component placement process includes:

• Step 1 – You’ll first take the schematic that you finished earlier and turn it into a new PCB layout

• Step 2 – You’ll then place and rotate all of your components, working to minimize the length and crossing of airwires (more on this later).

• Step 3 – You’ll finish up your placement process by resizing the dimensions of your board layout in preparation for routing.

That’s all the details you need to know to get started. Let’s jump into some practical PCB layout strategies.