PCB123 Version 5.

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User Guide and Reference manual

Copyright © 2014
Contents
Overview .........................................................................15
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 15
Software features out of the box ................................................................................................. 15
User Extendibility ....................................................................................................................... 17
One eye on the future ................................................................................................................ 17
Our Commitment........................................................................................................................ 18

Part 1 - Getting Started ...................................................19

Introduction ................................................................................................ 20

Screen Layout .............................................................................................. 22

Common functionality ................................................................................. 23

Pan and Zoom............................................................................................................................ 23

Names and Numbers .................................................................................................................. 24
Selection .................................................................................................................................... 26
Context Menus ........................................................................................................................... 27
Commands ................................................................................................................................ 27

Starting a New Design ................................................................................. 28

Overview of PCB design tasks ..................................................................................................... 28

Data Requirements ..................................................................................................................... 31
The New-Board Wizard ............................................................................................................... 33
Starting Without the New-Board Wizard ....................................................................................... 37
Results of Creating a New Design ................................................................................................ 37
Default Settings ......................................................................................................................... 38
PCB123 Directories ..................................................................................................................... 39

Part 2 - Schematic User Guide.........................................40

The Schematic/PCB Contract ...................................................................... 41

A little background ..................................................................................................................... 41

The Design-by-contract solution .................................................................................................. 42

Properties .................................................................................................... 44

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Symbols and Parts ....................................................................................... 46

Parts ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Symbols ..................................................................................................................................... 48
Pre-Defined Parts ....................................................................................................................... 60

The Part Libraries ........................................................................................ 62

Hierarchy and Inheritance ........................................................................................................... 63

Pre-defined Parts........................................................................................................................ 66
The Part Manager....................................................................................................................... 67
Acquiring Data ........................................................................................................................... 69

The Symbol Editor ....................................................................................... 72

Inside/Outside ........................................................................................................................... 73
Adding pins ................................................................................................................................ 74
Adding Shapes ........................................................................................................................... 75
Adding Arcs ............................................................................................................................... 77
Adding Text ............................................................................................................................... 78
Adding properties ....................................................................................................................... 79
Saving symbols .......................................................................................................................... 80
Sections ..................................................................................................................................... 80
Binding to specific symbols ......................................................................................................... 80
Mapping pin names to pin numbers ............................................................................................. 82
Hidden pins................................................................................................................................ 82
Saving parts ............................................................................................................................... 83

Finding Parts................................................................................................ 84

Part search ................................................................................................................................ 84

Define New Part ......................................................................................................................... 85

Ports ............................................................................................................ 92

Ports and net names .................................................................................................................. 92

Schematic Pages.......................................................................................... 93

Adding Schematic Pages ............................................................................................................. 94

Synchronization pages ................................................................................................................ 94
The Title Block ........................................................................................................................... 94
Page size ................................................................................................................................... 95

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 The Schematic Editor ................................................................................... 97

Adding parts to a page ............................................................................................................... 97

Adding ports to a page ............................................................................................................... 97
Adding wires .............................................................................................................................. 98
Adding nomenclature .................................................................................................................. 98
Properties .................................................................................................................................. 99
Cut/copy/paste........................................................................................................................... 99
Moving parts .............................................................................................................................. 99

Part 3 - Layout User Guide ........................................... 101

Layout Views and Panels ........................................................................... 102

Display Panel ........................................................................................................................... 102

Design View ............................................................................................................................. 105
3D View ................................................................................................................................... 105
Footprint Editor ........................................................................................................................ 106
DRC Panel................................................................................................................................ 107
Project Panel ............................................................................................................................ 107

PCB Design Tasks ...................................................................................... 108

Create missing footprints .......................................................................... 109

Creating footprints from scratch ................................................................................................ 110

Modify and existing footprint from a library ................................................................................ 110
Use an existing component as a starting point ........................................................................... 110
Prepare Mechanical Features ..................................................................................................... 110
Adjusting the board outline ....................................................................................................... 110
Add mounting hardware ........................................................................................................... 111

Place components...................................................................................... 114

Fixed component locations ........................................................................................................ 114

Autoplace components ............................................................................................................. 115
Manual place components ......................................................................................................... 115

Power, ground, and critical routing .......................................................... 115

Power and ground plane layers ................................................................................................. 115

Routed power and ground ........................................................................................................ 120

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 Critical routing ......................................................................................................................... 120
General routing ........................................................................................................................ 121
Fanout and autorouting ............................................................................................................ 121
Manual routing ......................................................................................................................... 124
Routing techniques ................................................................................................................... 125

Fills, and Nomenclature ............................................................................. 125

Active copper fill regions ........................................................................................................... 125

Nomenclature .......................................................................................................................... 127

Order Boards.............................................................................................. 130

The Order process .................................................................................................................... 130

Routing your Design .................................................................................. 134

Before you route ...................................................................................................................... 134

Routing the board .................................................................................................................... 134
Adding copper regions .............................................................................................................. 136
Design Changes ....................................................................................................................... 138
Design Rule Checking ............................................................................................................... 138

Object Editing ............................................................................................ 138

Setting the grid ........................................................................................................................ 139

Changing layers ....................................................................................................................... 139
Changing line width .................................................................................................................. 140
Add a component to the board .................................................................................................. 140
Move a component ................................................................................................................... 140
Move a component to the other side of the board ...................................................................... 140
Rotate a component ................................................................................................................. 140
Edit a component ..................................................................................................................... 141
Add a pin to the board .............................................................................................................. 141
Add a slot to the board ............................................................................................................. 141
Move a pin ............................................................................................................................... 141
Change a pin ........................................................................................................................... 142
Add a polygon or polyline ......................................................................................................... 142
Add a circle .............................................................................................................................. 142
Add an arc ............................................................................................................................... 142
Add a cutout ............................................................................................................................ 143

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 Move a board outline ................................................................................................................ 143
Move board outline corners ....................................................................................................... 143
Delete board outline corners ..................................................................................................... 143
Insert corners in a board outline ............................................................................................... 144
Add a connection between two pins .......................................................................................... 144
Remove a pin from a net .......................................................................................................... 144
Start routing from a pin ............................................................................................................ 144
Start routing from another route ............................................................................................... 144
Add a via between layers .......................................................................................................... 145
Insert corners in a route ........................................................................................................... 146
Delete route corners ................................................................................................................. 146
Move a route corner ................................................................................................................. 146
Move a route segment .............................................................................................................. 146
Change the width of a route segment ........................................................................................ 146
Add text to the board ............................................................................................................... 146
Rename a component ............................................................................................................... 147
Pan ......................................................................................................................................... 147
Designing a board without a netlist ........................................................................................... 147
About loading a Netlist ............................................................................................................. 147

Part 4 - Schematic Reference ....................................... 150

Main Menu ................................................................................................. 151

File menu ................................................................................................... 151

New ........................................................................................................................................ 151

Open… .................................................................................................................................... 151
Close ....................................................................................................................................... 151
Save ........................................................................................................................................ 152
Save As…................................................................................................................................. 152
Backup Now ............................................................................................................................. 152
Print ........................................................................................................................................ 152
Print Setup ............................................................................................................................... 152
Exit ......................................................................................................................................... 153

Edit menu................................................................................................... 153

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 Undo ....................................................................................................................................... 153
Redo ....................................................................................................................................... 153
Cut .......................................................................................................................................... 154
Copy........................................................................................................................................ 154
Paste ....................................................................................................................................... 154
Delete ..................................................................................................................................... 154
Properties ................................................................................................................................ 154

Insert menu ............................................................................................... 155

Add Page ................................................................................................................................. 155

Add Part .................................................................................................................................. 155
Add Analog Ground Port ........................................................................................................... 155
Add Digital Ground Port ............................................................................................................ 156
Add Voltage Port ...................................................................................................................... 156
Add Global Port ........................................................................................................................ 156
Add Off-Page Port .................................................................................................................... 156
Add Line .................................................................................................................................. 157
Add Arc ................................................................................................................................... 157
Add Polyline ............................................................................................................................. 157
Add Rectangle .......................................................................................................................... 157
Add Polygon............................................................................................................................. 157
Add Text .................................................................................................................................. 158

View menu ................................................................................................. 158

View Standard Toolbar ............................................................................................................. 158

View Add Object Toolbar .......................................................................................................... 159
View Zoom Toolbar .................................................................................................................. 159
Zoom Submenu ........................................................................................................................ 159
Zoom In .................................................................................................................................. 159
Zoom Out ................................................................................................................................ 159
Zoom All .................................................................................................................................. 159
Pan Up .................................................................................................................................... 159
Pan Left ................................................................................................................................... 159
Pan Right ................................................................................................................................. 160
Pan Down ................................................................................................................................ 160

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 Redraw .................................................................................................................................... 160

Tools menu ................................................................................................ 160

Symbol Editor… ........................................................................................................................ 160

Manage Parts… ........................................................................................................................ 160
Generate Netlist from Schematic…............................................................................................. 160

PCB123 menu ............................................................................................ 160

MY Account… ........................................................................................................................... 161

PCB123 Website… .................................................................................................................... 161
Report a Bug… ......................................................................................................................... 161

Window menu ............................................................................................ 161

Cascade ................................................................................................................................... 161

Tile .......................................................................................................................................... 161
Arrange Icons .......................................................................................................................... 161

Part 5 - Layout Reference ............................................ 162

Main Menu ................................................................................................. 163

File menu ................................................................................................... 163

New command ......................................................................................................................... 163

Open… command ..................................................................................................................... 163
Close command ........................................................................................................................ 164
Save command ........................................................................................................................ 164
Save As… command ................................................................................................................. 164
Save As Template… command .................................................................................................. 164
Import Gerber .......................................................................................................................... 164
Import PCB123 XML ................................................................................................................. 165
Export BOM command .............................................................................................................. 165
Export Netlist command ............................................................................................................ 165
Export XML Data ...................................................................................................................... 165
Backup Now… command........................................................................................................... 165
Print… command ...................................................................................................................... 165
Print Setup… command ............................................................................................................ 166
Print Artwork… command ......................................................................................................... 166

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 Exit command .......................................................................................................................... 166

Edit menu................................................................................................... 167

Undo command ........................................................................................................................ 167

Redo command ........................................................................................................................ 168
Cut command .......................................................................................................................... 168
Copy command ........................................................................................................................ 168
Paste command ....................................................................................................................... 168
Delete command ...................................................................................................................... 168
Rename Net command ............................................................................................................. 168
Rename Part Command ............................................................................................................ 169
Rename Reference Designator .................................................................................................. 169
Load Selection… command ....................................................................................................... 169
Save Selection… command ....................................................................................................... 169
Find… command ...................................................................................................................... 169
Bring to Cursor… command ...................................................................................................... 169
Measure… command ................................................................................................................ 170
Line Width command ................................................................................................................ 170
Grid command ......................................................................................................................... 170
Select Pins command ................................................................................................................ 170
Select Polygons command......................................................................................................... 170
Select Text command ............................................................................................................... 170
Select Components command ................................................................................................... 170
Select Tracks command ............................................................................................................ 170
Select Anything command ......................................................................................................... 171
Select Nothing command .......................................................................................................... 171
Properties command ................................................................................................................. 171

Insert menu ............................................................................................... 171

Select command ....................................................................................................................... 171

Add Cutout .............................................................................................................................. 172
Add Pin command .................................................................................................................... 172
Add Freestyle Route command .................................................................................................. 172
Add Polygon command ............................................................................................................. 172
Add Arc command .................................................................................................................... 173

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 Add Circle command ................................................................................................................. 173
Add Text command .................................................................................................................. 173
Add Component command ........................................................................................................ 174
Add Footprint command ........................................................................................................... 174
Add Connection command ........................................................................................................ 174

View menu ................................................................................................. 175

Refresh All ............................................................................................................................... 176

Go-To First Error ...................................................................................................................... 176
Go-To Next Error ...................................................................................................................... 176
User Preferences ...................................................................................................................... 176
Toolbars/Edit Panel .................................................................................................................. 176
Toolbars/Standard Toolbar........................................................................................................ 176
Toolbars/Add Object Toolbar..................................................................................................... 176
Toolbars/Layers Toolbar ........................................................................................................... 176
Toolbars/Selection Toolbar........................................................................................................ 176
Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar............................................................................................................. 177
Zoom/Zoom In ......................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Zoom Out ....................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Zoom All ........................................................................................................................ 177
Zoom/Pan Up ........................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Pan Left ......................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Pan Right ....................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Pan Down ...................................................................................................................... 177
Zoom/Redraw .......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Top .............................................................................................................................. 178
Layers/Bottom ......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Inner1 .......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Inner2 .......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Inner3 .......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Inner4 .......................................................................................................................... 178
Layers/Silkscreen Top ............................................................................................................... 179
Layers/Silkscreen Bottom .......................................................................................................... 179
Layers/Soldermask Top ............................................................................................................ 179
Layers/Soldermask Bottom ....................................................................................................... 179

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Design menu .............................................................................................. 180

Board Configuration.................................................................................................................. 180

New Footprint .......................................................................................................................... 180
Edit Footprint ........................................................................................................................... 180
Manage Library ........................................................................................................................ 181
Optimize Net Lengths ............................................................................................................... 181
Autoplace ................................................................................................................................ 181
Fanout SMT Pads ..................................................................................................................... 181
Autoroute ................................................................................................................................ 182
Gloss ....................................................................................................................................... 182
Netlist ...................................................................................................................................... 182
Compare/Update Design ........................................................................................................... 182
Manage Stored Part Associations ............................................................................................... 182
Clear DRC Errors ...................................................................................................................... 183
Run DRC .................................................................................................................................. 183

PCB123 menu ............................................................................................ 184

MY Account… ........................................................................................................................... 185

PCB123 Website… .................................................................................................................... 185
Report a Bug… ......................................................................................................................... 185
Density Graph .......................................................................................................................... 185
DXF Import/Export ................................................................................................................... 185
IDF Import/Export .................................................................................................................... 185
Relax Routing .......................................................................................................................... 185

Window menu ............................................................................................ 186

Cascade ................................................................................................................................... 186

Tile .......................................................................................................................................... 186
Arrange Icons .......................................................................................................................... 186

Toolbars ..................................................................................................... 186

Main toolbar............................................................................................................................. 186

Add Object toolbar ................................................................................................................... 186
Layer toolbar ........................................................................................................................... 187
Selection toolbar ...................................................................................................................... 187
Zoom toolbar ........................................................................................................................... 187

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 3-D View toolbar ...................................................................................................................... 187
Wireframe................................................................................................................................ 188
Show Silkscreen ....................................................................................................................... 188

Panels ........................................................................................................ 188

Display panel ........................................................................................................................... 188

Parts panel .............................................................................................................................. 189
Project panel ............................................................................................................................ 189
DRC/ERC panel ........................................................................................................................ 189

Context Panes............................................................................................ 190

Pin properties........................................................................................................................... 190

Component properties .............................................................................................................. 191
Polygon properties (Schematic) ................................................................................................. 191
Text properties (Schematic) ...................................................................................................... 192

Dialog Boxes .............................................................................................. 192

About… Dialog ......................................................................................................................... 192

Add Text Dialog ....................................................................................................................... 193
Board Configuration Dialog ....................................................................................................... 193
Change Grid Dialog .................................................................................................................. 195
Component Property Page ........................................................................................................ 196
Create New Library Dialog ........................................................................................................ 197
ECO Report Dialog.................................................................................................................... 198
Find Object Dialog .................................................................................................................... 198
Key Assignments Dialog ............................................................................................................ 199
Line Width Dialog ..................................................................................................................... 200
Load Part Dialog (simple mode) ................................................................................................ 200
Load Part Dialog (advanced mode) ............................................................................................ 201
Load Selection Dialog ............................................................................................................... 202
Manage Library Dialog .............................................................................................................. 203
Merge Nets Dialog .................................................................................................................... 205
Net Property Page .................................................................................................................... 206
Package Print Dialog ................................................................................................................. 207
Pin Property Page ..................................................................................................................... 208
Polygon Property Page.............................................................................................................. 209

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 Print Artwork Dialog ................................................................................................................. 210
Report Dialog ........................................................................................................................... 211
Save Footprint Dialog ............................................................................................................... 212
Save Template Dialog ............................................................................................................... 213
Select Color Popup ................................................................................................................... 213
Text Property Page (Layout) ..................................................................................................... 214
Track Property Page ................................................................................................................. 215
Update Components Dialog ....................................................................................................... 215
User Preferences General Page ................................................................................................. 216
User Preferences Display Page .................................................................................................. 217
User Preferences Layer Colors Page........................................................................................... 219
User Preferences Routing and Spacing Rules Page ..................................................................... 220
Zoom To Coordinate Dialog ....................................................................................................... 221

Shortcuts ...................................................................... 223

Key Assignments .......................................................... 224

PCB123 Keyboard shortcuts. ........................................ 225

Layout View, single keystroke: .................................................................................................. 225
Layout View, single keystroke with SHIFT pressed: .................................................................... 225
Layout View, single keystroke plus CONTROL: ........................................................................... 226
Layout View, single keystroke plus CONTROL-SHIFT: ................................................................. 226
Schematic views, single key pressed: ........................................................................................ 226
Schematic views, single key plus SHIFT pressed: ....................................................................... 226
Package view, single key pressed: ............................................................................................. 226
Package view, single key pressed with SHIFT: ........................................................................... 227
Package view, single key pressed plus CONTROL-SHIFT: ............................................................ 227

Accelerated Designs’ Ultralib Parts Definitions ............ 228

Library Standards ..................................................................................................................... 228
Footprint Patterns: (Construction Standard).............................................................................. 228
Units of Measure: ..................................................................................................................... 228
Entites and Attributes: ............................................................................................................. 228
Component Naming Conventions: ............................................................................................. 228

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 Library Construction: ............................................................................................................... 229
Naming of padstacks start with a shape designator as follows: ................................................... 229
Placement Points: .................................................................................................................... 230
Attributes: ............................................................................................................................... 230
Component Naming Conventions: ............................................................................................. 230
Silkscreen Data: ....................................................................................................................... 231
Vendor Neutral Format from Accelerated Designs Inc.:.............................................................. 231

Known Issues ............................................................... 232

Fixed in v5.0.3: Schematic symbol does not update after editing ............................................... 232
Fixed in v5.0.3: Netlist files with spaces in part type names ...................................................... 232
Ultra Library part issues ........................................................................................................... 233

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14

Overview
Introduction

Thank you for your interest in PCB123. With Version 5, Sunstone has fulfilled its commitment to create a
PCB design system that delivers superior productivity against other systems regardless of price. In one
program, it delivers all the tools needed to complete a printed circuit board from concept to
manufacturing.

