PowerPCB Training Manual, Your First Design
CADPRO’s PowerPCB Tutorial Instructors Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Session 1 GETTING STARTED
INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR PCB LAYOUT 1.2
Review page with students
PADS SOFTWARE DECAL LIST DEFAULTS 1.3
Review page with students – point out the expanded character limits with new version
PADS SOFTWARE NETLIST DEFAULTS 1.4
Review page with students – point out the expanded character limits with new version
PADS SOFTWARE REFERENCE DESIGNATOR RENAME LIST 1.5
Review page with students
INDUSTRY STANDARD REFERENCE DESIGNATORS 1.6
Ref Des. A, M & Z are used for components that the designators are not to be printed on silkscreen. Briefly explain the suppression feature in the cam section. Use “A” for assemblies like a daughter board that is placed on a board. Use “M” for mounting & tooling holes. Use “Z” for fiducials.
STANDARD NAMING CONVENTION 1.7
Using smaller file name is still preferable. Following a convention like this in a company with several designers will standardize all filed records so there is no confusion when a different designer works on an old design.
PowerPCB LAYERING SCHEME 1.9
Explain what all the layers do. Layer 17 & 18 are used to print silkscreen below the board in the title block – we do this so when we print an assembly drawing we don’t get the text below the board. Layer 19 is used for anything we want to appear on every piece of Gerber film. Layer 20 is where we put a courtyard around every surface mount component. Layer 25 is where we define thermals for CAM Plane technology. Also we use this for a 50 mil keepout on all planes (for a CAM Plane) by using a 100 mil line on the board edge. Split Mix technology does not apply here.
PowerPCB SYSTEM SETUP 1.10
Shows were to load our files. Then explains how to create a logic family so when you are in eco mode and are adding a component it will come in with the appropriate ref. des.. Then we setup the pen plotter to the most generic HPGL pen plotter. We will later use this generic HPGL format to create our Fab & assembly drawings by converting the HPGL to DXF. When ever you load PowerPCB for the first time or an upgrade the Decal editor reverts to PADS default. We setup the display colors for all the layers used in creating new components. Last we show how to change from Notepad to Wordpad (write.exe is a carry over from windows 3.11 where the once write is now called Wordpad but they never changed the executable file name) because notepad has a limited file size and does not contain a find & replace feature.
Session 2 SYSTEM BASICS
OBJECT VERB / VERB OBJECT MODES 2.5
This is by far one of the most important concepts to explain especially for someone new to PowerPCB. Most problems that arise in class are because students are in a verb mode and they are trying to execute another verb. Explain that if your in trouble check to see if you need to be in select mode. Also explain that if you are in another dialog box (ie find, status or filter) you must activate your working window by clicking in the work area or the top bar before you can do something new. Explain the small red/green dot in the upper left corner. If one has selected an object that is line intensive the computer may need several seconds to completely grab it and will make the program appear to be locked up ( the dot will be red during the short period). When ever using escape “ESC” you should always hit the button 2 times because sometimes it takes 2 esc’s to completely get out of a command.
PAN & ZOOM CONTROLS 2.6
Explain that the middle mouse button should be used to do all zooming, panning & refreshing. Show how cumbersome all other methods are.
COLOR DISPLAY 2.9
It would be helpful if a user can define and set as a standard a coloring scheme so that all designs with in a company have the same look. Configurations can be helpful but remember that if you change the name of any layers or use a different layering configuration you will get errors using existing color configurations.
QUERY MODE 2.14
This section is to demonstrate that many of the commands have multiple methods for executing a command. Query is the most popular command and it should be noted that the simplest way to execute this command is double clicking the object to be queried. This section continues to show how many but not all of the different dialog boxes that will show after you execute a query different objects. At this time you can review the different popular option available with each dialog box.
PREFERENCE MENUS 2.21
All students should ensure that their file matches these preference boxes and should edit them if required. This will put every computer at the same setups so during class results on all computers will be the same. If you have trouble in class you should double check these boxes to makes sure they match the students computer. Many times students start playing with preferences and certain commands have different results. This is a good time again to explain what the preferences do to a design when selected. Just go over the popular preferences as time permits.
FILTER 2.34
Explain how the filter works in conjunction with the right mouse button Select feature. Explain how certain filters are not accessible with the right mouse button. (i.e. Selecting part pins only) this will be demonstrated later.
