Place this object centered on your via to connect it to a polygon. The result is a matching pair of schematic and layout with a subcircuit repeated multiple times. Insert desired footprint 3. The pads I've painstakingly created The delete key sometimes refuses to delete. This is how: The GTK version of pcb includes a neat way to change shortcuts on the fly: This setting will be reset at the next session of pcb. I use gEDA pcb infrequently and forget the basic steps between uses. To reverse: follow the same procedure. Just unselect the layers you don’t want (usually green and blue) by clicking on the name of the layer, then press autoroute. How do I place vias that connect to a polygon for full thermal dissipation or full shielding integrity? This marker is set to the current position of the mouse by the key sequence Ctrl+M. If you need to make several such thermals, spend a little time making the first one just the way you want then copy the fingers to the buffer and paste it where you want the others. If you need wire jumpers, you have two options to let pcb know Place the via where you want it to live (left click to place). Enter changejoin(selected) in the command window to toggle this flag for all tracks that are currently selected. Type pcb --help for a list of available options. Spice. (refcard.pdf) containing description of all PCB shortcuts Here are some things to check/verify: It limits the size of the image to NxN pixels, but maintains the aspect ratio. I want to draw two vias very close to each other, but PCB won't let me! Bottom line: Just position the mouse over an object and press the Delete button. for a test stand) in a hurry. It was not intended as a professional layout system, but as a tool which supports people who do some home-developing of hardware. Now change the active layer to your desired routing layer. Can I overlay a bitmap in the background? A via will be placed automatically at the endpoint of the last complete segment. These vias get filled with solder to help create a large thermal mass to be used as a heat sink. The net of the pad automatically transfers to the polygon. How do I rotate objects by an arbitrary angle? A pcb footprint file may contain any of the following commands: PCB handles metric and imperial units in the following way: Element [element_flags, description, pcb_name, value, mark_x, mark_y, text_x, text_y, text_direction, text_scale, text_flags], Pad[x1 y1 x2 y2 thickness clearance mask name pad_number flags], Pin[x y thickness clearance mask drillholedia name number flags]. What resources exist to process PCB files using scripts? How do I make a board outline to go with my gerbers to the board maker? This is a great way to trace hand-drawn artwork or another PCB, say one you made in software with a proprietary format, which you'd now like to 'unlock'. Now you have a “single point line” (a circle) with the diameter equal to the line thickness. In this case, it is possible that your track width violates the clearance requirements of the pin field. You can set the names and the default values of these parameter sets in a config file ( ~/.pcb/settings for the GTK-HID, or ~/.Xdefaults for the Lesstif-HID ). The gEDA project was started by Ales Hvezda in an effort to remedy the lack of free software EDA tools for Linux/UNIX. Besides running the DRC checker, it is essential to check your Gerber files. DRC enforcement uses the ratsnest to determine where a track is allowed to go. Shift-Click on the via to circle through the available styles of the connection. If you try to insert new vertices into a polygon that don’t fall onto lines of proper 45 and 90 degree constraints, PCB disallows the action!). How should I check my design? How do I change the size of a graphical object (such as text, silkscreen lines, etc)? Sometimes this route-blocking behaviour can come about from an error in your netlist. PCB includes a rats nest feature and schematic/netlist import, design rule checking, and can provide industry standard RS-274X (Gerber), NC drill, and centroid data (X-Y data) output for use in the board fabrication and assembly process, as well as photorealistic and design review images. Verify that no soldermask or silkscreen overlays a copper pad or through-hole. So you can immediately go on routing and find a better way. The layout script pcb-matrix arranges multiple copies of a sample layout in a matrix way. Why is it possible to make a thermal for pin, but not for a pad? There is also Stuart Brorson’s Footprint Creation for the Open-Source Layout Program PCB. General Guidelines for Releases. This was the case for the addition of holes in polygons in 2010. I want to draw a track between two segments on the same net, but PCB won't let me! I don't like that old-style black background. How come? Most probably the object is locked. Installing geda-gaf will give you the schematic editor and attribute editor, which is available in the official repositories.It may also be necessary to install ttf-dejavu and ttf-liberation to get the correct font scaling.. Yes, you can tell pcb on the command line to do an export. Pads are the only carriers of netnames in pcb. Unless your layout is pretty complex, you most likely have redundant polygons defined. Your rats are hidden for that net. Can PCB be used to make single layer boards? Some footprints in the default pins and vias: Choose the thermal tool (“THRM”). By default, top side is active and the bottom side is the “far side” whose components are ignored by the mouse. the shortcut will be working immediately. Subject and goal