Version 5 is the culmination of effort to streamline the entire PCB design process and yields a system that
is quite unlike any other. PCB layout and schematics not only reside in the same application but also are
two isomorphic views of the same database. A netlist is no longer the interface between the two
applications. As you create a schematic, you are creating a PCB. If you don’t want to bother creating a
schematic, then just create your board and let PCB123 create the schematic for you. Data edits are
bidirectional with either side updating the other. Most of the synchronizing is done transparently but
some edits required that special facilities be created to ensure both the logical (schematics) and physical
(Layout) views stay isomorphic. In fact, loading a pre-version-3 PCB123 file into version 5 will result in
the automatic generation of a companion schematic. Likewise, starting a new design either using a netlist
from another system or simply creating a PCB from scratch by manually placing new components and
drawing the traces will result in a schematic that is automatically created and is continuously updated as
the PCB is updated.

We are extremely pleased you are reading this guide because it is jam packed with tips and techniques to
maximize both your productivity and the quality of your PCB.

Software features out of the box

With the PCB123 software you installed, you will be able to create a multi-page schematic by placing
symbols that represent complete parts or sections of a part such as a gate, and then hooking them up
with wires and special port symbols such as power and ground symbols.

Locating parts has never been easier. The part database is structured as a taxonomy, which can be
navigated in a tree or can be searched by typing in search criteria. Parts can contain a rich set of
properties, all of which are searchable. This means you can search for a part by number (distributor or
manufacturer) or by some characteristic such as “4.99K, 1%”.

With PCB123 V5, you now have access to a fully defined set of parts libraries, delivering over 750,000
parts with schematic symbols, footprints, manufacturer and Digi-Key ordering information, and links to
data sheets available immediately after installation. This parts library, derived directly from the
Accelerated Designs Inc, Ultralib product, is made available to PCB123 from Accelerated Designs, Inc., an
industry leader in electronic parts definition development.

Placing a part so its pins touch the pins of a different part will automatically generate wires between the
pins as long as they are allowed by the rules. For instance, a power pin cannot be tied to a ground pin,

15

and an NC pin (no connect) cannot be tied to anything. Wires can also be added by clicking on a pin or
an existing wire (adding a junction) and then simply moving the mouse to the other pin/wire/junction and
clicking again. This will automatically draw a wire that obeys the expected aesthetics. The auto-wiring
feature is invoked when an already-connected symbol is moved or rotated. Even high-pin-count symbols
are neatly rewired as they are moved around. Even though auto-wiring is always in effect, you can also
digitize corners exactly where you want them.

At any point, you may flip over to the PCB view and you will see the new parts and their wires located at
the system origin. You can select AutoPlace to rapidly position parts on the board. AutoPlace will attempt
to minimize the overall interconnect distance between components while also locating the components in
a reasonably aesthetic pattern. You can then examine and adjust the placement to perform local
optimizations and enforce any special placement requirements that you may have.

At this point, you may choose to autoroute the design. The autorouter will first escape surface mount
pins to a via (a plated hole) to allow the router unrestricted access to all routing layers and or to connect
to any internal plane layers. After fanout, the main autorouter will engage which attempts to add traces
between objects that must be connected together. In many cases, the autorouter may not complete
100% of the connections or it may do so by using a topology that is unacceptable to you. In these cases,
or in the event you just want to route the board completely by hand, there are very efficient editing tools
to complete the task.

While manual routing or performing other PCB editing tasks by hand, a Design Rule Check (DRC) is
performed in real-time and you will see DRC error markers come and go as you create and fix DRC
violations. Whether autorouted or manually routed, you can choose at any stage to run the Gloss
command to remove redundant corners, segments, and vias.

You not only have the ability to designate internal plane layers, but you can also choose to view them as
positive or negative images. In addition, you may wish to fill in unoccupied areas on the routing layers of
the board with copper planes. These copper planes are typically assigned to a net, such as GND. Pins
assigned to the same net, which appear inside the region, will be connected to the copper plane. Pins
placed using the Add Pin tool provide you with properties to control if the pin connects with a thermal or
direct connection and if the pin is tented with soldermask.

Nomenclature may be added to the board as copper or on silkscreen layers using text strings or drawn
polygonal features.

A full DRC (Design Rule Check) can be run on the board when it is believed to be complete. A full DRC
will check for violations of net rules such as adherence to minimum spacing requirements, shorts, and
opens. It will also check for possible manufacturing problems such as drill excursions into SMD features,
silkscreen in holes or on SMD features, and even isolated pins in copper pour regions.

It is recommended that a final visual check of the PCB be done by selecting File > Print Artwork. Here
you can print individual layers for review.

At any time, either the schematic or the layout may undergo component or net additions, deletions, or
changes and the other synchronizes. This makes tasks such as adjusting the number of decoupling
capacitors based on available real estate or routing density a snap.

16

Finally, when the design is complete you can press the Order button to begin the process of getting your
circuit boards manufactured.

User Extendibility

In addition to the core system, PCB123 Version 5 includes a Plugin interface that allows tools to be added
at anytime. The Plugin SDK exposes the complete PCB object database for random access and allows for
the processing of virtually all PCB123 software events. In addition to editing PCB objects, developers will
be able to call upon code libraries such as the 2D geometry library (over 800 analytical operations on 2D
objects) and the spatial database and DRC engine.

The SDK includes a 120-page manual, code libraries and the header files that describe the various
PCB123 objects and resources. There is also a Microsoft Visual Studio Application Wizard that builds a
working Plugin complete with TODO comments and example code for many scenarios. It also includes
the full source code for a couple of the actual Plugins that are shipped with PCB123. These include a
connection density analyzer which plots estimated route density as a function of color in a separate
window and a Plugin that minimizes the angular deflection of all route corners and therefore also
shortens route length. It does so without causing DRC violations. We hope that over time many creative
and productive Plugins will be developed by you, the user, to share or sell to the PCB123 community.

One eye on the future

First, a quick note on some capabilities that didn’t quite make it into this initial release of the new
schematics facility but are certainly expected in an upcoming release. The two main capabilities are
bussing and hierarchical designs. The two features share the common requirement of a bus pin/port
object. The hierarchical capabilities will be implemented as sub-circuits which get flattened immediately
for logical/physical synchronization. You will be able to place one or more instances of a pre-existing
schematic page from any design into another schematic page and it will be represented as a symbol with
pins that correspond to special ports placed in the hierarchical page.

We would like to point out some of the less obvious benefits that the full integration of schematics and
layout make possible. Aside from the fact that a netlist is a static snapshot of a schematic at a given time,
a netlist also strips all the information from the schematic other than the net graphs. We can point to one
example where some of the semantic information from the schematic has been confidently and
successfully hoisted into PCB123 layout and that is with the automatic assignment of large net widths for
nets that are attached to voltage and ground port symbols. This indicates there may be convenient,
logical paradigms for visually documenting and conveying special net and component rules right in the
schematic that layout will honor.

Proximity information is another example of information that is lost in a netlist. It is possible to bias the
autoplacer with symbol proximity data from the schematic. Along those lines, if a schematic sub-circuit
was placed and even routed in layout then that sub-circuit could then be replicated via copy and paste or
through hierarchical instantiation, and the new circuit’s physical layout would be exactly relative to its
original source circuit including any routing.

17

The benefits can work the other way too. If a SPICE simulator is hypothetically bolted on to PCB123, the
simulator would have access to the exact characteristics of the routing topology of a net by simply asking
layout and getting an instantaneous response. Signal integrity problems could not only be identified much
faster than using separate tools but the iterative process of simulate-analyze-tweak could actually be
replaced by driving special tools in layout with the simulation results that take corrective action on the
routing topology. This hysteretic optimizing process could be run until it converges on correctness or
raises a red flag with a high degree of confidence that a real problem exists.

Our Commitment

Our business model has worked quite well and you can see with this release our commitment to
delivering state-of-the-art productive tools to you. We are really excited about the technology and see
the possibilities limited only by yours and our imaginations.

With the release of the Plugin SDK we have taken another giant step toward openness and look forward
to the prospect that you, the user, may now directly contribute to the product and help guide it into
niches that may otherwise be under-served.

This especially includes the development of translators to and from the various other CAD systems that
you use and know well. We understand you may have a substantial investment in some of these systems
and we are not looking to replace them, only augment your company’s design capacity and flexibility in
the most economical way. We will always provide this ever-improving software for free to equip all
engineers and designers with the tools they need to at least try their ideas at work or at home without
starting in red ink.

Our revenue is realized only when your ideas are realized.

Happy engineering, from Sunstone’s PCB123 division!

18

Part 1 - Getting Started

If this design were music, it would be a Bach Canon

19

Introduction
Who are you and why did you download this software? Are you an electrical engineer with a new idea for
a product? Are you perhaps an expert PCB designer who was just handed a netlist, board outline, and a
set of datasheets and requirements? Maybe you are a hobbyist with a soldering iron and a burning need
to bring to life that cool circuit you found in a magazine.

Your software requirements and your domain knowledge may vary greatly but one thing in common is
the need for designing and ordering circuit boards that work the first time.

Rather than penalize the experienced engineer or designer with a tool aimed at the lowest common
denominator, and rather than traumatize the novice with endless data prep requirements and rigid
methodologies PCB123 provides a great deal of flexibility to get started and many powerful features to
get you to the finish line.

Starting out is easy but reading this guide will allow you to unlock the full power of the software and
greatly increase your productivity. It not only explains the operation of the software but delves into
process, ergonomics, and tricks of the trade.

There are many automatic features that are always present and available but they are designed so as not
to be intrusive or restrictive. For instance, when routing a trace you will instantly get a visual clue if you
create a short to another object or violate minimum spacing requirements. You will not be prevented
from continuing but a small marker is left behind to remind you that there is a problem at that location.
The marker is removed as soon as the violation is cleared.

The software does not second guess your intent. The system performs an extensive design audit before
you submit the design for fabrication but you never have to meet some threshold of system-determined
correctness to order boards. It will not however allow you to specify or design with impossible-to-meet
criteria such as routes that are less than 0.005” thick.

One of the most important reasons for reading this guide before you start an actual design is to prevent
bad habits from forming early by being aware of all the different ways in which you can perform common
editing tasks. For instance, though you can change to a new layer by clicking on a screen element you
will find that it is much more efficient to type the layer number instead. There are many time-saving
shortcuts that are less than obvious by just looking at the screen. Once these shortcuts are learned, you
will find that you can operate at a continuous fast pace with one hand on the keyboard and the other

20

clicking the mouse buttons and spinning that mouse wheel. If your mouse doesn’t have a wheel or
something thereof, we recommend you obtain one to operate at maximum speed. In no time, you will
have memorized the few keyboard accelerators and mouse techniques that comprise the vast majority of
editing operations. After that, editing and other operations such as panning and zooming become so
automatic that you will not even be aware of doing them. In fact, if you use other CAD systems you may
become acutely aware of the extra click or key-press that the other system may require.

The vast majority of editing operations are done with just a few keys and mouse actions. However, there
are also wealth of less common operations that are available by clicking the right mouse button to invoke
context-based menus.

Before we get into specifics, you may find it useful to have PCB123 running to so you can orient this
guide against the actual software. If you run it, you should close the splash screen and the New Board
Wizard that appear on startup.

Just to make sure we are starting

from the same point, you should
see a screen that looks similar to
the image on the left.

Click the File menu and select New,

or click on this toolbar button.

This will invoke the Board

Configuration dialog which will be
discussed later. For now, just press
OK to accept the defaults.

If your screen looks similar to the

picture on the left then you are
ready to explore the design space.

21

Screen Layout
More than one project at a time can be loaded into PCB123 and data can be copied between them. Each
project loaded will appear as a tab at the top of the main window. Only one project can be active at any
time and if more that one is loaded, the active project can be changed
by clicking on its tab. Tabs from a 2-project session are shown left.

Each project will have a minimum of four different views that can be displayed in the main window. They
are Layout, 3D View, BOM (Bill Of Materials), and at least one schematic page. You can navigate between
the views by clicking on the appropriate tab at
the bottom of the main window. The strip of
tabs is shown left.

As you change views, different toolbars will come and go as different views are activated.

To the left of the main window is the Edit Panel. It too

contains a strip of tabs on the bottom as shown to the
left. The Display tab is quite dynamic, changing its contents not only when the main window is switched
between schematics and layout, but when certain types of objects are being edited context panes will be
added and removed that provide various options for the selected object or tool.

The Parts tab allows you to select from the predefined parts that have schematic symbols, layout
footprints, and part properties assigned. Selecting a part displays a preview of the footprint and the
symbol. Double click on a part in the Libraries to add it to your schematic or layout. The Parts In Use
area contains a list of all of the parts that have been added to your project. You can also select parts
from here to place in your project.

The Project tab contains several report generators and a top-level navigator in the form of a tree that
allows you to drill down into the schematic and layout data in minute detail. It also contains many top-
level settings and defaults such as title block parameters that can be set for a project.

The DRC/ERC tab contains a live listing of all the current

design violations in the project.

As you can see, tabs are used extensively to display

applicable tools and information and hide irrelevant tools
and information for a given task.

22

Common functionality
Common functionality really refers to the common operations between the schematic view and the layout
view. The 3D view and BOM view are highly specialized views that demand very little face time. By far,
the design views will receive most of your attention so we will focus on the common functionality
between them.

A good deal of your time in the software will be spent moving the mouse around, poking the keyboard,
and clicking on things. We hope we have created a fairly intuitive user interface but even so, we should
cover some basic behavior.

Pan and Zoom

Because a PCB or a schematic can have a large number of objects packed into a small area it is next to
impossible to do any work while viewing the entire extents of the data. Instead, you will want to be
zoomed into and focused on a small area. Consequently, you will be doing a lot of panning and zooming.
These operations are so common they become reflexive actions - you do not think about it, you just do it.

First, under the View menu a Zoom submenu lists all the commands pertaining to zoom. The first four
commands pertain to the view scale or zoom factor.

Zoom In and Zoom Out magnify and… um… un-magnify the view.
Using the menu commands or their keyboard accelerators, PgUp and
PgDn, scale the zoom factor based on the ubiquitous Golden Ratio
beloved since eternity. Using the mouse wheel scales the zoom factor
by smaller increments.

Zoom All adjusts the zoom factor and view center so the entire board
outline fits within the viewport.

The Zoom Actual Size command, which is not accelerated, relies on

your display hardware to accurately report the number of pixels per
inch of display and uses that factor to scale the view accordingly.

The next four menu items pan, or scroll the view north, east, south, and west. The pan distance using
these menu commands or their keyboard accelerators is the width or height of the window minus a
comfortable overlap figure. Besides the obvious reasons for the overlap, it is interesting to note that
panning by a full window can actually produce a “lost” sensation at times.

The Redraw command will simply refresh the screen. It also rebuilds certain internal lookup tables and in
rare situations, when you add or modify objects so their new extents are double or triple the size of the
board you may find that you cannot pick them until a Redraw is performed or any number of other
commands that trigger a regeneration of the tables is performed.

23

Drilling into submenus is probably not the most efficient way to navigate around a design but Microsoft
recommends standard practices and we try to oblige. The menu also shows the keyboard
accelerators for the zoom commands.

There is also a Zoom toolbar on the right edge of the application. It is lacking buttons for pan but
there are stock scrollbars for that. The button labeled ‘G’ is not actually a zoom command at all. It
is a way to invoke the Grid dialog using the mouse. As with most toolbars, you may hover your
mouse over a button to pop up a tooltip for a brief description of the button’s operation. The Zoom
Toolbar contains some of the lesser used commands such as Refresh Screen, Zoom All, and Zoom
Actual Size. The Zoom Toolbar is for new users who don’t read the manual. You, however, deserve
better.

Most likely you will find that using the keyboard to perform zoom
Refresh Screen operations is superior to the menu and toolbar. The numeric
keypad is dedicated to the zoom functions. The chart on the left
Pan Down
shows the keypad assignments for the different zoom
commands. You will need to turn off Num Lock to use these
Zoom Out
keyboard shortcuts.
Pan Left

Pan Right

Zoom All

Pan Up

Zoom In

By far, the best way to pan and zoom around the design canvas is to use the wheel on your mouse if it
has one. The wheel can accomplish both pan and zoom. To zoom in, roll the wheel forward and to zoom
out, roll it back toward you. The pan behavior is a byproduct of how Zoom In and Out work with the
wheel. Wherever the mouse is pointing in the design window becomes the new viewport center. Zooming
in and out actually does a pan so that whatever you were pointing at is now in the middle of the screen.
The closer the mouse already is to the center, the finer the pan behavior. You point the cursor in the
direction you want to pan and spin the wheel. It becomes very natural in just a short time.

There is one additional behavior to mention, Pan. There are two ways to pan. 1) Hold down the Shift key
while moving the mouse in the main window then the window will smoothly pan in real-time. 2) Hold
down the right mouse button and move your mouse. This second method provides a smoother pan.
Experiment with both to see which you prefer.

Names and Numbers

Objects such as nets and components require unique names. Other objects may be optionally named or,
in the case of PCB component pins, if they are named the names must be unique just within the
component. In general, most objects that require a name will in fact have a name auto-generated during
interactive design. Object names will be upper case and they currently will be restricted to the ANSI

24

character set due to the stroked font requirements for Gerber data. There are no restrictions on name
lengths.

In general, if you name an object do not include any spaces or other non-printable characters in the
name. Whitespace, ‘|’, ‘&’, ‘[‘, and ‘]’ are reserved characters and will be replaced with an underscore ‘_’.

Unless absolutely necessary, names should not begin with numerical digits. There is nothing inherent in
PCB123 for this, but names that begin with numbers may generate XML validation errors in 3rd party
Plugins or future PCB123 facilities.

The basic unit of measurement internal to PCB123 is 1/10,000,000th of an inch (one ten-millionth). This
ensures that no conversion routines are required when switching between metric and imperial user units
as the round off is insignificant. It does however mean that the extent of the world coordinate system is
limited to +/- 200 inches as coordinates are stored as 32-bit integers. A 400-inch domain is more than
sufficient for PCB boards and schematics but be careful if you intend to use the software for other
purposes.

When you supply values for physical parameters and coordinates, the values you enter are assumed to
be in whatever the current system units are in. Additionally, four suffixes may be used when entering
numeric data that allow an absolute unit basis to be specified. The table below lists these suffixes and
shows examples of their use.