2D-Line Exercise 2.40
Explain and show the differences between a shape and documentation. Review window select of multiple objects. Show how CTRL select & deselect works. Apply verbs; move, add corner, split, pull arc, miter and cycle pick. Demonstrate the swap command. Show how query can change line length, width and layer. Show how copy, cut & Paste work. Use the delete command. Show how a shape can be saved to the 2D-Line Library.
FIND COMMAND 2.50
Briefly review the find by options. Show how the two right windows allow you to highlight certain objects.
TOOL BOXES 2.52
Review the tool boxes
MODELESS & KEY BOARD COMMANDS 2.53
Review the popular commands. Show/explain briefly how and what the keyboard commands do.
STATUS DIALOG 2.62
Explain how important this box is because we can get information about what we have selected. Touch on how the postage stamp locator works.
Session 3 YOUR FIRST DESIGN
OPEN START FILE 1
EDIT TITLE BLOCK & BOARD TEXT 2
INSERT BOARD OUTLINE 3
COPY BOARD OUTLINE 4
DELETING & REPLACING INCH MARKS 5
ADD MOUNTING / TOOLING HOLES & GLOBAL FIDUCIALS 6
Adding Fiducials 6.46
Glue Mounting Holes & Fiducials 6.81
DIMENSION BOARD 7
Dimensioning Vertical 7.61
Dimensioning ARC’s 7.100
BUILDING LIBRARY PARTS 8
Building a Thru-Hole Component DB15M 8.1
Adding Keepouts 8.185
Create Part Type 8.280
Building a Surface Mount Component PLCC-68 8.347
Relocate Ref. Des. To Final Location 8.386
Finishing Silk-screen / Courtyard 8.394
Inserting Post Assembly Inspection Dot at Pin 1 8.439
Creating Component Courtyard 8.467
Creating Part Type 8.491
IMPORT PARTS / NETLIST 9
Spread Parts Around Board Outline 9.35
Turn Rats Nest Off 9.41
Place Components 9.48
Length Minimization 9.82
Fine Tune Component Placement 9.105
Turn Off Courtyards 9.145
Relocate Ref. Des. Outside Component Outline 9.152
Create Assembly & Fabrication Check Prints 9.194
CREATE OUTPUT REPORTS 10
Nonconnected Pin Report 10.7
Statistics Report 10.31
Net List Report 10.55
Parts Report 10.79
SETUP LAYER / COLOR DEFINITION 11
Reassign Layers 11.14
Adding Nets to Planes 11.18
Setup Display Colors 11.43
Adding Layer Description to Title Block 11.73
DESIGN RULES 12
Setup Default Clearances 12.7
Net Clearances / Trace Width 12.25
DEFINE ROUTER KEEPIN 13
Adding Board Keepouts 13.15
ROUTE BOARD / SPLIT PLANE 14
Surface Mount Components Power Fan-out 14.7
Fan-out with Verify Design 14.58
Split Plane 14.88
Route Clock Lines 14.116
Printing Route Layer Check Plots 14.167
Route Bus Traces 14.179
Route Traces 14.213
TEST POINTS 15
COPPER POUR 16
Associate Copper Polygon to Net GND 16.24
Flood Copper Pour Polygon 16.37
Change Copper Pour Attributes 16.46
Remove Isolated Pour Areas 16.57
Regenerate Copper Pour After Closing Design 16.71
VERIFY DESIGN 17
POST PROCESS GERBER & DRILL DATA 18
CREATE FABRICATION & ASSEMBLY DRAWINGS 19
Session 4 POST PROCESSING
UNDERSTANDING THE 6 CAD ELEMENTS 1
LAYER CONFIGURATIONS 2
Explain how these suffixes (ie. 6B, 8C) are use to select the proper start file, below board text, layering window, cam file & layup drawing.
SAMPLE GUIDE FOR CREATING CAM FILES 3
Run through your existing job CAM to illustrate how this section documents how all our cam files are created.
MODIFYING AN EXISTING CAM FILE 4
Read the title and the explanation for why you would use this section.
DELETING AN EXISTING CAM FILE
& IMPORTING A NEW CAM FILE 5
Read the title and the explanation for why you would use this section.
IMPORTING A NEW CAM FILE 6
Read the title and the explanation for why you would use this section. Explain that in an effort to keep the manual from becoming too thick these last two section just have the commands and no dialog boxes.