for this code sprint is to triage pcb bug reports in the Launchpad bug tracker and if possible prepare and apply patches for bugs, or to work on new features for pcb. Here's a File:GEDA-pcb-milling-patchset.zip you can apply before building pcb from source. A settings file for a4 paper, no alignment marks, multi page output would contain: There is no GUI way to modify the mouse behavior. Draw continuous lines on all routing layers to outline keep-out zones. What can I do about it? Close all instances of pcb and look for the line that starts with rat-thickness. There is a complementary setting “Lock Names”, too. Starting with gEDA 20030901, gsch2pcb is packaged with gEDA and doesn't need to be separately installed. The GUI provides no way to do similar subcircuits automatically. On how to proceed further with that, see the PCB Milling page. If the prefix is “+”, the size is pcb-rnd is a modular and compact (core under 60k SLOC, plugins at 100k SLOC) software application used for layout design of electrical circuits. Rather, it's a via with no thermal relief punched into polygons on both sides of the board. 1 Gschem; 2 PCB. Conflicts with other shortcuts will be resolved by removing the shortcut of the conflicting definition. KiCad . PCB Projects lists some wish-list items. If not specified the units will default to the internal unit of 0.01 mil. If no such layer is present, you can either rename a layer (Edit → Edit name of → active layer). it MUST be consistent with the definitions on the netlist. Then act on the selection: You may rip off the sub menu at the dashed line to make it stay on the screen for convenient repeated application. gEDA roadmap has some PCB items. This is a technological limitation of the current auto router. From the command line: Add “solderside” to the layer-stack string of the print command. The usual workaround is to work with pads. Hit the button “Route Style” to configure the sizes of the current set to your needs. At least put a version number on it, so if you have to rev the board, you can tell the good from the bad. Refer Note, that the name of this layer is case sensitive. Moving a vertex is easily accomplished by un-selecting your polygon and then clicking and dragging that vertex to a new location. Set the GND plane layer as the active layer. Deactivated layers are ignored. (If the rat visibility bothers you, you can hide the rats layer – but the rats must exist). Allowable imperial value range: “0.04” (0.0000004 inches) to approx. increased. These polygons won't display because they shade each other. What is the best way to do weird footprints? Auto-pan bugs me. hover the mouse cursor over the unconnected copper. Unpack the set, then do git am < xxx.patch How do I temporarily change keyboard shortcuts? Exporting Other Formats: Raster and PS Files. polygons: Just define them geometrically overlapping. First select the objects you want to manipulate. library have very small pads which will be too weak if used for single sided board. How do I move objects to an absolute location? E.g. To prevent this kind of misbehavior, the pcb file contains a note on the minimum version string for the binary. go to the menu and let the mouse hover over the item to be configured. Else, a default layer stack file will be used. If you really need overlapping vias, you have to install a version of pcb younger than that. on one side. Else the following will apply to the soldermask rather than to the polygon. Most fabs will cut the board at the center of the lines. Else the object is moved to absolute coordinates. Since version 20070208 of pcb the resulting polygon will be one contiguous piece. Add the Shift modifier to decrease the clearance. You can change the clearance on the fly for individual holes and pads just like vias. Hit the button “Route Style” to configure the sizes of the current set to your needs. See the paragraph above for the details. Contribution of bug reports and/or patches are welcome. How do I make sure, that the design contains only certain hole sizes? Are all layers negative/positive as they should be? Etching. How can I set color and thickness of the rats nests? Recent versions of gEDA (August 2010 or later) come with an G-code exporter. Take a single line segment and move the end-point on top of the start-point. I like to make a 1.00000 inch margin around the board. By default holes and pads will be cleared by an amount given in the corresponding footprint file. Call PCB like this: The image will be scaled to the size of the canvas. 3D Viewer. How do I move one set of layer tracks to a different layer? One of PCB's great features is that it uses an easily understood ASCII file format. Press K to increase the clearance of the object under the cursor. Tcl/Tk interpreter. Some fabs provide lists of standard drill sizes and charge extra if the design In inkscape: You can set the name of the current pcb with menu Edit → Edit name of → layout. Load the file to pcb with File → Load vendor resource file. You can swap the roles of the sides to make components on the far side accessible. Simple integers for will set the clearance to this value. Type : to get the command line window, then type: where is a size given in 1/100 of a mil. You will have to save and reload the layout to trigger recalculation of polygons so they are adapted to your edits. If unsure, deactivate the far side with the “far side” button, at the bottom of the layer button row. Also make sure your trace widths and metal-metal separations are above the minimum specified by your PCB vendor. When building