Suffix Description Example

in Inches 0.109in, -0.00002in
mil Mils (1,000th of an inch) 109mil, -0.02mil
cm Centimeters 0.27686cm, -0.0000508cm
mm Millimeters 2.7686mm, 0.000508mm

Anywhere the system asks for a physical value such as the Grid dialog box or a pad size form, you can
perform local overrides of the current system units by supplying the appropriate suffix with the value.

Function Description Any physical value can be

abs(n) Absolute value of n entered as an expression so
acos(n) Arccosine (in degrees) of n long as the terms are all in the
asin(n) Arcsine (in degrees) of n same units. Expressions obey
atan(n) Arctangent (in degrees) of n the C/C++ (normal) rules of
sin(deg) sine of (degrees) deg
operator precedence and
cos(deg) cosine of (degrees) deg
associatively. Besides the
tan(deg) tangent of (degrees) deg
log(n) Natural log of n arithmetic operators +, -, *, /,
log10(n) Base-10 log of n and % (mod) the table to the
log2(n) Base-2 log of n left lists the functions that can
sqrt(n) Square root of n be used in an expression.

The ability to use expressions can come in very handy when creating footprints since most mechanical
drawings of parts use relative dimensioning.

The following table shows several examples for converting between polar coordinates and Cartesian
coordinates.

25

 Objective problem What to type (in red)
To locate an object at 15 degrees on a circle centered at (0, 0) X = 2in*cos(15)
and has a radius of 2 inches. Y = 2in*sin(15)
To locate an object at 15 degrees on a circle centered at (4 X=(2in*cos(15))+4.0
inches, 2 inches) and has a radius of 2 inches. Y=(2in*sin(15))+2.0

Selection

Important: PCB123 differs from many applications in how it treats a mouse click, where a click means
pressing and releasing the left mouse button. In many popular applications, clicking on an object selects
that object and waits for some operation to be performed on it.

In PCB123 a click almost universally selects the object and immediately assumes a move operation on it –
it is essentially tied to the cursor until another click releases it. If you hold down the Ctrl key when
clicking on an object then it behaves like other applications and simply performs a select on it. In fact,
multiple objects can be clicked and selected (or deselected) by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking
objects.

The way other applications accommodate an immediate move operation on an object is with a mouse
drag, which involves pressing the left mouse button and moving the mouse while the button remains
depressed. In most cases, PCB123 will accommodate that behavior too.

The reason for the departure from standard click behavior is for sheer efficiency. A schematic document
and especially a PCB document may contain many objects – tens of thousands in some cases. For this
reason, any paradigm that shaves a click off an operation translates into a large cumulative gain in
productivity. The details of the efficiency gains are covered under Object Editing later in this document.

As you move the cursor over objects in the design

window you will notice they become temporarily
highlighted. This is just a visual acknowledgement of
which object will be selected if you were to click on it. If
you let the cursor hover over an object you will get a
tooltip displaying various properties of the object. The
tooltip is translucent so as not to fully obscure objects
beneath it. The image to the left shows a highlighted wire
and its properties in a tooltip.

Holding the Ctrl key down while clicking on objects

performs a disjoined selection. Perform a continuous
selection by sweeping out a rectangular area that
involves pressing the left mouse button down on a spot
that contains no objects, dragging until the rectangle
encompasses the objects you wish to select, and then releasing the left mouse button. Hold down the
Ctrl key while doing so toggles the selection state of the objects.

26

Objects are not automatically selectable. Objects that are set to invisible, either by object type or layer
visibility will not highlight, nor are they selectable.

Additionally, the Layout view has a toolbar, shown at right,

which allows the selection of PCB object types to be toggled on
or off. This can be very useful to prevent the accidental
selection of some object types while performing certain tasks.
For instance, while routing traces it can be a nuisance to miss
picking a track by just a little and picking a component instead
because it will begin moving the component off of any existing
routes to the component pins. Of course you can always cancel
the operation.

Context Menus

Pressing the Right Mouse Button (RMB) will always display

a context menu populated with commands that are
applicable to the current selection. If nothing was selected
then an implied selection is carried out on the object the
cursor was pointing to when the RMB occurred.

Like the tooltip, the context menu (shown left) is

translucent to prevent objects underneath the menu from
being obscured.

If several different types of objects are selected, the

context menu may contain submenus for commands that
operate on the different object types. Submenus are
indicated by a right-pointing, right-justified arrow and will
be displayed when the menu item is highlighted.

In addition to the mouse, the arrow keys may be used to select different menu items.

While a menu is active, all other activity in PCB123 is suspended until a menu selection is made or the
menu cancelled.

Commands

PCB123 supports most of the common Windows editing commands such as Cut, Copy, and Paste.
Currently, these commands are specialized to perform data interchange only between PCB123
documents. Undo and Redo is fully supported in PCB123.

27

Starting a New Design
As previously mentioned, PCB123 attempts to accommodate a wide audience of which everyone,
regardless of experience, needs to design a PCB. Your project may be using the most common off-the-
shelf components and may need to fit in a standard housing but you still need to design that one custom
part - the PCB. Because it is custom, the burden falls largely on you to ensure its correct design and
operation. Good design software and good design practices will greatly aid you in this effort.

PCB123 allows for the specification of rules that can ensure manufacturability and design continuity.
Some of these rules can even be used to guarantee adherence to certain standards bodies’ rules such as
the UL requirements for minimum spacing between nets of certain voltage potentials.

There are issues associated with PCB design that can be extremely complex and are beyond the scope of
this guide. As a rule of thumb, if you need to incorporate the electrical or temporal effects that the PCB
has on nets as a function of the routing topology (transmission lines, crosstalk, emissions) then you may
require more sophisticated (and very expensive) layout tools than PCB123 unless you are at an expert
level in such matters. We do not have a button that ensures FCC compliance for your design but we do
have a button that ensures everything is hooked up where it should be and nothing is shorted together.
We also have a facility so you can add a button to ensure FCC compliance of a design by writing a Plugin
that operates on the PCB data in any way you desire.

PCB123 will automatically detect and report many of the problems that may arise during the design
process. Even so, there are many places where the software cannot second-guess intent. How much
checking the software will do, and even how much time the software can save you by performing some
tasks automatically can be a direct result of how much information you supply PCB123 at the start of a
design. First, let us look at the gross tasks involved in designing a board in PCB123.

Overview of PCB design tasks

Here is a quick list of the different tasks involved in designing a PCB. For now, it ignores how the design
data is acquired and input into the system. It assumes you have already designed a schematic in PCB123
or input a netlist from another tool. This is covered in detail in the next section.

The tasks are generally in chronological order but your design or your favorite techniques may differ
slightly. The basic tasks are:

• Using either the New Board Wizard or the Board Configuration Dialog, specify any
manufacturing requirements for your design. These include the number of layers in the design,
whether you desire soldermask and/or silkscreen on your boards, and certain non-standard
requirements such as board thickness or copper weight. Some features are mutually exclusive
and will be clearly indicated as such. All the configuration options can be changed at any time
and are only finalized when ordering. However, some options can greatly impact the design rules
which, if going from a less to a more restrictive set of rules, can be much more difficult to deal
with in the later stages of a design. Examples of this would be specifying less layers than actually
routed on, or changing from standard 1oz. copper to 2.5oz copper which requires greater spacing

28

 and feature sizes to properly etch the thicker copper clad. Incidentally, if you are new to this,
then the concept of “adding layers” or “deleting layers” may be confusing to you. A PCB may
have more than a front layer and a back layer. Two or more circuit boards can be independently
etched and then carefully aligned and glued together, one on top of the other with an insulator
between them. These boards are then drilled as one and the holes are then plated. The plated
holes allow copper from one layer to be connected to copper on different layers. PCB123 handles
2, 4, and 6-layer boards as a standard process. For boards with more layers than that, you are
requested to send the design to Sunstone for quick evaluation. You will then receive back the
same design with the desired number of layers enabled and an adjusted price quote.

• After the basic board configuration has been specified, ensure the size and shape of your board
outline is correct. Closely associated with this is to correctly define and position any mounting
holes or other hardware and to position any fixed electrical devices such as connectors, LEDs,
and switches. In short, make sure the board will fit in a chassis or enclosure, that it can be
secured in place if needed, and that any lights or dials that mount on the PCB are visible or
accessible through openings in the enclosure.

• Identify the electronic components that your design will use and either map them to “footprints”
from our supplied libraries or create any custom footprints as needed. A footprint is a reusable
stencil that defines the pattern of copper pads, drill holes, and silkscreen information such as the
component outline and a reference designator (name) for the component.

• Place all the components on the board so they don’t overlap or violate any special criteria that
you may have such as height restrictions or proximity requirements such as locating filters near
connectors or other sources. Once the critical mechanical and electrical requirements have been
considered, the remaining components typically want to be placed in a way that minimizes the
overall interconnect distance between components. Some components may require additional
room around them to ensure all pins can be connected with routes. It is also desirable to place
the components on as coarse a grid as possible. If all the pads are on a regular grid, then routing
the board is much faster and easier because you will not have to make as many small bends
around pads.

• Distribute power and ground. Ensure the supply pins on semiconductors are properly decoupled
by placing decoupling capacitors in close proximity to the supply pins. Bulk decoupling or filtering
may want to happen close to the connector pins or devices supplying power to the entire board.
If the board will have dedicated copper plane layers for power and ground then those nets
should be assigned to the proper plane layers. If two or more nets are to share a plane layer but
still be isolated from each other (called a split plane) then the isolation needs to be manually
drawn on that plane layer. Surface mounted devices may need to have their power and ground
pins routed out to a plated-through-hole that ties the surface pad to a plane layer. If the power
and ground is to be distributed with routes and not plane layers, then they should be routed
using traces that are wide enough to handle the required amount of power. Redundant routing in
the form of a matrix may also be desired at the board extremities or at some regular interval to
keep voltage levels uniform across all devices.

29

• If any signal nets have critical requirements such as complimentary routing or matched/critical
length, or they require special attention such as pin-to-pin route sequencing, then these nets
should be routed before other nets.

• Route all the remaining interconnections. This can be the most time consuming task in PCB
design and there are many strategies that can be used. One strategy that is almost always a
winner is to assign a direction to a routing layer. There can be a lot of flexibility in this, but by
routing mostly vertical on one layer, and horizontal on a different layer, you will be much less
likely to create blockages for layer routing. The layers will have a “flow” to them and changing
between layers by using vias as the routing direction changes can typically utilize the layers much
more efficiently. If your design is moderately to very dense, and a sizable percentage of it uses
surface mounted devices, then you can expect that the surface layer(s) will be consumed by
short routes that escape a surface pin to a via (a plated drill hole) to effectively allow that pin to
be routed on any layer. This process is known as Fanout routing and should be done before bulk
routing. It is not only a time saver for bulk routing but can be an early indicator of problems. If
you cannot fanout a device then you most likely will not be able to completely route that device
without making more room around it, adjusting its location, or adding more routing layers. It is
much better to discover these kinds of problems earlier than later. Moving a component after it
has been routed hurts more than moving it before it was routed. Additionally, you may have
struggled to route most of a dense design only to find that you need two more routing layers to
complete the rest of it. Knowing this up front would have made the routing easier right from the
beginning.

• When all routing is finished, you may wish to improve power and ground distribution or provide
ground shielding by flooding regions of the board with a copper plane that is tied to a power or
ground net. Any object in the region that does not belong to a net, or has a net other than that
of the copper region will be automatically isolated from the copper region. These regions are
collectively known as copper pour.

• The next task will be to perform a Design Rule Check (DRC) and address any problems that it
may have uncovered. The DRC will report on shorts, opens, and violations of manufacturing rules
such as minimum spacing between objects of different nets, and pad size vs. drill size violations.
Some reported violations such as problems with the silkscreen can be ignored at this stage but
certainly DRC violations on routing layers and plane layers should be addressed.

• If your board is to have silkscreen on it, then you will want to place the component reference
designators so they can be seen after the board is populated with components. This usually
involves moving the reference designators outside the component outlines but close enough to
the correct component to prevent an ambiguous reading of which name belongs to which
component. You may also wish to add other nomenclature to your design such as the name of
the board, a company logo, jumper configurations, or other wording or drawings. Nomenclature
can be added to copper layers and silkscreen layers. If text is added to the bottom routing layer
or bottom silkscreen then that text should be “mirrored” so it will read correctly when the
finished board is flipped over in your hand to observe the back. After adding your nomenclature,
you will want to run an additional DRC to make sure you didn’t short anything together or create
silkscreen on any pads.

30

 • As a final check, you may wish to view your design in 3-D. PCB123’s photorealistic 3-D viewer
may allow you to visually spot problems that DRC assumes are correct. Because it displays the
board in perspective and from any viewing angle, certain errors such as wrong/missing drill sizes
or unreadable silkscreen text tend to really stand out compared to looking only at the orthogonal
2-D view. Once you are satisfied that it looks correct and DRC is reporting no errors then you can
press the Order button which guides you through the order process. Depending on the board
complexity and the time of day you placed the order, you will receive your boards anywhere from
2-5 business days later.

Data Requirements

PCB123 provides a host of tools to complete all the different tasks but many of them are highly
dependent on how you specify or acquire the design data. This can be broken into two methods: with a
schematic, or without a schematic. To be even more specific, your design has been “captured” inside a
schematic program, or your design resides on a napkin, in a picture, or in your head.

It takes effort to capture a design with schematic software but this effort usually pays great dividends.
Unless your design is extremely simple and involves only a few parts, it is strongly recommended that
you create an electronic schematic of the design before attempting layout. PCB123 provides a schematic
capture facility that works in lock-step with its layout facility. In addition, PCB123 also is capable of
reading and importing netlists that have been generated by other schematic capture programs.

In case you are unfamiliar, a netlist is a file that lists all the components used in a design and defines
how those components are connected together. A component, or part, is usually specified in a netlist as a
name/type pair. A component name, or reference designator, typically consists of an alpha prefix and a
numerical suffix such as R1 or U15. Reference designators must be unique in a design. The component
type, or part type, might appear as anything from a proprietary description such as RES_33-OHM_1/4W
to a manufacturer’s part number such as SN74LS00N. In some cases, the component may also be
augmented with additional data such as the name of a standard package or footprint for the part. After
all, a 33-ohm, ¼ watt resistor can come in many physical sizes and shapes. The connectivity information
in a netlist is usually specified at the “net” level. A net has a name such as +5V, GND, or RESET, and has
a list of one or more “nodes” or pins in the form of R1.2, which reads “pin 2 of component R1.” A net
with one node is legal but unusual. The vast majority of nets consist of two or more nodes. A net with
two or more nodes inside PCB123 will be displayed as pin-to-pin wires that must be connected by a
continuous copper path or plane.

Until PCB123 V3, a netlist was the traditional data transport from a schematic program to a layout
program. For the first time, PCB123 eliminates the netlist as a data transport as long as the schematic
was designed in, or converted to a PCB123 schematic. A schematic designed in PCB123 has a more
intimate relationship with the layout than does a netlist from another program. Using a netlist from a
different schematic program has the following disadvantages:

• A netlist is a static snapshot of a schematic at a particular moment in time. If changes are made
to the schematic then a new netlist must be generated that reflects the changes. If the PCB
layout is already in progress, then the PCB must be synchronized with the new netlist. Luckily

31

 there are facilities for this but if the schematic was created in PCB123 to begin with, any change
to it is instantly reflected in the layout and vice-versa.

• A netlist is not certain to contain part references that are known to PCB123. These unknown
references must be resolved. This can actually be done interactively while reading the netlist
because whenever an unknown part type is encountered, you will be presented with a browser
that allows you to find and graphically verify a footprint from a library to use for the part type. A
native PCB123 schematic, on the other hand, will not even allow a schematic symbol to be placed
on a page unless it has already defined the PCB footprint it uses, and verifies that the footprint
can be found in the library.

• Very little context from the schematic is retained in a netlist. That a net is connected to a power
or ground symbol is not reflected in the netlist. If it were, then that net could automatically be
made to use fatter routing widths. A PCB123 schematic automatically uses that kind of contextual
information to adjust the layout rules as needed. A netlist is also missing proximity information or
any data that indicates how the schematic was organized by page or through a hierarchy. This
information is expected to be widely used in future releases of PCB123 for such things a
grouping, replication, and as hints to the autoplacer.

• Changes initiated from the PCB design, such as adding a decoupling capacitor, must be manually
performed over in the other schematic program. If this is not done then there will be a mismatch
when comparing the two databases and performing another netlist comparison will run the risk of
undoing the changes, in this case deleting the newly added decoupling capacitor. As mentioned
before, PCB123 always synchronizes changes from either side to the other. There is nothing to
remember or relay to someone else.

Despite the disadvantages listed above, using a netlist from another system is far superior than designing
a PCB without one. Most schematic programs have some facility for performing an Electrical Rules Check.
This can flush out logic errors very early by detecting such things as outputs connected to outputs or
anything connected to a pin designated as N/C (not connected). Many schematic programs also host
simulators that can verify the correct operation and timing of circuits. Additionally, capturing your design
in a PCB123 schematic or in a netlist allows automated tools in layout such as the autoplacer and
autorouter to be used. These tools can save hours or days of labor or they can also be used for early
decision-making and early identification of problems.

Though PCB123 allows you to create your PCB design using piecewise primitives such as individual pads
and line segments, it is not recommended except in the most trivial designs. These designs miss the
benefits of context checking and many powerful automatic tools.

32

The New-Board Wizard

When you first run PCB123, you will first see either a “Latest Information” window or a “Checking for
Updates” window, both that assume a connection to the internet. If the computer is not connected to the
internet, then a message indicating that fact is displayed.

The “Latest Information” window is a small web page that is periodically updated to reflect new services,
promotions or important notices.

Every so often, the software checks if a new version is available for download. If a new version is
available, a summary of new features and bug fixes is presented along with the option of downloading
and installing the new version. If you continue to run with older software, you will be asked to update
about every tenth time you run the software. You can always check for, and install new updates yourself
from the PCB123 menu.

After dismissing the “Latest Information” or “Checking for Updates” window, you will be presented with
the first step of the “New Board Wizard”. If you want to load an existing design or just start fiddling with
the software, you can click the Cancel button or press the Esc key to dismiss the wizard.

The New Board Wizard is primarily for new users but many find it useful to begin a new design no matter
how long they have used the system. The Wizard has been carried forward from version 2 to version 3
virtually untouched, which makes it a highly board-centric feature. It never even mentions the word
‘Schematic’ once and PCB123 reserves the right to change the Wizard in the future to make it more
Project-centric as other Project-level behavior is defined or requested.

