Generating a Board from a Schematic

All the components, together with their connections drawn as airwires, appear beside a blank board ready for placing. Power pins are automatically connected to the appropriate supply (if not connected by a net on the schematic).

The board is linked to the schematic via Forward&Back Annotation. This mechanism makes sure that schematic and board are consistent. When editing a drawing, board and schematic must be loaded to keep Forward&Back Annotation active.

Set Board Outlines and Place Components

The board outlines can be adjusted with the MOVE and SPLIT commands as appropriate before moving each package on the board. Once all packages have been placed, the RATSNEST command is used to optimize airwires.

Define Restricted Areas

If required, restricted areas for the Autorouter can be defined as RECTangles, POLYGONs, or CIRCLEs on the tRestrict, bRestrict, or vRestrict layers. Note: areas enclosed by wires drawn on the Dimension layer are borders for the Autorouter, too.

Routing

Airwires are now converted into tracks with the aid of the ROUTE command. This function can also be performed automatically by the Autorouter, when available.