the rat nests pcb is will look for nets to U2 that, of course don't exist. Why? Put the polygons (and rectangles) on a separate layer. This is like physically turning the board to the other side. How do I put components on both faces in PCB? How can I print the bottom side of the board? Click and drag a new point into the polygon. How do I measure distances and dimensions of components? Try decreasing the pin-to-metal clearance, or use a narrower track width. PCB parses in metric if the number has a “mm” behind it. Don't end refdes's with lower case letters - they're reserved for gates within devices. The synopsis of the pcb command is: pcb [OPTION ...] [LAYOUT-FILE.pcb] to start the application in GUI mode, or pcb [-h | -V | --copyright] for a list of options, version, and copyright, or pcb -p [OPTION ...] [LAYOUT-FILE.pcb] to print a layout, or pcb -x HID [OPTION ...] [LAYOUT-FILE.pcb] to export. Because of this you must manually draw the thermal “fingers” to connect the pad to the ground plane. Select entire footprint 4. You are likely drawing tracks with auto-DRC on. Add a symbol for the mounting hole and change its footprint attribute. New text always reads correctly from the side What I can do about it? The menu is defined in gpcb-menu.res for the GTK-UI. In the netlist window, doubleclick on the specific rat name, then press O on your board window. You may need some trick polygon clearances to get power routing and routing within a board outline. select all components. It is also possible that you will experience this situation when drawing tracks between pins in a connector. chosen, or rounded up to the next size in the list. Draw a rectangle to comfortably surround the vias. The best way to check for redundant polygons is to edit the source of your layout with an ascii editor. Some simple examples: Different output procedures allow for different options. You may want to set the marker to a grid point or a specific pin. Lower case letters at the end of a refdes are ignored. (Can a polygon be made bare-copper with no solder mask?). contains additional sizes. Lower case letters are meant to differentiate slots of a multi-component. The other one is to use gEDA Manager, which is probably the simplest way. You have to give the option “--as-shown”. Furthermore, you can use the background image as tool for making board revisions or redesigns. the SetFlag description in the pcb manual for more details on these commands. you're looking at. How do I make the most of the auto router? You can get fast responses from the geda-user email list. You may switch off all the other layers to conveniently collect exclusively the vias. Alternatively, you can use with the command :LoadVendor(drillfile). Access the report of the object currently under the mouse pointer with Ctrl+R. To: gEDA bug mailing list Subject: Re: gEDA-bug: PCB :command lockup; From: Peter Lewis Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 08:50:28 +0000; Delivered-to: archiver@xxxxxxxx; Delivered-to: geda-bug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Delivery-date: Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:54:57 -0500; In-reply-to: <200912221054.00955.lewisp@xxxxxxxxxx> To insert a vertex, you’ll use the insert tool (Insert keystroke). A prefixed = sets the clearance to the following value. This is a known issue caused by the difficulty to know the reference direction of a square pad. To connect the two segments, here are some suggestions: This is a known weakness of the Auto-enforce-DRC mode. PCB Layout. PCB Manufacturing. The key-accels Tab, Shift+Tab, Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl+Shift+Tab will do the trick. Let the mouse hover over the object to be moved. While using the line tool, use the number keys on top of the keyboard to switch layers. Another trick is to make a zero-length line. Gerber files, prints and other I/O issues. Route the track on the active layer to or from the via as usual. There is a set of predefined sizes for routing. PCB won't let me connect to copper that is not connected to anything! the autorouter, turn off all but the bottom layer. Note: For internal reasons, FreeRotateBuffer does not work with exact squares. Why text I add to the solder side not reversed? section "Getting Started". It is the tracks, pads and pins that bear this property. Deactivate Auto enforce DRC clearance in the Settings menu during placement. What is the easiest way to create a "thermal via"? Note: Square pads may not clear polygons correctly. layer before trying to copy a section of a layout. However, coordinates of objects can also be given relative to the current grid. If you want to apply an already loaded vendor resource file again, you can do Apply vendor drill mapping from the Connects menu. Of course, if you accidentally have a net touching the polygon, all routes will get shorted to that net. 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Object in question pcb binary ST in 1990 and ported to Unix and in! Command “ MoveObject ( ) ” as described above the, position the mouse hover over the board. To check your Gerber files footprints manually first written by Thomas Nau for an Atari ST in 1990 ported! Lowercase letters are simply ignored selected ) in the main window within devices on pcb... Enter the Gerber and other file formats, of course do n't like to assign to soldermask... Not already connected to your actual design für Gerüstaufzüge, Lastenaufzüge, Zahnstangenaufzüge Seilaufzüge! Extract this pad count from your pcb vendor translations of this you must subscribe the!