The New Board Wizard has 4 pages of which the first one is shown below:

The Board Name field is

essentially the title of your new
design and can be anything as long
as it is not empty.

The Netlist File field is optional. If

you have captured your design in a
schematic program other than
PCB123, then you can either type
the name of the netlist file or,
more likely, click on the Browse..
button to invoke a standard
Windows file dialog box that allows
you to navigate to the file. If you
do click the browse button, the
‘Files of Type’ will list all the netlist
formats currently recognized by
PCB123. The netlist will not be read until the wizard is finished.

33

Clicking on the Next button brings you to step 2 as shown below:

You have a choice of defining your board size by entering a rectangular width and height for your
board or selecting an existing board template supplied by Sunstone, a third party, or created previously
by you. When selecting templates, you will get a postage-stamp preview of the template.

Templates most likely will contain a board outline but may also contain tooling holes, dimension lines,
title blocks, and even components such as connectors. Because a netlist may define a component and a
template may define a component there exists the possibility for a conflict. If they both attempt to load in
a component with the same name, then the component in the template wins and will be used in place of
the one in the netlist. A warning will be issued to that effect. The template component wins because it
contains a more complete specification by including location, rotation, and board-side data.

Step three is where you specify the number of layers in your design and how those layers are used. It
appears below:

34

In the Number of Layers section, you can select two, four, or six layers for your design. The default is
two layers. Selecting more than two layers will enable the Inner Layer Type options. You may need
more than two layers because of a mechanical requirements such as high component and interconnect
density and unfavorable interconnect topology, or for electrical reasons such as cleaner power
distribution and transient return paths, or to form transmission lines on critical nets.

You will have to specify which nets are assigned to the plane layers. Any pin belonging to the specified
nets will tie to the plane at a plated hole.

This plane connection does not occur against a solid plane, but instead the plated hole has an isolation
gap around it with “spokes” that bridge the gap at certain places. This isolation prevents the plane layer
from sinking too much heat during soldering. It focuses the heat on the pin and allows for a clean solder
bond.

35

Step four allows you specify additional board fabrication options as shown below:

Depending on the number of layers you selected in step three, you may or may not be able to check and
uncheck the Soldermask button. A six layer board always has a solder mask.

Checking soldermask will enable the Silkscreen button. Checking silkscreen will not increase the price of
your board unless you also choose to have silkscreen on the back of the board. This can be specified in
the Board Configuration Dialog.

The PCB Thickness selection allows you to choose between two thicknesses under certain
circumstances. By default your board will be 0.062” thick. That is a highly typical board thickness. If your
board is only two layers, has soldermask, and is using standard 1oz. copper weight then you have the
option of specifying a half-thickness board of 0.031”. You most likely only want to check this if your board
is small in area because the thinner board material is susceptible to warping and curling, especially if
there is an imbalance of copper clad from one side of the board to the other. You most likely will choose
a thin board when weight is of primary concern or if a small amount of board flex is required.

36

The Copper Weight selection allows you to choose between two different copper clad weights, but only
under specific circumstances. By default your board will have standard 1oz. copper weight but if your
design has two layers, soldermask, and is using 0.062” thick material you will have the option of
specifying a heavier 2.5oz weight copper clad. The unit measurement of weight represents the number of
ounces of copper per some square area. The heavier weight is due to a thicker clad. The thicker clad can
carry more current but it comes at the price of increased feature size. Trace width, pad annular size, and
spacing requirements all increase by nearly double. The nominal copper line thickness increases from
0.006” to 0.013”.

Checking the Lead Free checkbox specifies that your design is to use the RoHS fabrication process. This
option is free. If your design includes surface mounted components that have high pin counts, such as a
BGA, then it is recommended that you check this box because the RoHS process results in superior pad
planarity (flat surface).

When you click the Finish button, any specified board templates and netlists are loaded. You may be
prompted to select which footprint to use for components whose part type is not found in any library or
alias list.

A good deal of checking is performed while loading a netlist and if errors are found they will be reported
but they will not prevent a design from being created. This may result in a partial load of the netlist so
the error log should be checked carefully. It is possible that a netlist format emitted by some host system
has changed slightly or does not conform to previously encountered formats. The netlist readers are
designed to recover from encounters with unknown data and will attempt to re-sync on known data.
Because of this, a netlist may load with errors but the errors are just benign data that the reader did not
expect. In any case, check everything carefully when errors are encountered and we encourage you to
send us netlists that may have tripped up the system so we can update the reader for that format.

Starting Without the New-Board Wizard

You can skip the New-Board Wizard and just select File-New or click the icon in the main
toolbar. This will present you with the Board Configuration Dialog which is a compact version of
the New-Board Wizard. It too allows a netlist to be specified when invoked in response to File/New. The
netlist field will subsequently be disabled if this dialog is invoked after a new design has been created.
Only the board configuration options will be enabled and can be modified at any time.

Results of Creating a New Design

When the Wizard completes, or the Board Configuration Dialog is dismissed, the system will have created
a new design document with the requested number of routing and plane layers, the specified rectangular
board or selected board template, and any components and nets specified by either the board template
or the netlist.

If a netlist was specified and called in components and nets, then, one or more special schematic pages
will have been created that contain an auto-generated symbol for every component on the board. The
pins of these symbols may be tied to global ports with the same name as the nets on the board. You will
essentially have a matching PCB123 schematic that you can use going forward, though you may also

37

continue using the original schematic and synchronizing any changes with a netlist. The last task that is
performed after loading a netlist will be to run the autoplacer for an initial component spread. It is
possible the autoplacer will warn you about the parts not fitting on the board if it is too small to contain
all the parts as specified.

If no netlist or board template was specified when creating the new design document, then the only
database objects created will have been a board outline and a single schematic page named “Main
Schematic”. In this case, you can immediately begin designing in one of two ways: smart and safe, or
quick and dirty.

• The smart and safe method has you switching to the new schematic page to begin your
schematic design.
• The quick and dirty way has you manually instantiating components and routing them with the
Freestyle routing tool.

Using either method will result in the complimentary view being updated as changes are made, but the
information model is not completely symmetric between the two design methods. A maximum
information model is created in both the physical (layout) and logical (schematic) views when objects are
created from inside the schematic and not from inside the layout. This is obvious in the case of adding a
component to the design. If done from the schematic, the component is most likely defined by a symbol
or symbols (in the event of gates) that symbol may be richly attributed with component metadata such
as value, tolerance, manufacturer’s part number etc. This data will be reflected in such items as the Bill of
Materials (BOM). The symbol will also have a reference to the specific PCB footprint to use.

On the other hand, a component that is instantiated inside layout can only auto-generate a
corresponding schematic symbol. That symbol will appear as a rectangular box with pins sticking out of
it. In the worst case it will only be endowed with a reference designator and a footprint attribute such as
SOIC-14. You may instantiate two different resistors inside layout and correctly use them without regard
to their possibly different values. This may result in a nearly useless BOM because the two resistors will
appear on the same line item without any indication as to their values. The logical and physical views
may be isomorphic in regards to electrical continuity, but they are quite different in visual appeal and
accurate part metadata.

Default Settings

Whenever, and however, you create a new design, there are a number of software settings that obtain a
default value. Most, if not all of these settings are stored directly in a design file when you save a design
but how they get their initial values and how the values are subsequently changed is worth mentioning.
These settings include display colors and visibility for layers and objects, the current working grid, angle
snap grid, full-screen cursor display and a host of other settings. Though these setting are per-document
settings, you can specify the values to be used as the default values when a new design is created. This
is done through the User Preferences dialog.

This dialog contains several pages of controls to adjust various system settings. In addition, it contains
buttons at the bottom that allow the entire collection of settings to be saved as a Preference File or a
Preference File to be loaded. It also allows a new set of defaults to be established for new designs.

38

PCB123 Directories

When you install the software, whatever directory you specified for the installation is only where the
program files were installed.

In addition, a directory tree will be created under

Windows xp: Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\PCB123 or

Windows 7/8: ProgramData\PCB123 on the system drive.

Depending on your system settings, this directory may be hidden from you. However,
the PCB123 Installer has created a link file in your My Documents folder named
PCB123 Files. Double-clicking on this file will open a Windows Explorer set to the
above directory. You should see a list of files and folders similar to that show on the
left.

Here is a brief description of the folders:

• BackupFiles – This folder is where the interval backups are stored. While you design with
PCB123, a backup of your work is done every 10 minutes. The backup filename if the design
name plus _Backup#, where # is 1 through 5. A revolving set of the last 5 backups are
maintained, with #1 being the most recent. Additionally, if the software crashes, your design will
be saved with _Crash appended to the design name. Incidentally, Sunstone has never had a
report of lost work or a corrupted design file. Many safeguards are in place for just such an
occurrence.
• Lib – This is where the system libraries are installed. Inside this folder, there is a folder named
Custom, which is where any libraries that you create will be stored.
• Designs – This folder has been created for your convenience. You are not required to use it.
• Preferences and BoardTemplates – These directories store saved User Preference sets and
Board Templates. There are features in the software that deal with these directories.

39

Part 2 - Schematic User Guide

40

The Schematic/PCB Contract

A little background

PCB123’s purpose for being is to create a win-win situation for all parties. Customers download the free
software and use it to design their products with a guarantee that, so long as they stay within the system
parameters, the PCB’s will work as designed.

Because the software is developed and maintained on site, Sunstone can continually assess and react
both to the customer’s needs and to its own internal needs. The business model has allowed a somewhat
non-traditional approach to CAD software development. Because revenue derives from the use of the
software and not the sale of the software, less emphasis is placed on software features and more on
software throughput. We do not have to beat some competitor by providing a larger bullet list of esoteric
features than the other vendor just to make a sale, but we do have to ensure that everyone from a
novice to an expert can get through their designs to press the Order button. Because we know who will
be processing and manufacturing the design (us) we can make certain assumptions where it might
simplify the design process for PCB123 users.

This is all wonderful but there comes a point at which we (Sunstone) have to decide how far to take it.
The software cannot outpace our manufacturing capabilities, and because customer support is free, we
try to refrain from adding low-use features that clutter the software for novices or complex features that
are deemed likely to generate a high volume of calls for instructions. There are both good and bad
aspects to this method. An example is the autoplacer tool; the only interface to it is the ‘Run Autoplace’
menu item. If you can click on a menu then you have met the threshold required to use it. This is simple
for you and results in predictably less support needed by us. We could expose many of the internal
settings that would allow the precisely control the autoplacer, but we know the performance gain that
you may realize is too small to justify all the support calls that a dialog box with a bunch of strange
settings would generate. Instead, we carefully pick the best values for the most typical boards. Either
running the tool will help you, or you select Undo. Unless we can provide a set of options that will affect
some major change in strategy, then it would probably not be fair to expose you to something that may
burn your time trying to get some last magic adjustment to what is supposed to be a tool for “roughing
in” an initial component placement. Win-win is the goal.

Generally, software that we develop will have wide appeal, general use, or transparent behavior. The
new Plug-in development environment was, in a way, developed as the ultimate general use feature and
a way forward for developing those esoteric tools that you may desire. You can write tools yourself, and
it will probably be just a matter of time before a tool development community forms around the SDK.

This does not mean we aim at the lowest common denominator. In fact, it is just the opposite. Because
our goals are different from those of a traditional CAD vendor, we sometimes arrive at solutions to
problems that are quite different from the “traditional” way.

PCB123 Version 5 is a direct result of looking at the problem from a different angle. We know why
customers will use the schematic; they will use it with the goal of creating PCB’s. Nothing was done to
preclude the addition of simulators later on, but by admitting that we were creating a schematic capture

41

tool as a front-end for PCB design, we have allowed ourselves to color outside the lines of tradition and
see if maybe there is a better way to do the task.

Until now, PCB123 shipped a schematic capture application that was a third-party OEM product not
directly developed or maintained by Sunstone. With every new release of PCB123, the schematic
application fell behind in capabilities compared to the layout software. It also became a proportionally
larger source of customer support issues. Serious consideration was given to just scrapping the schematic
product, directing customers to freeware schematic applications and merely writing netlist importers for
the layout software. The problem with that was our usage statistics did not support abandoning a
schematic point tool – not everyone used PCB123 Schematic, but enough people did that we couldn’t just
drop the functionality. The clincher was this: we could find no free schematic program that we were
comfortable recommending.

And so it was decided that a new schematic program should be created in-house and that we should aim
it at being highly PCB-centric and, keeping with the model, should take advantage wherever it could to
increase throughput for customers.

We like win-win situations and it seemed to make sense that we create the schematic application right
inside the PCB123 application. We would be able to leverage the existing software framework and users
would not have to be flipping between applications.

This led to some deep questions about the traditional interface between a schematic and a PCB. With the
two applications residing in the same framework, using a netlist for transferring data seemed to be a
contrived solution. Why not have the PCB and schematic synchronized at all times? If both applications
were tightly integrated, they could share so much more than a netlist.

For it to work, a couple of rules had to be established. They are simple, require no extra steps by you,
the customer, and are largely automatic.

The Design-by-contract solution

Design-by-contract, as applied by PCB123, simply outlines a set of requirements that must be met before
some operation can be completed. For instance, one requirement for placing a symbol on a schematic
page is that the symbol must identify the PCB footprint that it uses. Otherwise, the PCB would not be
able to synchronize with the schematic without complaining. Why allow a symbol that is missing critical
data to be used? Why not provide the means for supplying the data either automatically or though low-
pain facilities in the program?

Binding a footprint to a schematic symbol should perform the necessary checking to ensure the symbol
pin numbers match the PCB footprint pin numbers.

Another rule for placing a symbol is that it must have a design-wide unique reference designator
(component name). That rule is a perfect candidate for automating.

Notice above we only mention restricting the placement of a symbol instance with an incomplete or
invalid symbol, we say nothing about the creation of one! So why allow a symbol to be created unless it
fulfills a requirements contract? The answer to that is simple: some schematic symbols, such as a
resistor, live up to their names and are completely symbolic. The same resistor symbol can be shared by

42

many thousands of different parts that physically have various shapes and sizes. It would be ridiculous to
have to create the same schematic resistor symbol for every different size resistor. Conversely, there are
common chip packages that are shared by thousands of different chips, but each one may require a
unique schematic symbol. An elegant solution to these problems was worked out so that the fulfillment of
the symbol contract requirements happens even while providing the flexibility for symbol reuse. This will
be covered in detail under Symbols and Parts.

All this talk of contracts and requirements may sound restrictive, but that is not the case. Most contract
requirements, such as the unique reference designator requirement mentioned above, are automatically
fulfilled by the software. The only time a requirement might bubble up as an action for the user are a
couple of situations where the user would have to eventually resolve the problem anyway.

So far, we have only been talking about changes in the schematic initiating changes to the layout but the
reverse must be accommodated too. Changes must be allowed to happen from both the schematic and
the layout tool and synchronization should be bidirectional. It is reasonable to expect a component such
as a decoupling capacitor to be added from within the layout tool. This operation requires that a
schematic symbol representing the PCB component be added to the schematic in order for the two sides
to match. The problem is, which symbol should it use? To expect that a PCB footprint would contain a
reference to a schematic symbol for it to use does not even make sense. To accommodate this, a couple
of services had to be created in the software.

The first service is a generic-symbol generator. At a minimum, it creates a rectangular symbol with a
reference designator and one symbol pin for every package pin found in the footprint.

The other service needed by the software is the generation of special schematic pages called Sync pages.
Parts added from Layout are automatically placed on sync pages. These are just like normal pages except
they maintain internal bookkeeping for where to place the next auto-generated part. Connections
between pins (edges in the graphs) are not mapped, nor need to be mapped between the PCB and the
schematic but the nodes (pins) do. The main reason Sync pages are differentiated from regular pages is
they are considered under system control. You should not manually add parts on these pages. Nothing
dangerous should happen, it’s just that a future auto-generated part may be placed on top of your part.

If a new connection is added to a pin in the PCB, then a

Global port is added and attached to the pin in the
schematic. This will happen on whatever page the pin is
on, and is not limited to a sync page. Global ports are
identical in operation to power and ground port symbols in
that they expose a net name for global use. A picture of an
automatically-generated symbol wired with global ports is
shown to the left.

Besides detecting when new objects are added to the design, the software must also accommodate
object deletions and modifications. Deletions are very straightforward, as nothing has to be synthesized
or de-referenced. There is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence between deleted objects from
both sides. Deleting a component from Layout may result in several gates being deleted from the
schematic. Conversely, deleting a gate from the schematic may not delete a component in the PCB if

43

there are other gates from the same part still in use. The pins used by that gate will certainly be
disconnected from any nets in the PCB.

There is a use case that you may have noticed and are worried about: If you want to perform a simple
cosmetic operation such as cutting a circuit from one page and pasting it into another page in the
schematic then this operation as describe above would do catastrophic damage to the existing PCB
layout. The moment the circuit was cut from the original page, all the components and routing in that
circuit would be removed from the PCB. Then, when you added it back in to the destination page all
those parts and their connections would be added to the PCB at the system origin. Fortunately, PCB123
deals with this situation just fine. The only restriction is that the operation must be performed during a
single session in the software. You cannot cut, then exit the software, or even close the design and
expect it to paste successfully in a later session.

Special note: Some object modifications are not directly allowed. Luckily, these are rarely required. One
example is you cannot simply change the footprint reference in an already-placed schematic symbol and
expect a new footprint to be swapped into use for the corresponding PCB component. To perform this
operation, you are forced to delete the old symbol and add it back in with a symbol that specifies the new
footprint reference. This ensures that the contract requirements are satisfied in a standard order. If the
part you wish to switch to is in the Library of parts you can switch the part out from the layout.

Go to the layout footprint, right click and select properties. On the components tab type in the new part
name in the Part Name field and press tab. If the part name is found in the Libraries you will be
prompted to update the selected part. If you have multiple parts that need to change to a specific part
you can use Ctrl + click to select the group and use the steps listed above to update them. Using this
workaround may change some wires to ports on the schematic side. These steps will update, the symbol,
footprint, and BOM entries with the new part information.

Properties
A property is a named piece of data. It is the most primitive type of object in the system and every type
of schematic object in PCB123 can act as a container for an arbitrary amount of data in the form of
properties. A property is either a user-defined property or a system-defined property. There is no
difference between the two types of properties other than system-defined properties will be actively
interpreted by the software.