MODIFYING AN EXISTING CAM FILE FOR A REVISION 7
Read the title and the explanation for why you would use this section
STANDARD CAM FILES 8
Session 5 NETCHECK TOOLS
When using this program remember that there are 3 restrictions. First this program does not work in NT Dos, second the program will not work if you are currently logged into a network, and last this program uses the old DOS 640K memory and if you have too many programs loaded on your computer this program might not work.
NETCHECK TOOLS SOFTWARE LIMITS 2
NETCHECK TOOLS NETLIST FORMATS 3
NETCHECK TOOLS NETLIST INTEGRITY CHECK 4
NETCHECK TOOLS NETLIST CONVERSION 5
NETCHECK TOOLS NETLIST COMPARISON 6
NETCHECK TOOLS PADS ECO GENERATION 7
APPENDIX
DESIGN CHECKLIST A
CHECKLISTS B
CALCULATING FOR BOARD DENSITY C
SAMPLE .DO FILES FOR CCT AUTO-ROUTER D
FABRICATION QUOTE FORM E
STANDARD FABRICATION NOTES F
LIBRARY CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS G
CURRENT CHARTS H
WIRE GUAGE TABLE I
STANDARD SCREW CHART J
STANDARD DRILL SIZES K
INCH TO METRIC CONVERSION TABLE L
GLOSSARY M
ROUTING GRID TECHNOLOGY N
METRIC MADE EASY O
BELOW BOARD TEXT P
Session 7 AUTOCAD for FABRICATION & ASSEMBLY DRAWINGS
Some people might not want to use AutoCAD to process Fab and Asy drawings. On the CD all the AutoCAD files are also provided in DXF format so they could be imported into other cad programs. We usually demo this section by showing this ourselves. This is really not PowerPCB training but it is an important part of the complete process. In class my best time is 12 minutes to completely create a fab & assembly drawing in AutoCAD (for the fab drawing adding notes, layup, drill chart, title block & board; for the assembly: title block, assembly top text & board)
GENERAL 2
DEFINE DRILL SYMBOLS 5
CREATE HPGL PEN PLOT FILES 22
CONVERT HPGL FILES TO DXF FILES 24
CONVERT DXF FILES TO DWG FILES 28
CREATE A FABRICATION DRAWING SHEET 1 OF 2 34
CREATE A FABRICATION DRAWING SHEET 2 OF 2 47
CREATE AN ASSEMBLY DRAWING SHEET 1 OF 2 (TOP) 53
CREATE AN ASSEMBLY DRAWING SHEET 2 OF 2 (BOTTOM) 59
EDITING AUTOCAD DRAWINGS 60
PRINTING/PLOTTING FROM AUTOCAD 66
DELETING TEMPORARY FILES 70
CREATING A CUSTOM TOOL BOX 71
APPENDIX 73
Session 8 CCT SPECCTRA
If you are going to train Specctra we recommend you using the below features. Start by using simple DO files on the demo board in a lab format. Then add additional commands to the Do file to show what they do. Create a do file for Fanout and show the results. Let the students determine if these kind of results are OK. Make a DO file to show how to bus route, let the students determine if these kind of results are OK. Continue as time permits showing the different features by using a test route.
bestsave on C:\padspwr\files\jobname.bst 2
autosave on C:\padspwr\files\jobname.ato 3
status file C:\padspwr\files\jobname.sts 4
unit mil 6
grid wire 8.333 7
grid via 8.333 8
protect all wires 9
fix net GND VCC 11
define (class clocks clk*) 12
select class clocks 14
select via MICROVIA 14
rule class nets (testpoint (insert on)(side back)(use_via TESTVIA)) 15
limit way 500 17
limit via 3 17
cost side_exit forbidden 18
tax 20
smart_route 21
bus diagonal 23
fanout 5 (via_share on) 24
report no_fanout C:\padspwr\files\jobname.nof 29
route 25 30
clean 4 32
testpoint (use_via TESTVIA)(center_center 100) 33
critic 36
spread 37
report unconnect C:\padspwr\files\jobname.non 39
write wire C:\padspwr\files\jobname.w 40
unprotect all wires 42
recorner diagonal 44
miter (pin 100)(slant 1000)(bend 1000 50) 45
write routes C:\padspwr\files\jobname.rte 40
quit 47
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