The only restriction placed on a property name is that it must begin with a letter or underscore ‘_’, but
property names that begin with an underscore are reserved for system-defined properties and should not
be used for user-defined properties. Property names will always be converted to upper case.

The value of a property is arbitrary. It may represent a color, a size, a picture, or anything else as long as
it can be stored as a string of characters either directly or by some conversion. The character string can
be any length except zero. Setting a property to empty has the effect of removing that property from the
object that it is attached to.

Schematic objects have specific fields that are intrinsic to the object such as a location or rotation field in
a text object. These fields are present in every instance of a text object. Objects may be specified with

44

additional fields that are not intrinsic – they are essentially optional fields. It would be wasteful to store
the font name and font size inside every text object that is displayed. It would be bothersome to change
the font on every piece of text that stored it intrinsically. This is the reason system-defined properties
exist. A system-defined property such as _TEXTFONT can be attached to a text object to specifically set
the font to use when displaying that piece of text. If the property is not present, then some default is
used. Let’s look at how that default is chosen.

Properties exhibit ‘bubbling’ behavior. What this means is that if a property value is requested from an
object and that object does not contain the requested property, then it will forward that request ‘up’ to its
parent and so on. Let’s look at a simplified diagram of the parent-child relationship of a part placed on a
schematic page.

The picture to the right shows that a top-level object called

the Schematic Container is the parent of schematic pages,
which in turn contain children such as parts. A part can be a
container for shapes and pins (among other things).

Attached to the schematic container is a default value for

every system property. They act as a sink for property value
requests that are not honored by child items. When the
system attempts to draw some shape that is owned by a
part, such as the resistor shape on the left, then a request
for the _LINECOLOR property is made of the shape. If the
shape contains a _LINECOLOR property that is set to green,
then the search ends and the line will be drawn in green. If
the shape didn’t have a _LINECOLOR property, the request
is forwarded up to the parent of the shape which is a part.
If the part had a _LINECOLOR property set to purple, then
that becomes the default line color used to draw all shapes
owned by the part that do not specify a _LINECOLOR property. When objects are created, they will use
the default values for many of the various system-defined properties by simply not defining the property
for the object. This means you can change the value of a single property such as _TEXTFONT in the top-
level schematic object and all text will use that font when being drawn unless specifically overridden in an
object.

There are numerous system-defined properties. Most are accessible through the Properties Dialog by
clicking on this icon from the various context panes it appears on, or by right clicking on an object
and selecting properties. In most cases you do not have to deal directly with the property names but
rather their descriptions and many have context sensitive controls such as a color popup if the property
value is a color.

Some properties are read only. In these cases, they will be displayed in gray and cannot be changed.
What use is a read-only property? The answer to that is you can add Text objects that display the value
of a property instead of a static text string. That means a text object can be created that displays the
value of the _NUMPAGES property even though that property is a system-managed value. This will be
covered in detail later on.

45

Symbols and Parts
This section describes the relationship between symbols, sections, parts, footprints, and components.

Wow! That was a mouthful. Isn’t this supposed to be a simpler system? The answer is yes, but
allowances have been made to accommodate a high degree of structure, and that in turn can aid
efficiency and increase productivity.

Designing an electronic circuit has traditionally been graphical in nature where the electronic components
used in the circuit were represented by symbols and their interconnections by lines, or “wires”, drawn
between the symbols. Today, many circuits are designed in text editors using structured languages such
as Verilog, VHDL, and C/C++. But that’s if the circuit being designed resides in a chip. Using that chip in
a product still entails hooking it up to the rest of the circuit using a graphical schematic.

When drawn on paper, a schematic can play fast and loose with the level of detail required to convey the
circuit’s intent. Historically, most symbols didn’t need specific pin numbers or pin names and many didn’t
even indicate reference designators -- only a value or a part number.

An electronic version of a schematic is a different story. The reason schematics are drawn using special
schematic capture software is to corral a great deal of information for use by other software programs
such as digital simulators, SPICE simulators, and PCB design systems. The schematic software also
generates BOM (Bill of Materials) reports, various statistical reports, and even performs simple semantic
checking on the circuit.

Half the information contained in a schematic is the interconnection between components by drawn
wires. These interconnects define their own data by where they are drawn or, more specifically, where
they end. They describe the interconnection by conductors (edges) between component pins (nodes). In
graph theory, a set of connected nodes is called a network but the ECAD industry has shortened it to just
net. So there it is: half the information in a schematic is the interconnection of components by connecting
networks of pins with wires. If the other half of the information in a schematic were so simple, you would
only have one more paragraph to read.

Unlike wires, the other half of the information doesn’t describe itself. Luckily, the great majority of the
information is contained in the reusable symbols and parts, which are stored in a library. The rest of the
information is design-specific and most of that is auto-generated.

So what is the other half of the information? The simple answer is part data. A part is more than just a
symbol plopped down on a schematic page.

A Part is assembled from various entities that reside in libraries. The relationship between these libraries
is as follows:

46

 Schematic Symbols PCB Footprints

Part Libraries
custom custom custom custom
custom custom

Each Record
Part Name
Symbol Name/Symbol Lib
Footprint Name/Footprint Lib

Mfg. Name Mfg. #

Digikey # Part Value
Tolerance Description
… …

The part library is a searchable database of parts organized in a flexible hierarchy. It accommodates the
reuse of both schematic symbols and PCB footprints by allowing one library object to participate in many
different parts. It is described in detail below.

Schematic symbols are created in the Symbol Editor and are saved either into the standard symbol library
named std.sym, or into a custom library that you created.

PCB Footprints are created in the Footprint Editor and are saved either into the standard footprint library
named Std.slb or into a custom footprint library that you created.

The single best reason for creating custom symbol and footprint libraries is because the standard libraries
may get overridden during software updates. Sunstone reserves the right to grow the standard libraries
from release to release.

The Parts Data is copied in its entirety from the libraries and into a design. Once an object is loaded into
a design, it becomes fully encapsulated and travels with the design file (does not require that the library
file be present to work with the design.)

If you wish to copy libraries from one machine to another, then you need to know where they are. The
root directory for all library files will be Windows XP: Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application Data\PCB123\Lib or Windows 7/8 Programdata\PCB123\Lib on the system
drive. This directory may be hidden from you but the PCB123 installer should have installed a link named
PCB123 Files in your My Documents folder. The link points to the Windows XP: Documents and
Settings\All Users\Application Data\PCB123 or Windows 7/8 Programdata\PCB123 directory.
Clicking on it will browse to that directory. From there, you will see the Lib subdirectory. Any custom
library that you create will be created in the Lib\Custom subdirectory.

47

Parts

A part is typically an electronic component that is purchased and mounted to a PCB. A part has a logical
manifestation and a physical manifestation. The physical manifestation is a single instance of a PCB
footprint that contains the pad geometries and/or drill hole locations for mounting and soldering the part
on the PCB. The logical manifestation of a part consists of one or more graphic symbols instantiated on a
schematic page or pages. The reason a part may have several schematic symbols is due to some logical
or functional partitioning of the part. PCB123 has adopted the term Section for each partition but you
may also think of them as gates.

A part has a name called a reference designator that is unique throughout an entire design. The
reference designator consists of an alpha prefix and a numerical value. In addition, each section of a
multi-section part will have an alpha suffix that is unique to each section of the part. You have total
freedom to specify the alpha prefix but the numerical value and possible suffix are managed by the
PCB123 software.

Class Prefix Symbol There are standard prefixes for different part
Battery B classes such as resistors and capacitors. The
Capacitor C or table on the left lists the most common part
Diode D, or CR classes along with the prefixes and a typical
Fuse F schematic symbol for that class.
Connector J, or P
Relay K You have the ability to assign a prefix to a
Inductor L, or FB (Ferrite Bead) symbol. All parts that use that symbol will
Transistor Q, or VR (Regulator) have that reference designator prefix.
Resistor R, or RN (Network)
Switch S, or SW Besides a reference designator, one or more
Transformer T symbols, and a PCB footprint specification,
IC or Chip U parts may contain other information such as
Crystal Y, XTAL, OSC a value, tolerance, manufacturer’s part
Zener Diode Z, or D, or CR
number or distributor number such as a
Digikey catalog number. In reality, a part may hold any information you desire. How this extra
information is acquired will be described shortly.

Please refer to the back of this manual for up-to-date information on the naming conventions employed
by the Accelerated Designs Ultralib parts available for use in PCB123 V5.

For now, let’s move on to the role a symbol plays in a part description.

Symbols

A schematic symbol is a collection of primitive objects such as pins, 2-D shapes, and text that are treated
as a single entity and may represent a complete part or one section of a part. Symbols reside in libraries,
where they may be referenced by parts.

48

Some symbols, such as resistors and capacitors, are highly generic and a single symbol may be suitable
to represent thousands of different parts. Other symbols, such as an MCU, may be created that are
unique to just one part. There are even some symbols that are never intended to represent a part at all
but only sections of a part, such as a NAND gate.

There are no hard rules, but in general the more specific a symbol is to a particular device, the more
information you want to bind to it. Conversely, a symbol that will be used for a large assortment of parts
will want to stay reasonably generic in the information it specifies.

Symbols can be drawn by hand using the Symbol Editor or they can be created automatically with the
Part Wizard. Symbols created automatically with the Part Wizard are limited to a rectangular symbol with
pins that can be described in spreadsheet fashion.

Symbol text
Symbols may contain both static and dynamic text objects.
Intrinsic to a text object is a string to display. How that string is
interpreted depends on the text type. If it is static text, then the
string is displayed verbatim and does not change unless a new
string is supplied. Dynamic text will interpret the string as the
name of a property (system-defined or user-defined) and display
the bubbled value for the property name. The symbol on the left
is a highly-generic symbol that has two dynamic strings. When
this symbol is incorporated into a part and that part is placed on
a page, then the _REFDES will be replaced with the actual reference designator for the part and
_PARTNUMMFG will be replaced with the manufacturer’s part number if supplied to the part.

Other intrinsic text fields besides the string include:

• Text Location - The X,Y coordinate for the text origin. The Y origin is always at the top
of the character cell but the X origin depends on the text alignment described below.
• Text Rotation - Either 0 degrees (horizontal text) or 90 degrees for vertical text.
• Text Alignment - Specifies either Left, Center, or Right aligned text. The X origin for the
text will coincide with the left edge, center, or right edge of the text respectively.

The following system-defined properties may be used to affect the display of text objects:

• _TEXTFONT - Specifies the font name to use when drawing the text.
• _TEXTSIZE - Specifies the text height in points. There are 72 points in one inch.
• _TEXTCOLOR - Specifies the color of the text. This is usually set with a color picker but in the
event you gain textual access to this property, you can encode the Red, Green, and Blue values
using the following formula: color = (Red*65536)+(Green*256)+Blue, where each color may
range between 0 and 255. Additionally, you may set a color to invisible by setting it to (or
adding) 2,147,483,648.

49

Symbol shapes
You can add lines, arcs, and regions to symbols. Virtually every display characteristic for shapes are
controlled by attaching system-defined properties to the shape or, to specify them all at once, attaching
the property to the symbol. The system-defined properties that affect the display of shapes are:

_LINEWIDTH – Specifies the width of the line. This is typically selected from a choice but numerically it
is in 100ths of an inch (10 1/100ths of an inch = .1 inches)

_LINECOLOR - Specifies the color of the line or outline.

_LINESTYLE - 0 = solid, 1 = dashed, 2 = dotted, 3 = dot-dashed.

_FILLCOLOR1 - Color to fill the interior of closed regions.

_FILLSTYLE - 0 = hollow, 1 = solid, 2 = horizontal hatched, 3 = diagonal hatched, 4 = cross hatched,

5 = diamond hatched.

Symbol pins
Probably the most important primitive that is included in a symbol is a pin. Pins map a logical port on the
symbol to a physical pin in the footprint. Pins have a hotspot (designated by a small, solid circle) that
provides a tie point for wires.

Graphically, A symbol contains an inside and an outside. The smallest the inside can be is the rectangle
that bounds all drawn shapes in the symbol. Pins will be constrained to the edge of this rectangle and will
always face outward. This provides uniform alignment of the pins and ensures the automatic wire router
has a clean escape from the pins without bumping into shapes.

Intrinsic to pins are:

• Internal pin name – A label for the pin. A pin name must be supplied for a pin. It is
recommended that the names be unique within the symbol but it is not required. This relaxed
rule is to accommodate multiple names such as GND or VCC in a symbol or part. If a pin name
ends with 2 hyphens, or minus signs (‘—‘) , then the hyphens will not be displayed, but rather a
bar will be drawn over the pin name. This is a visual indicator for “NOT”, or inverted.
• External pin number – The pin number of the footprint this pin represents. When creating a
generic symbol that may be used by different footprints, it is not necessary to define a pin
number, as shown in the symbol above. Generic symbols are expected to be assembled into a
part using the Part Wizard. By the time a symbol is used in a part, it must have acquired a
unique pin number for every pin and the pin number must match a pin in the footprint. The
double-hyphen mnemonic does not apply to pin numbers because they have to match up with
the name of a footprint pin. They are called pin numbers but may in fact contain other characters
than digits.
• Pin shape – There are several graphical styles that pin can assume. They are:

Zero Pin Zero-length pin. Not typically used.

50

 Normal Pin No special meaning attributed to pin.
Dot Pin Signifies and inverted state.
Clock Pin Indicates pin is used to clock the device.
Dot-Clock Pin Inverted clock.

• Pin Type – Classifies the pin’s function. Assigning a pin type to a pin allows that pin to
participate in certain rules checking such as the Electrical Rules Check. This check will catch
wiring combinations that are suspect such as a GND pin tied to a VCC pin. Possible values are:
o N/C - Pin is never connected.
o VCC - Pin is tied to voltage source.
o GND - Pin is tied to ground.
o PASSIVE - Default pin type.
o INPUT - Pin is an input to an active device.
o OUTPUT - Pin is an output from an active device.
o BIDIRECTIONAL - Active input or output pin.
o TRISTATE - Pin may assume high impedance state.
o ECL - Emitter-coupled logic.

Pins will always snap to an immutable pin grid. This, coupled with a symbol rotation restriction of 90-
degree increments ensures that pins will always stay on a neat grid.

The only active system-defined properties for pins are _PINNAMEVIS and _PINNUMVIS. When these
properties are set to zero, the pin name and pin number respectively will not be displayed.

In the future, pins may contain properties that both drive and probe a simulator.

Symbol properties
Recall that in the discussion of symbol text we used as an example a system-defined property named
_PARTNUMMFG. In that discussion we showed how a dynamic text whose string value was set to
_PARTNUMMFG would display the manufacturers part number if it found one. So where would it find this
value? If we wanted, we could add a property called _PARTNUMMFG to the symbol itself and set its value
to SN74AHCT00N just as an example. When it was time to display the text object, it would bubble up a
request for the value of a property named _PARTNUMMFG and would get back SN74AHCT00N almost
right away. The fastest if could get back an answer would be if it contained the named property itself.
Because the text object didn’t possess that particular property, it forwarded the request up to its parent,
which is the symbol itself. In this example symbol (the NAND gate pictured above) it wouldn’t make much
sense to bind such explicit information to the symbol. After all, we want to use that symbol wherever we
can to avoid duplicating effort. So the symbol is not a good place to store device-specific properties if the
symbol is intended for reuse. That doesn’t mean it can’t contain other useful properties.

One such property is the reference designator prefix, which in this case would always be ‘U’. Now you
wouldn’t have to specify it using a property because there is a dedicated place to fill in that information
but behind the scenes, the symbol editor is actually binding the reference designator prefix to the symbol
in the form of a property. Even on a symbol that just represents a gate and not a part, this property will
find a home because when a part object is assembled from one or more symbols, the part will suck up
any properties that were specified by the symbol.

51

 In fact, if we specified just one more property we could automatically
create a part object that could be placed on a schematic page. Take
a look at the symbol on the left. It is a single-sourced relay that is
available in only one package size.

Because this is most likely a one-off symbol, it makes sense to

specify device-specific properties right in the symbol. There are a pair
of system-defined properties named _PARTFOOTPRINT and
_PARTFOOTPRINTLIB. By specifying these properties right in the
symbol, PCB123 will have all the information it needs to instantiate
the symbol directly on a schematic page.

In fact, this is not what happens. PCB123 actually creates a part

object and assembles all the necessary information automatically.
Again, you do not have to specify the properties directly because the
symbol editor has a very handy graphical footprint browser and
search tool. You can just click on a footprint to use and it will
automatically create and bind the footprint properties. In addition,
when you save the symbol to a library, it will perform full validation on the pin number mappings and
only save the symbol if it completes the contract terms. It will also add an entry into the part taxonomy
so the symbol can be searched in the normal way. It adds an entry under the “Generic Symbols” family of
the “Other” part class in the taxonomy. You can move it to a more orderly place if you desire.

So, we have seen how we can quickly flash up some pins and shapes in the symbol editor and then
graphically browse for the footprint the symbol will use. After saving the symbol there will now be a part
in the taxonomy that is immediately available for use.

We should back up just a minute and address the other scenario that we glossed over and that is how
best to create generic symbols and then use them in parts with part-
specific properties.

The picture to the left shows a pin assignment diagram for a Texas
Instruments 7400 Quad NAND Gate. There is an inner rectangle
showing the 4 NAND gates inside the chip and the small outer
rectangles represent the physical pins on the part. The bold numbers
are the pin numbers of the package and the small labels are the
internal pin names. In this case, there is a pattern where the two
inputs of each gate are named A and B, and the output is named Y.

Let’s look again at our NAND gate. This symbol seems to have
all the things we need if we want to place the NAND gates
individually. It has the 3 pins and their names are labeled
correctly. It has placeholders for values we want to see on the
schematic page. So, let’s just see what part numbers this gate
can be used in. We know it can be used in a 7400 part but that’s
just a generic name for the part. We would have a difficult time

52

ordering a part number 7400 from Texas Instruments. Here is just a sampling of the actual 7400 devices
from various logic families.

SN7400N, SN74S00N, SN74LS00N, SN74HC00N, SN74HC00E, SN74HCT00N, SN74HCT00E, SN74AS00N,

SN74ALS00AN, SN74AHC00N, SN74AHCT00N, SN74AC00N…

There are similar series for the 7401, 7403, 7424, 7426, 37, 38,…. 74804, 748003, all using the NAND
gate and that’s just from Texas Instruments. Many of the parts where we would like to use the NAND
symbol have widely varying configurations. Many have the same pin assignments but use different
packages such as through-hole or surface mount packages, and still other parts have different pin
configurations or even differ in the number of gates in a part.

With a little bit of organizing, we will be able to reuse the NAND symbol in hundreds of parts and
decorate the parts with a rich information model.

The first step is to review the candidates and organize them by the number of gates in a part and the pin
assignments for each gate in the part. A quick check of the TI data book shows that in addition to the
7400, the 7403, 7426, 7437, and 7438 series devices all share the same configuration.

Now that we have identified the gate and pin assignments that are needed, you will use the Symbol
Editor, go to Tools > Symbol Editor.

You will use the tool bar across the top of the symbol editor to create and edit your symbol.

New Symbol – Use this to start a new symbol.

Open Symbol – Use this to load and existing symbol for editing in section A.

Save – Save your symbol

Cut – Cut the selected object

Copy – Copy the selected object

Paste – Paste the selected object

Undo - Last operation

Redo – Last operation

53

 New Section – Add an additional section to your symbol

Delete Section – Remove currently selected section of you symbol. Never delete section A.

Select Object – Allows you select any object in your symbol

Add Pin – Add pins to your symbol

Add Line – Add a line to your symbol

Add Rectangle – Draw Rectangles

Add Polyline – Draw polylines

Add Polygon – Draw polygons

Add Arc – Draw Arcs

Add Circle – Draw circles

Add Text – Insert Text

Add Image – Insert Image

Description of Zoom Toolbar

Zoom In

Zoom Out

Zoom All

Refresh

Actual Size

Change Grid

54

 ½ Active Grid

Double Active Grid

Select the Open Symbol button on the toolbar to load an existing symbol. If you do not want to use an
existing symbol, you can begin drawing your symbol here. You will draw the body of your symbol in the
shaded area provided using the polygon tools. Place you mouse near the edge or at a corner of the
shaded area left click and hold, then move your mouse to change the size of the shaded area. The area
will always be rectangular and the pins of your symbol will lie along the perimeter of this shape. You can
use the Add Pin tool to add each terminal.

Search for the symbol you would like to start with in Step 1. Select the symbol in Step 2 and then select
Load Symbol in Step 3.

55

If you would like to load an existing symbol to an additional section, use the Add Existing button. You can
create a new blank section by selecting the Add New button. Use the Remove button to delete the
selected section.

Once a new section is added, you see a tab labeled B and the pin numbers are updated. You can toggle
between the tabs to edit each section.

56

Add section C by selecting Add Existing as described previously. You could also select Add New to
create a blank section. Then copy the contents of section B in to the newly created section C. When you
copy and paste into the new section you may need to adjust the shaded area to fit correctly around the
symbol.

In section C, the copied pins are labeled seven, eight, and nine. In the 7400 pins, 7 and 14 are hidden so
you must edit the pin numbers. Select the pins tab to edit the pin numbers.

Change the pin number for section C to eight, nine, and ten. Start by changing pin nine since duplicate
pin numbers are not allowed.

57

Switch back to the Symbol tab and add Section D as described previously. Once you have all four
sections of this symbol in place select, the pins tab to edit the pin properties and add the hidden pins.

On the pins tab modify the pin properties as shown below.

58

You will add pin 7 by clicking in the first empty Number field and type a 7. Select the shape Hidden P/G
type GND and change the Name. Repeat for pin 14.

59

You can change the Section, Name, Number, Type and Shape of each pin. Use the drop down menu for
Section, Type and Shape. Double click in the Name and Number fields to edit. As you make changes to
a pin, you can see the changes in the preview window. As changes are made on the pins tab, you can
move pins as needed in the preview window.

After updating the information on the Pin Definitions tab, review each section and use the Save icon to
save the symbol. Please save custom symbols to a new library. The libraries included with the PCB123
download cannot be used to save your custom parts.

Save the part into our library using the generic name QUAD_NAND and select OK.

Remember, all we have done to this point is create a template to be used by a large number of different
parts. Nowhere in this exercise did we specify an orderable part number, nor did we bind the template to
any physical footprint.

Binding templates to create library parts is accomplished using another toolset inside PCB123 and will be
discussed in the next section, The Part Taxonomy.

Pre-Defined Parts

With PCB123 V5, Sunstone Circuits is proud to include an extensive library of 750,000+ commonly used
parts and connectors. These parts definitions are sourced from Accelerated Designs Inc., in Huntsville
Alabama, and are drawn from the Accelerated Designs Ultralib product. These parts are fully defined and
available for use by PCB123 users. Parts definitions include:

• Schematic Symbols (multi-part where applicable)

• Footprint
• Reference Designator
• Parametric data including:
o Values
o Manufacturer Name
o Manufacturer Part Number
o DigiKey Part Number
o Hyperlinked part data sheet
o Hyperlink to the Digi-Key product summary page

As we’ve already mentioned in this section, a 750,000 parts library would require huge amounts of
storage and create unworkable download times. Furthermore, the average PCB designer uses about
20,000 parts in their personal library. Trouble is, not every engineer uses the same 20,000 parts. To this
end, PCB123 makes the entire catalog available as an online web service. Users search for parts by the
functional parameters, and select them from the search results. If the part is not currently local to the
user’s taxonomy, PCB123 can download the ADI Ultralib family in which that part is defined. In this way,
users dynamically fill out their taxonomy based on the parts they regularly use, and avoid making room
for the 730,000 or so parts they’ll never use.

PCB123 and Accelerated Designs do not expect that we’ve defined every part you will need. It is our
expectation, however, that these library parts will greatly reduce the amount of time spent by users in

60

defining parts. Furthermore, with standardized parts available, users can have the peace of mind that
they are referencing known-good parts definitions.

Finally, the Accelerated Design parts all contain appropriate manufacturer and Digi-Key part numbers
(wherever possible). These part numbers enable LiveBOM queries inside the Bill of Materials tab. So not
only do you have access to a fully defined schematic and footprint symbol but, thanks to LiveBOM, you
can also check for availability, pricing and second source information via the Digi-Key website.

For more information about the structure, organization and naming conventions employed by the Ultralib
parts, please refer to the back of this manual.

61

The Part Libraries
Sunstone examined various schematic capture programs during the development of the new schematics
facility in PCB123. We looked not so much at the features of these systems, but how they managed
design processes. One thing that stood out was how dissimilar the various systems were in how they
dealt with libraries and managed parts. Surprisingly, the places where they did agree we didn’t
necessarily think were the best solutions to the problem. Sunstone walked away from the evaluations
more with a list of what not to do than of features to emulate. This is not a knock on those systems.
After all, they paved the way to make the comparisons possible.

Searching for a part was another issue. Most of the systems we evaluated based their search criteria on
the name of a part. Systems that provided capabilities beyond that typically did so by drilling down
through additional dialog boxes that offered up different search criteria. None of the systems we
evaluated allowed an arbitrary search term, such as a resistor value, to be entered in a general search
that successfully found a part. We were of the opinion that the name of a part was almost irrelevant
unless maybe it was a manufacturer’s part number or something that was universally known. With some
parts, it does not even make sense that you would key off the name when selecting it. For instance, if
you need a resistor then you should be able to type 4.99k, 1% and get a list of parts that included
those criteria. You could guide the search more specifically by entering 4.99k, 1%, 1/8W, Rohm, or by
entering a specific manufacturer’s part number.

Something that is always fun to play when developing a new product is the “wouldn’t it be neat if…”
game, such as “wouldn’t it be neat if we included an entire catalog of parts, such as the DigiKey catalog,
with the system?” Well yes, it would, and if we could create 1000 parts a day, and there were
approximately 750,000 parts in the catalog, then it would take 750 days to complete. This clearly
precludes the creation of a catalog library from the initial release. Even so, we must be sure the system is
capable of handling such a large library for future releases that just might contain such a catalog. A
library containing half a million or a million parts would be massive. Each part would include not only a
catalog number and manufacturer’s information, but also any number of properties that could be useful
as searchable criteria or as parameters for tools such as simulators.

Another problem with such a large library is creating it! We went to great pains to describe how the
symbol editor and the part wizard may be used to create generic symbols and part templates. If the
symbol library only contained a single resistor symbol, and the footprint library only contained a handful
of resistor footprints such as the standard 0402, 0603, 0805, and 1206… sizes, we could still create parts
for about 20,000 manufacturer or catalog parts numbers. Each part would proclaim, “I am such and such
part. I am manufactured by company X as part number Y, and I can be purchased from this catalog as
catalog number Z. I use this schematic symbol and this PCB footprint. Some of my important
characteristics are….”

Something like that could almost be done in a spreadsheet, as shown below:

Mfg. Mfg. # Cat. # Symbol Footprint Value Tol. Power V Max

Rohm MCR10EZHF17.8K RHM17.8KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 17.8K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF18.0K RHM18.0KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 18.0K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF18.2K RHM18.2KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 18.2K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF18.7K RHM18.7KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 18.7K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF19.1K RHM19.1KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 19.1K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF19.6K RHM19.6KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 19.6K 1% 1/8W 150V

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 Rohm MCR10EZHF20.0K RHM20.0KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 20.0K 1% 1/8W 150V
Rohm MCR10EZHF20.5K RHM20.5KCCT-ND RESISTOR RC0805L 20.5K 1% 1/8W 150V

That would be great because spreadsheets lend themselves beautifully to automation or tabular
processing. The only problem is that some of the columns shown in the table above will not work for any
part types other than a resistor, and even then, it might be missing columns that are important to you
such as temperature stability or RoHS compliance.

There is something interesting to observe with this table; each row defines a part but nowhere does it
specify a name for the part. What is its name? The answer is, who cares? If each row specifies all the
necessary information for a part, including how to purchase one, then we don’t care what it is called, as
long as we can find it in a search. That is what we mean by part names being contrived entities and why
we did not want to rely on them for searches.

You could point PCB123 to any one row and it could assemble a part for placement on a schematic page.
In fact, every column in the table could be removed except the Symbol and Footprint columns and
PCB123 could assemble a part for placement. With all the other columns, PCB123 creates a property that
uses the column name for the property name and the cell value for the property value.

This is where the payoff happens by keeping symbol definitions generic if there is any hint that they can
be reused. A search for a part can be performed using any criteria and all the matches (read choices) will
be presented to you. You can then select your choice and the software will bring in the referenced
schematic symbol and the referenced footprint, perform all the necessary validation, and if everything is
fine, it can then create a part instance, give it a reference designator, and add all the other columns of
data to the part in the form of properties. Later, when you want to generate a bill of materials, it may
include such items as a catalog number and quantity for each part type which you can then send to the
part distributor. Even better, it puts PCB123 on the cusp of automating the purchase of your PC boards,
the part kits, and even assembly services just by pressing the Order button. It’s too bad we didn’t have a
Sell Product button too!

Getting back to the table shown above, careful observation shows that only three out of the nine columns
have varying data. That is a lot of redundant data. In addition, we still have not addressed the fact that
the table is only good for specifying resistors, and that is not even indicated anywhere. Luckily, there is a
neat way to solve both problems.

Hierarchy and Inheritance

A Part, in the library, is just a collection of properties. They are the leaves in the hierarchical tree
structure and may contain no children.

Besides the list of properties that a part may explicitly define, it also inherits all properties that its parent
family and any ancestor thereof may define. This is how the redundant data from the table above is
removed. In fact, this data “folding” is a natural way to define a hierarchy for a part. To do this, we set
two goals: the first is that all parts in a family have the same number of properties (columns). The
second is there should be no column whose every value is the same. If we find a column with invariant
data, then it should become a property of the parent and the column removed by deleting the property
from all the child instances.

63

 If we were starting from scratch, all we would have is the part
classes as shown on the left. We know the table represents resistors
so the Resistor part class is where we will start defining or
discovering the hierarchy for the table.

First, we check if there are any invariant columns to eliminate by

adding a property to the parent, in this case the Resistor part class.
The closest candidate would be the Symbol column with its value
RESISTOR but that might asking too much of the Resistor part class
because there are other resistor symbols such as a variable resistor.
This indicates the need for a subspecies to differentiate between at
least fixed resistors and variable resistors. We will create two families called Fixed and Variable, but we
will only be concerned with the Fixed family for our purposes.

To the Fixed family, we will assign a property named Symbol the value RESISTOR, as
show to the right. This will assign the RESISTOR symbol to any child family and part under
the Resistor\Fixed family and we can remove the Symbol column from the table.

With our active node being the Fixed family, we again look at the table and determine
there are no more invariant columns that we can safely eliminate by adding additional
properties to the Fixed node. A good check for this is by asking the question “are all…?”,
as in “are all fixed resistors made by Rohm?”, or “are all fixed resistors 1/8W?” If the answer is no, then
the column must be eliminated with further refinement.

Families do not have to be limited to just the invariant columns in the

table. In fact, we will add another family named Thick Film Chip under
the Fixed family, but we will not add any properties to it that we know
of yet.

The only way we can eliminate another invariant column is to further

refine the hierarchy with another family. This is a subjective
process, but in this case, it seems to make sense to refine by
manufacturer, so we will create a family named Rohm and assign
to it a property named Mfg who value is also Rohm. This is shown
at left.

We can then eliminate the Mfg column from the table and proceed
in the same fashion for the additional invariant columns.

The image below shows what the family hierarchy looks like after
all invariant columns have been eliminated. The table now
contains only 3 columns, all of which have variable data.

Mfg. # Cat. # Value

MCR10EZHF17.8K RHM17.8KCCT-ND 17.8K
MCR10EZHF18.0K RHM18.0KCCT-ND 18.0K
MCR10EZHF18.2K RHM18.2KCCT-ND 18.2K
MCR10EZHF18.7K RHM18.7KCCT-ND 18.7K

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 MCR10EZHF19.1K RHM19.1KCCT-ND 19.1K
MCR10EZHF19.6K RHM19.6KCCT-ND 19.6K
MCR10EZHF20.0K RHM20.0KCCT-ND 20.0K
MCR10EZHF20.5K RHM20.5KCCT-ND 20.5K

These are our parts and they will be added to the Resistor\Fixed\Thin Film Chip\Rohm\1%\1/8W
family, and each will contain a Mfg #, Cat #, and Value property as shown below.

Property Name Property Value

Mfg # MCR10EZHF17.8K
Cat # RHM17.8KCCT-ND
Value 17.8K

Those three properties are what is stored for each of the potentially thousands and thousands of fixed
resistor parts. However, because of inheritance, when a query for a part is made the set of properties
returned is usually more than just what is bound to a specific part. The returned list is called the effective
properties for the part.

here is an example of the list of effective properties returned due to inheritance:

Property Name Property Value

Mfg # MCR10EZHF17.8K
Cat # RHM17.8KCCT-ND
Value 17.8K
V Max 150V
Power 1/8W
Tol. 1%
Mfg. Rohm
Symbol Resistor
Footprint RC0805L

You can see we pick up a substantial amount of nearly free data including the all-important symbol and
footprint bindings.

Before we proceed, we need to make a small clarification. What is shown as the Symbol property and
the Footprint property are simplifications for clarity. The primary tool used to edit the taxonomy, which
is called the Part Manager, actually provides graphical browsers to select the symbol and footprint for
these properties. In reality, the browsers add two properties each. Symbol is actually two properties
named SymName and SymLib. Footprint is actually FpName and FpLib. The library names are needed to
fully resolve the location of a symbol or footprint.

Additionally, the Part Manager’s interface includes several built-in property names to encourage their use.
We have been used Mfg #, Cat #, Value, Tol, and Mfg in the above example, but in reality these property
names are system-defined property names that map to:

Example Name System-defined Property

Mfg # _PARTNUMMFG
Cat # _PARTNUMDIGIKEY
Value _PARTVALUE
Tol _PARTTOL

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 Mfg _PARTMFG

Typically, you will not have to deal with these names because there is a user interface to deal with them.
We just wanted to make you aware that not all the columns are as general as we have led on in the spirit
of clarity. The above properties do in fact want to map to their specific system-defined property names
because PCB123 will make great use of them.

Pre-defined Parts

With the release of PCB123 V5, Sunstone has included an extensive updated parts library from
Accelerated Designs in Hunstville, Alabama. PCB123 had included 750,000 of the most commonly used
parts, and optimized this list to support parts
currently orderable in the Digi-Key catalog.

The initial installation of PCB123 will include a

library file that contains the search criteria for
all of the new parts, as well as full part
definitions for the NXP parts library and generic
parts. Because 750,000 parts can be a very
large database, Sunstone has placed the
complete parts database on a secure web
server. To access the parts, users merely
perform parameter searches, then select their
part from the returned search results. If the
selected part has not been copied to local
storage, then PCB123 will prompt the user to
initiate a parts family download.

When the download is completed, users will

see the following dialogs. At this point, the
parts family containing the selected part will
be loaded to the user’s local parts storage. In
this way, users’ individual needs will evolve
the parts maintained locally.

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 Once the user returns to the parts selection
dialog, shown here, the selected part will be
fully loaded into the window.

Select OK, and you will be returned to the

schematic edit window, with the selected
component attached to the cursor for
placement.

If you Find a Problem with a Pre-defined Part

Sunstone Circuits provides online and live technical support 24/7/365 for PCB123 at no cost. If you find a
problem with a part in the Accelerated Designs Ultra Lib library, you can email the following information
to [email protected]:

• Part Name
• Library Name
• Description of the issue/problem
• A screenshot if possible

Sunstone Circuits and Accelerated Designs will then research and resolve the issue.

The Part Manager

If you create a generic symbol – a symbol without a footprint binding, no default entry will be created in
the part taxonomy because it is considered “incomplete” for use in a schematic. There is no rule against
adding an incomplete part to the library but it is assumed that generic symbols will never be intentionally
used as is. It is assumed you will create specific bindings to footprints using the Part Manager.

While in the schematic editor, the Part Manager may be

invoked at any time from the Display Panel by pressing the
Manage Parts button. The Part Manager dialog is split into a left side and a right side as pictured below.
In this example, we have drilled down into the Resistor part class, and through several Part Families to
select an individual part in the tree on the left. The effective properties for the part are displayed in the
grid on the right side. The properties displayed in red are inherited from the ancestors of the part, and
the properties displayed in black are assigned directly to the part.

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When you select and item this way, you may add, delete, or modify the properties of that item. If you
click on a different item after changing the properties, the changes will be applied to the selected item
before changing to the new selection.

If you right-click on either Part Class items or Family

items, you will be presented with a popup menu that
allows you to perform several commands. Create
Subfolder allows you to add structure to the Libraries as
you see fit. Families may be added under the root part
classes and under other families. You may select Edit
Family Name, or just click on a family label two times to engage in-place editing of a family name.

Find allows you to search the taxonomy. New Parts go in this folder allows you to select a folder to
store newly created parts. Left click on a folder to select it then right click and select New Parts go in
this folder. Selecting the Create Part button will automatically store new parts in the selected folder.

Fill in the Properties shown in the center of the screen. The only required field in this section is
Manufacturer’s Part Number. Next use the Select Symbol and Select Footprint buttons to load the
symbol and footprint for your taxonomy entry. You may also want to add more properties to your part.
Go to the properties section and select the property name under the Name column then enter the
appropriate value under the Value column. After entering all of the required part information select

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Create New Part to store the part in the taxonomy. If you want to modify an existing taxonomy entry
select the part, edit the desired properties then select Apply Changes.

Acquiring Data

There are two primary ways to acquire the data in PCB123 V5. One is to locate the part you seek in the
PCB123 version of Accelerated Designs’ Ultralib parts library. This is essentially a function of a parameter
search inside the part library, followed by a potential part family download from the Sunstone server
location. Alternately, if the part you seek is not currently defined in the Ultralib, you can create the part
yourself.

Finding the Part in The Ultralibs Library

In PCB123 V5, users can search for parts using parametric data, from either the schematic tabs or from
the layout tab. When using the Schematic tab, just select the Select Part dialog box (shown here) and
enter appropriate search criteria in the search box. Here you can see we searched for a “RES 0402 1.0K”
which will return all parts that contain all these search terms. The resulting list contains a number of
0402 sized SMT resistors. Users can then select any of these resistors to view the schematic, footprint
and parametric data. In this example, we’re looking a t a Yageo SMT from the Ultralibs parts.

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This part is representative of most of the Accelerated Designs parts definitions: the schematic side
symbol is defined and meaningful; the footprint is complete and includes dimensional measurements to
help the user confirm the part; below is a list of parametric data including:

• Manufacturer
• Part Number – this is the manufacturer’s part number
• Digi-Key Part Number – the orderable part number from Digi-Key for this component.
• Datasheet – a link to the manufacturer’s product data sheet. Useful for designers to either
investigate a part more closely or to confirm the part performs as expected.
• Symbol Library – where in the taxonomy does this part reside? Users can verify the source,
whether the part comes from Accelerated Designs, from the PCB123 Generics, or from the user’s
custom-built libraries.
• Description – typically this field holds a parameter string comparable to that used in a Digi-Key
component search.
• Package Library – Location for the footprint symbol.
• Width/Height – dimensions for the part’s physical packaging
• Pin Count – number of pins for the package
• Drill Size – for through-hole parts, the specified drill hole diameter for the part.

If this part suits your needs, just click the OK button and you will be returned to the schematic sheet and
in part-placement mode, ready to include the part in your design. It’s that easy.

Each individual placement of this part then appears on the Bill of Materials tab, and the footprint is pre-
placed on the layout’s origin, ready for placement and routing.

Creating the Part Yourself

Below is a sample of one part series from the Digikey catalog. It is a family of oscillators made by Citizen.

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Using shorthand, we can create each part in the series all at once. The first thing we want to do is create
a place in the library for them. Under the Crystal part class, we will create the following families:

Oscillators

Surface Mount

Citizen

CMX309HWC Series

After creating the families and sub-families, click on the Citizen family item and enter Citizen in the Part
Manufacturer Field then select Apply Changes.

Now, in the taxonomy tree, select the family you just created named CMX309HWC Series. We will be
able to bind a good deal of information to this item.

The information above shows a single package being used for all the parts in the series. We can click on
the Value ellipsis for SymName and FpName to select the symbol and footprint this series will use. On the
next empty row in the grid, select Part Tolerance from the list of system-defined properties and enter +/-
100ppm for its value.

Next, add the following custom properties to the grid, each one on a blank row:

Name Value
SUPPLY_VOLTAGE 5V
SUPPLY_CURRENT 35mA
NOMINAL_DUTY 50%

Select Apply Changes.

We are now ready to create the parts under the selected family. We are going “screen scrape” the
information for the parts. Since many part specifications are PDF files, we will use the Adobe
Acrobat Reader as the example program where we are viewing part data. Acrobat Reader has
a tool called the Select tool whose icon is show to the left.

Clicking this icon put Reader in a mode that allows a block of text in the PDF to be selected and copied to
the clipboard. This tool also has a secret mode that allows for columns of data to be selected. If you click
on the beginning of the column you wish to copy and, while holding the Alt key down, drag to the end of
the column, you can release the mouse button and you should see just that column highlighted. Press
Ctrl+C or select Edit/Copy from the menu in Reader to copy that column to the clipboard. In our case,
using the table above, we will column-select the values from the Freq.(Mhz) column taking care not to
include the column title itself, and then press Ctrl+C to copy the values to the clipboard. You may want
to paste the information to an Excel document to use later.

Back in PCB123, select the CMX309HWC Series item in the tree then select the Spreadsheet tab. Copy
and paste the contents of the first row into the second row. This is the first instance of the parts you will
create in this family. You can copy and paste each column of information from your data sheet into the
appropriate column of the Spreadsheet tab. If you need to add more columns right click on an existing

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column label and select insert column. You can also delete or sort columns. Once the table data is
complete you can select Create/Update button then choose the CMX309HWC Series family and store
your new parts. You will need to confirm each part because we have not yet assigned footprints and
symbols to the taxonomy items.

Below is a picture of the newly created parts. The properties shown are for the selected new part. When
you press Finish, the taxonomy is refreshed in the schematic editor.

The Symbol Editor

The symbol editor in PCB123 is a dialog box with a work area and a few toolbars, as shown below. The
actual symbol editor is usually larger than the picture; it was compressed to fit on a page. The symbol
editor is invoked from the Tools menu while in the schematic editor. Because it is a dialog box, no other
work may proceed on a design until the symbol editor is dismissed.

The symbol editor does not interact with any design; it only interacts with schematic symbol libraries.
When it is invoked, a new symbol containing a placeholder for a reference designator is created. You may
either begin adding objects to this symbol or load a different symbol from a library into the editor.

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Inside/Outside

You may have noticed the crosshatched rectangle in the work area in the above picture. This rectangle
represents the interior portion of the symbol. Symbols are divided into an
interior and exterior. Shapes will always reside in the interior of a symbol and
pins always on the exterior, as shown to the left.

When adding pins, they will always be confined to the perimeter of the
rectangle with the hotspot always pointing outwards.

If you draw a shape that extends outside the rectangle, the rectangle will be
enlarged to encompass the shape. Any pins present on the sides that enlarge
will move with the new rectangle. This is all done automatic for you.

You may also change the size of the rectangle yourself. With the Select too1
active, you can move the cursor to any corner or edge of the rectangle to display
drag handles, as show at left. Clicking and dragging one of these handles allows
you to adjust the size of the rectangle. The rectangle cannot shrink smaller than
the shapes it contains.

Besides being constrained to the rectangle edges, pins will always be located on a
fixed grid, called the unit grid. The size of this grid happens to be 0.1” and is
immutable for pin placement. This restriction, coupled with symbol rotations restricted to 90° steps,

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ensures that all pins land on a uniform grid on a schematic page, which in turn ensures wires are drawn
on a uniform grid.

The Wire Router also takes advantage of the inside/outside separation by not routing into the interior of
any symbol, which in turn means it will not cross any lines of a symbol.

Text is under no such restrictions. It may be placed inside or outside the rectangle. The Wire Router
currently ignores text and may route through it.

The working grid in the symbol editor may be adjusted either in half by pressing the Minus key (-) or
doubled by pressing the Plus key (+). This is only effective when drawing shapes or placing text.
When placing pins the grid is always set to the unit grid.

Adding pins

Pictured below is the symbol editor as it appears with the Pin tool selected. It has been shrunk to view all
the salient features in one picture. As soon as the Pin tool is selected, a new pin will be created that will
track the cursor while staying constrained to the interior rectangle. As the pin is moved, it will snap to the
unit grid and will automatically change orientation as it is moved to different edges of the rectangle.

While a pin is being moved, the Pin Attributes pane will be active on the left panel. It is here that you
may fill out the information about the pin.

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To release the pin at the desired location, just click the left mouse button. Adding pins is modal. When
you left-click and place a pin, another one is created whose pin name and number are either auto-
generated based on the last pin name or number, or they are obtained from a macro expansion. You
must cancel out of the Add Pin mode by pressing the Esc key, selecting Cancel from the context menu, or
selecting a different tool.

After creating two pins, a “stride” has been established that successive pins will add to the last pin
location to derive a default location for the next pin. Both the pin and the cursor are snapped to this
location allowing a whole row or column of pins to be quickly added by simply left-clicking without
moving the mouse.

By default, the auto-generated pin name and number take the first sequence of digits from the previous
pin name/pin number, and increment them by one. If no digits were present, it will change to the next
letter in the alphabet.

At any time you may use bracketed shorthand notation in either the pin name field or the pin number
field to establish a continuous sequence or a disjoint sequence of pin names and pin numbers to use for
consecutive pins. The lifetime of the shorthand sequence is the duration of the pin tool being active.
Once you cancel the pin tool, any remaining names in a shorthand sequence will be dropped.

A pin name and number must be supplied for a pin. If you are tempted to set a pin name or number to
empty because you do not want it displayed, supply the name or number anyway and click on the eye
icon to the right of the field so it shows this icon. This sets the visibility of the pin name or number
to invisible.

In the above picture, an example of each pin shape is shown. The pin shapes themselves carry no
meaning in the software; they are merely added as a convenience so you do not have to draw the dot
and clock symbolisms yourself.

Pin types do carry meaning in the software. The list of pin types forms a matrix of rules that specify
which pin types are allowed to connect to other pin types. This is used during the automatic creation of
wires when unconnected pins from two devices are placed on top of each other and during an Electrical
Rules Check (Not yet implemented in this release). By default, a pin is assigned the Passive pin type that
is allowed to connect to any other pin type except N/C pins. It is recommended that you supply a pin
type for symbol pins if you have the correct information at hand.

Finally, the pin properties button presents the standard Properties Dialog where you may specify any
custom properties that you may wish to attach to a pin.

Adding Shapes

Pictured below is the symbol editor with the Shape tool selected. It also shows an outline shape and a
filled shape that have already been created.

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When a shape tool is selected, the symbol editor is placed in a mode where it is waiting for the first
corner to be created by clicking anywhere in the work area. Once a corner has been created, a rubber
band is drawn from the last corner to the current gridded cursor position. Clicking the left mouse button
creates additional corners.

You can continuously “erase” the last segment by drawing back over the segment and click on the
previous corner.

Finishing the shape can be done in two ways; the first way is to cancel or escape out of the mode and is
the method to use when creating open polylines of one or more segments, or you can close the shape by
creating the last corner at the same location as the first corner. This assumes there are at least 3 corners
not in a line. Once finished, you are free to begin drawing another shape. Pressing escape or cancelling
once again will put you back into the Select tool.

You may change the width or thickness of a shape outline by selecting one of the pre-defined line widths
from the drop list in the Shapes attribute pane. These widths are provided for consistency. If a different
width is required, you can specifically add a _LINEWIDTH property to the shape and setting it to the
desired value.

Another outline attribute you may change is the Line Style. By default, shapes use a solid line style. Other
styles are dotted, dashed, and dot-dashed lines. Only the solid line style will display outlines in true
thickness.

The interior of a shape is controlled by the Fill Style attribute. By default, the fill
style of a shape is hollow. The picture to the left shows the different fill styles

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available in the drop list. They are, in order from the top, Hollow, Solid, Horizontal Hatched, Vertical
Hatched, Cross Hatched, and Diagonal Hatched. Selecting any fill style other than hollow will
automatically close the shape if not already so.

The color of the outline and the shape interior may be independently set in the Shape Attributes pane.

Shapes may be assigned an ID. This can be any text string. The ID will play a role in upcoming releases
as a means to programmatically identify shapes.

Finally, the Shape properties button presents the standard Properties Dialog where you may specify
any custom properties that you may wish to attach to a shape.

Adding Arcs

Pictured below is the symbol editor with the Arc tool selected. It shows an arc in the process of being
created.

Creating an arc requires three clicks of the mouse. When the Arc tool is selected, the symbol editor is
placed in a mode where it is waiting for the first click, which represents one end of the arc. The next click
will be the other end, and the last click will be the arc apex. Once the first corner has been created, a
rubber band is drawn showing the arc progress and a perpendicular guide is drawn showing the line upon
which the apex may land.

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The arc is automatically finished after the apex has been defined, and the symbol editor will be ready to
create another one.

At any point during the arc creation, you may cancel or press the Esc key. Pressing escape or cancelling
once again will put you back into the Select tool.

You may change the width or thickness of an arc by selecting one of the pre-defined line widths from the
drop list in the Shapes attribute pane. These widths are provided for consistency. If a different width is
required, you can specifically add a _LINEWIDTH property to the shape and setting it to the desired
value.

Another outline attribute you may change is the Line Style. By default, arcs use a solid line style. Other
styles are dotted, dashed, and dot-dashed lines. Only the solid line style will display outlines in true
thickness.

Currently, arcs have no interior. They are outline objects only. The color of an arc outline may be set in
the Shape Attributes pane.

Finally, the Shape properties button applies to arcs and presents the standard Properties Dialog
where you may specify any custom properties that you may wish to attach to an arc.

Adding Text

When you select the Insert Text tool, you will be immediately prompted for a text string to add using the
dialog box shown below. If you have defined a user property with the same name as the string you enter
here, the text string will be substituted with the value of the property. You may also expand the drop list
to select the name of a system-defined property that will be substituted.

Once the string is defined, a text object will be

attached to the cursor until you cancel or release the
text string by left clicking.

After you place the text object, you will be prompted

for another string. To exit either the dialog box or the
Add Text Mode, press the Esc key or select cancel
from a context menu.

The picture below shows the Symbol Editor while in

Add Text mode.

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Text attributes can be changed as you define text strings. Attributes include changing: font size, rotation,
text color, background color, and alignment.

Adding properties

To add a property to a symbol component, right mouse-click on the component and select Properties…
from the context menu. The picture below shows the Properties dialog for a pin in the symbol editor.

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Users can select from the list of predefined properties, or create user-defined custom properties. Clicking
OK stores the property on the property list for the symbol component.

Saving symbols

Click the SAVE icon in the Symbol Editor to save the symbol to the taxonomy. The picture below shows
the Save Symbol dialog box. The Save Symbol dialog
box contains three fields you must specify to
complete save process.

The Name of the Symbol will be the identifying name

the symbol will use. Be descriptive.

The Description is a text field in which you can

describe the symbol in more detail.

Parts Library, customer\generics.sym by default, is

the library location to which the part symbol will be
saved. There is also a New Library… button to allow
you the ability to create a new custom library on-the-fly for your newly designed symbol.

Sections

You can schematically represent a single layout footprint with a symbol comprised of several
sections. This is often done to represent the various gates of a particular component. To add
additional sections select the “Add New” button. If you want to add a new section with an
existing symbol select the “Add Existing” button. If you need to remove a section select the
“Remove” button. You can change the letter shown under section to view and edit any of the
sections you have added or created.

Binding to specific symbols

The process of binding together a schematic symbol (or set of sections) and a layout footprint happens in
the Define Part dialog (shown in the figure below)

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If you have already defined, or located, suitable symbols for schematic and footprint, you can quickly
bind them together here.

Schematic Symbol – click on Select Symbol… navigate to the schematic symbol, and select it. The
schematic symbol appears in the schematic symbol preview window

Footprint - click on Select Footprint… navigate to the footprint and select it. The footprint
appears in the footprint preview window.

Specify the part meta-data, part manufacturer, manufacturer part number, DigiKey Part number and a
description, then select Create New Part

If you wish to update the properties or symbols to an existing part, you can do that too. Just navigate the
library to your part, then select it to load it into the Manage Parts dialog. Make the necessary changes,
then select Apply Changes (instead of Create New Part) and submit your updates to the part definition.

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Mapping pin names to pin numbers

Using the Symbol Editor in PCB123 V5 it’s easy to map pin names to pin numbers. In this figure (below)
the assignment of pin names and numbers can easily be changed on the fly. Just click on the appropriate
text box for the pin number of the pin name, and replace the existing value with the new value.

Pin numbers can be in non-sequential order, pin names can be functional. Each pin number must be
unique to the part, but pin names can be duplicated as needed.

Hidden pins

Hidden pins are often used to provide power and ground connections to components, but not clutter the
schematic views with all the power related routing.

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By clicking on the Pins tab at the bottom of the Symbol Editor pane, you can
access the Pin properties table, as shown in the figure above. The Shape
column allows users to specify a number of pin configurations, including
Hidden P/G.

Once a pin is hidden, the pin structure for that pin disappears from the
symbol graphics. The pin, however, is still present in the part definition.

A hidden pin is required to be identifed as either a power or a ground pin.

You will not be allowed to save your component until each hidden pin is so
designated. To specify the type for the hidden pins, select the appropriate setting from the choices in the
Type column pull down menu.

Saving parts

When you are ready to save your part to a library, select the SAVE function from the toolbar.

The SAVE function gives you access to the Save

Symbol dialog, as shown in the figure above.
Enter your name for the new symbol, an optional
description, then the symbol (.sym) library to
which the part will be added. If you need to
create a new library, use the New Library… button
on the dialog box.

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Finding Parts
In PCB123, locating schematic parts for use in your design falls into two primary methodologies:
Searching and Browsing.

Searching: You enter search criteria; PCB123 filters the entire domain of available parts to match
your search criteria. The PCB123 search mechanism is quite flexible, using a generally free-form
text search that scans properties, property values, and part names for text string matches.

Browsing: allows you to click-navigate the taxonomy to find appropriate parts.

Further details for both methods of finding schematic parts can be highly effective, depending upon what
you need at the time.

Part search

Searching for parts by search criteria is highly effective when you know one or more key parameters for
the part you require.

Just type the parameters into the Search Criteria field, and the Select Part dialog filters the parts list
down to the existing parts containing that criteria.

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When browsing for parts, the taxonomy representation comes into play. As shown in the figure below,
users can browse through the hierarchical folder structure interactively until locating the desired part.

If, in either case, the user cannot locate a predefined part to suit the specific design needs, the next step
may be to build a new part from scratch.

Define New Part

The Manage Parts button at the bottom of the Select Part dialog starts the new part definition process.
Clicking the Manage Parts button takes you to the Manage Part dialog, shown below. The Manage Part
dialog is quite powerful and flexible in how it approaches parts definitions. The key parts of the Define
Part dialog include:

• The Parts Libraries pane

• The Properties definition table
• The Simple Tab for component specification
• The Spreadsheet Tab for advanced component specification
• The symbol pane, showing the assigned symbol graphics
• The footprint pane, showing the assigned layout graphics.

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Whether you’re putting together a collection of pre-existing symbols to configure a new part, or whether
you’re building everything from scratch, you’ll probably want to start by locating the library destination
for the part before you do anything else.

In the figure below, the user is creating a subfolder in the library to hold the soon-to-be-designed
component definitions. The context menu in this figure comes from right-clicking the mouse on an entry
in the taxonomy window. Right-Clicking in this manner provides access to a number of commands for
editing, organizing and modifying the taxonomy and its components.

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Once the taxonomy location has been identified, the next step is to fill in the Manufacturer information,
manufacturer part number, and Digi-Key part number, if known. User can also provide a free-text
description of the component in the Description field. Notice that, as the part number information is filled
out, a property entry for that information is automatically added to the Properties table in the lower left
corner of the Define Part dialog.

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Next up, is binding symbols and footprints to the part definition. Starting with the schematic symbol, the
user has two choices: Select a Symbol, or Generate a Symbol.

Selecting a symbol presents the user with a search dialog, as shown below. Locate the symbol of your
choice, using search parameters.

Once located, click on the Assign Symbol button to bind the schematic symbol to the part definition,
resulting in a Define Part dialog that shows the newly bound schematic symbol.

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Now, bind the footprint. Like selecting the schematic symbol, users have two choices: Select a footprint,
or Generate a footprint.

Selecting a footprint presents the user with this Select Footprint dialog.

Following a usage model similar to the schematic selection process, In step one, users can search for a
component by parameter, or browse the footprint libraries using the taxonomy-like view in the lower left
corner of the dialog box. In step two, you select the footprint that matches the component you have
under definition. For step three, click the Select button in the center left. The figure below shows a Select
Footprint dialog box ready for the binding process.

At this point, we’ve created a fully defined part. The figure below shows how the Define Part dialog box
might look after binding both the schematic symbol and the footprint.

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Click Create New Part, and reconfirm the location in the taxonomy. Once the part has been created, it
appears in the taxonomy pane:

When you click OK on the Manage Parts dialog, you will be returned to the Select Part dialog (where this
all started). Now, you will notice that your newly created part is available for use in the Select Part
taxonomy, as shown below.

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Select your part, and click the OK button. Your part is now ready to be placed in your design’s schematic.
The figure below shows the part ready for placement.

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Ports
A port is used to add a net label to pin, wire or group of connections on the schematic. Ports can be
used to make connections between pins without connecting the pins with a wire. Ports can also be
used to make connections between schematic pages.

PCB123 provides you with an AGND, DGND, Voltage, Global and Off-Page port. The labels for the
AGND and DGND ports can be changed. You can select a port from the menu bar by selecting Insert
> Add Port. A port tool bar is also included on the far right side of screen.

Ports and net names

After selecting either the Voltage GND, DGND, Global or Off-Page port you can change the net name
assigned to it. You should see the Edit Panel in the on the left side of the screen. If you do not see
the edit panel select View > Toolbars > Edit Panel. Start by selecting the desired port. Next, go to
the top section of the edit panel. It should now show the label Net Name(s). Type in the desired net
label in the Net Name(s) field then place the port and connect it to a pin or wire. If you have already
placed a port, and wish change the assigned net, then left-click on the port to select it. You will now
see the Net Name(s) section in the Edit Panel. Update the text in the Net Name(s) field and place the
port. When you place the port you will see the message “Do you want to rename all ports ‘Net Name’
to ‘NewNetName’?” If you select Yes, all ports of net named NetName will be changed to
NewNetName. If you select No, only the selected port will change to the new net name.

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Schematic Pages
PCB123 can support multi-page schematic designs, allowing you to create logical sub-designs to manage
the complexity of the schematic design.

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Adding Schematic Pages

To add a new, blank sheet you your design project, click the Add Page item on the Toolbar (highlighted
below) and a new, blank schematic sheet will be added to your design. The default name for the new
sheet will be “New Page”. A Schematic title block will also be attached to the new sheet.

Synchronization pages

A Synchronization page is a special type of schematic page used to capture ad hoc symbols created for
footprints not defined on the schematic side.

The Title Block

The Display tab contains the page properties and provides fields for updating the title block.

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Page size

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To set the page size for a schematic sheet, right click in the schematic pane. Select the Set Page Size…
command from the Context commands, below.

The page size is specifiable by individual sheets. Your multi-page schematic design can accommodate
multiple page sizes at the same time.

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The Schematic Editor
PCB123 allows you to design your schematic and simultaneously populate your layout with the parts in
your design. By default, each PCB123 design file contains a minimum of one associated schematic page,
labeled as Main Schematic. In the Main Schematic tab you will find all the tools to locate, create, place
and connect all the components that will comprise your board.

To begin working in the schematic go through the new board wizard or create a new project. Look to the
bottom of the screen and click on the Main Schematic Tab.

Adding parts to a page

Upon opening the Main Schematic tab you should see the Display tab within the Edit Panel. (If you
cannot view the Edit Panel, choose View>Toolbars>Edit Panel). Select the Parts Tab to view the PCB123
libraries. Here in the libraries you are able to drill down into one of the folders that organize parts, such
as Generics>Chips>Dips in order to find all of the available generic symbols for dual inline packages.
You can simply double click on the part you wish to place then click on the schematic to place it. This
provides a quick way to sort through available symbols by category.

You can also right click on any folder in the parts libraries and choose Find to search for particular part
numbers or types of parts. You could search for “amp” in order to find all parts that have been identified
as amplifiers. Once the first matching item is found you can press F3 or right click and choose Find Next
to select the next part that matches your criteria. This allows a more thorough search by specific criteria.

Once highlighted, a part is ready to place as soon as the cursor is moved back into the Main Schematic
page.

To search for parts with more detail, one can use the Add Parts window. The button to open this window
is represented by the AND gate symbol in the Standard Toolbar. Once open users are first presented
with the Search tab view. Here one can enter search criteria and click GO. Unlike the Parts Libraries
view, every part found will be visible at once in the list displayed on the right. This allows one to quickly
cycle between each located part and view them in greater detail.

Pressing OK will close the Add Parts window and move the focus back to the Main Schematic tab. Here
you can simply click to place the selected part.

Adding ports to a page

You are able to add ports to your schematic from two locations. The first location is on the menu
bar. Select Insert > Add Port to select a AGND, DGND, Voltage, Global or Off-Page Port. Your
second option for placing port is located on the far right side of your screen on the Ports toolbar.

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Once you have selected the desired port you can place the port on your schematic with a left click. If you
have selected a Voltage, Global or Off Page port you can modify the Net Name. With the port selected
look to the top section of the Edit Panel and type in the desired net label in the Net Name(s) field. You
cannot change the net name assigned to a AGND or DGND
port.

To add a port to the schematic page currently under edit,

select the port type you require from the Insert>Add Port
menu. Port types available from this menu include:

• Analog Ground (AGND)

• Digital Ground (DGND)
• Voltage
• Global Net
• Off-Page Port

Select the type of port you require, and the port is assigned to
the cursor for placement in the schematic. Place the port as
many times as your require, then press the ESC key to unbind
the port.

The Display Tab on the Edit panel can be used to set the specific voltage value or net name for the port
to be placed.

Adding wires

To add a wire between pins on a schematic sheet, simply left-click on the first pin, then mouse over to
the next pin and left-click the second pin. PCB123 will interactively draw a wire net that
follows your mouse cursor. If you find that you prefer to route the net on a specific path,
you can left-click on the schematic sheet to specify an interim location for the net. This
function works much like digitizing a layout trace.

Wires can also be initiated and terminated anywhere along an existing wire. Doing so
creates a connection to that wire, represented by a connector dot at that location (as
shown at right).

Wires can be assigned properties. Wire properties can be accessed by placing the mouse
cursor on the wire, then right-clicking to access the context menu, and selecting
Properties…

Adding nomenclature

In the schematic, nomenclature is any text, unattached from a part, port or net, that has been added to
the schematic for documentation purposes. You are free to use Text, Poly lines, Arcs, Circles and
Polygons to add nomenclature to annotate your schematic. You can add these objects to your schematic

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by selecting Insert from the menu bar. You may also use the Sch Objects toolbar to access these tools.
This tool bar is located across the top of your screen and is shown here.

Adding Text – select the function Insert > Add Text. You will be presented with a dialog box into which
you can type the text you require. Clicking OK attaches that text box to the mouse cursor and allows you
to place the text where needed on your schematic sheet. Press the ESC key to exit text placement mode.
Right click the text to access display properties to change such features as font, text size, color, etc.

Properties

For all objects that support properties, properties can be accessed by placing the mouse cursor on the
object, then right-clicking to access the context menu, and selecting Properties…

A full discussion of properties can be found elsewhere in this manual. Please refer to “Properties”, page
43.

Cut/copy/paste

The Edit-Cut command deletes the currently selected set of objects and places them into the paste
buffer. There is only one paste buffer so only the last cut operation is available for paste.

The Edit-Copy command copies the currently selected set of objects into the paste buffer. There is only
one paste buffer so only the last copy operation is available for paste.

The Edit-Paste command makes a copy of the objects in the paste buffer and inserts them into the
currently active design.

First, any components in the paste buffer are added to the design by assigning them a new reference
designator that does not conflict with one already in the design. Their alpha-prefix is retained.

Next, any complete routes or connections that start and end at a pins that are also in the paste buffer
will be added to the design. They will retail their original net name with a unique numerical suffix.

Lastly, all text and non-net-attributed polygons will be copied without change. Net-attributed polygons
will either inherit a cloned net name or retain their original net names depending on whether their
original net names were cloned during the paste operation.

After all objects are created, they will be in a selected state attached to the cursor ready to be placed.

Moving parts

Depending on your experience, there may be a tendency to point at a component, hold down the LMB
and drag that component. Though this is allowed, a much easier way is to point at the component and
LMB click and release. This attaches the component to your cursor and allows you to do such things as

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use the RMB for context commands. You click once to select it and begin moving and click again to
release it where you want.

Selected parts can be rotated by pressing the r key or mirrored by pressing h (horizontal mirror) or v
(vertical mirror).

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Part 3 - Layout User Guide

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Layout Views and Panels

Display Panel

One of the interesting things that PCB123

technical support notices when processing
orders is the incredible diversity of color
schemes and display settings that different
users prefer. Some schemes are quite creative
and pleasing to the eye while others seem to
offend the senses. The point is that what works
for some people, does not always work for
others. This becomes especially important on
very dense designs or designs that have a
complex topology. These designs can lead to
the subjective phenomenon of information
overload. This can have a negative effect on
productivity and can be a major contributor to
mental fatigue. Beginners tend to be adversely affected more than experienced users but everyone has a
different threshold of overload and fatigue and not everyone agrees on the best way to reduce it. It is for
this reason that PCB123 employs a variety of global display settings.

Take a look at the design on

the left.

This is a 6-layer design with

everything visible, rendered
in true width, and with color
blending on. Even though
the zoom factor is
reasonable, the density of
objects and the large
angular fills make this
screen difficult to look at. In
this case, there is even
confirming evidence of
information saturation in
that some features have
turned white because so
many objects with different
colors occupy the same
screen location.

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 This next picture is with the
silkscreen layer set to invisible and
the zoom factor has been increased
to a greater magnification.

This does not hurt the eyes nearly

as much but it is zoomed in so far
that it is difficult to move anything
without bumping into a window
edge.

We will zoom back out to the

original scale and try changing the
display properties of the objects as
opposed to the number of objects
displayed.

The first thing we will try is turning

off color blend.

As you can see, the data separation

is much better but the opaque
copper regions make it impossible
to see the layers underneath. If we
had to insert a via, we would be
shooting blind and would have to
keep changing layers to determine
if the via would interfere with the
obscured layers. Turning color
blend off works best when there are
no large fill areas.

Next we will try changing the

Wireframe setting.

Wireframe does not fill any object

interiors. It simply displays either
the outline or the center line of an
object

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 Now this is probably a reasonable
screen to look at while finding room
to insert a via.
a. It provides visibility
to all layers.

If we had to route an entire trace through the area we might try to use the Hi--Contrast mode in
conjunction with Wireframe.

Hi-Contrast
Contrast always displays the current layer in the contrast color and all other layers are displayed using
the same dim color. This mode works great for cycling through layers looking for a path across the
window.

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Design View

The Design view, also identified as the Layout view is (along with the schematic view) one of the most-
accessed views during the board design process.

3D View

The 3D viewer is a photorealistic rendering system that displays the board in a perspective projection.
The board can be viewed from any angle in 3D space.

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Footprint Editor

Designing a new footprint requires the use of the footprint editor. The footprint editor can be used as a
stacked-interrupt edit
function. In other words,
as you’re laying out your
board, you may discover
that the part you wish to
use is not yet represented
with a footprint in your
current libraries. By
selecting Design -> New
Footprint… you enter the
footprint editor window.
Note that your layout
editor work is maintained
in a edit pane underneath
the footprint editor.

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DRC Panel

The DRC/ERC tab contains a live listing of all the

current design violations in the project.

The DRC will report on shorts, opens, and violations

of manufacturing rules such as minimum spacing
between objects of different nets, and pad size vs.
drill size violations.

Locations of errors reported by the DRC are marked

with a grey circle-? icon. By hovering the mouse
pointer over the error, users can access a summary
explanation for the cause of the error being
reported.

The DRC/ERC tab also allows users to access

violations by category or by layer. At the top of the
DRC/ERC tab are the ‘stepper’ functions, allowing
users to move from error to error so as to view/fix
each one interactively.

Project Panel

The Project tab contains several report generators and a top-level navigator in the form of a tree that
allows you to drill down into the schematic and layout data in minute detail.

The Statistics Report gives you a summary report on

various board metrics for the currently active design,
including: board area; routing layers; plane layers;
number of components; pins per sq/inch; number of
nets; etc.

The Netlist Report generates a netlist to a file

location of your choice. You can also opt to view the
netlist output in a notepad window.

The BOM Report generates a text file bill of materials

in the old-fashioned CAD system part-list format.

The Board Configuration button presents the board

configuration wizard dialogs, comparable to the
Design -> Board Configuration menu item.

In the nested properties view, near the top of the

Project tab, you can navigate down through

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attributes for virtually every design element in either the schematic or layout side. This includes symbols,
footprints, nets, and their individual
vidual attributes and identifiers.

PCB Design Tasks

You can view this section as a recipe for creating a PCB. The tasks are listed in roughly chronological
order to begin and complete a PCB design. It assumes you are starting the layout from a state listed in
Starting a New Design.. Some tasks may not apply to your design.

Create Missing • Creating footprints from scratch

• Modify a library footprint
Footprints • Create a footprint from a component

Prepare Mechanical • Adjusting the board outline

• Add mounting hardware
Features • Mechanical restrictions

• Fixed component locations

Place Components • Autoplace components
• Manually placing components

Power/Ground • Power/ground plane layers

• Routed power and ground
Critical Routing • Critical net routing

• Fanout and autorouting

General Routing • Manual routing
• Routing techniques

Fills, and • Active copper fill regions

• Nomenclature
Nomenclature • Silkscreens and soldermask

DRC and Visual • Design Rule Checking

• Visual inspection
Inspection • Best practices

Engineering • Foreward annotating changes

• Backannotating changes
Changes • Netlist comparison

• The order process

Order Boards • What you will receive
• Other services

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Create missing footprints
PCB123 supplies a library of footprints. Even so, it is inevitable that you will have to create a custom
footprint or modify an existing one at some time. Footprints are created or modified in the Footprint
Editor, which is very similar to the board editor but does not allow the net or route tools to be invoked.

Additionally, layers are treated generically. There is no concept of a specific layer number, only layer
types such as Top, Inner, Plane. In this way, footprints are created board-agnostic. When a footprint is
instantiated as a component, features in the footprint are mapped to the physical layers of the board
based on the layer type. Some layers do not differentiate between top and bottom such as Silkscreen,
Assembly, and Soldermask. This is because any feature placed on these layers will be mapped to the
proper layer based on the side of the board any instantiating component is placed. This is a dynamic
behavior. As you move the component between top and bottom (by using the Opposite command), the
features on the above footprint layers appear on the correct board layers.

Very rarely will you create footprint features on the Plane or Soldermask layers. Any feature created on
the Plane or Soldermask layers will result in copper or soldermask being voided, not added to those
layers. These layers are traditionally treated as “negative” images. They are a continuous plane of
material voided only where objects such as pads have been defined.

PCB123 does not have a traditional padstack object. A pad for a pin is defined simply with a size, shape,
and drill. If the drill size is zero then the pad is a surface mount pad and will only appear on the top or
bottom routing layer depending on which side of the board the component is placed. If the pin’s drill size
is not zero, then the pin is considered a thru-hole pin and a pad will appear on all layers. You are free
from the burden of specifying plane layer and soldermask pad features. Plane-layer clearance pads are
parametrically derived from the drill size and soldermask clearance pads are parametrically derived from
the pad size on the surface routing layer. This not only relieves you of the burden of defining the data
but it allows Sunstone to optimize certain processes over time.

Footprints are defined in their own local coordinate system. When a component is placed on a board, its
features will be relative to the origin of the footprint. It is recommended that a pin such as pin 1 should
be placed at 0, 0 in the footprint. This helps to align component pins during component placement and
makes life easier when routing. If you right-click on a pin in the Footprint Editor then one of the context
commands is Use Pin as Origin. This will shift everything so that the pin is the new origin.

You can locate a pad at a specific coordinate by invoking the Pin Property dialog. There you can enter the
specific X, Y coordinates for the pin using the full power of expressions. This can be quite useful when
the mechanical specs locate pins relative to other pins.

If a mechanical drawing is referenced from the bottom view of a part, go ahead, create the footprint in
the same way, and then from the main menu select Tools/Mirror All Geometry. This will flip everything
back to a topside view, which is how a footprint should be defined.

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When you need to create a custom footprint, you can create one from scratch, modify an existing
footprint from a library, or create a footprint from a component on a board.

Creating footprints from scratch

With a document open, you can select Design > Create New Footprint from the menu. This will open an
untitled Footprint Editor window whose only contents are a reference designator placeholder and the
origin marker. When you are finished creating the footprint and you want to save it to a library you will
have to name it and choose a library to save it in.

Modify and existing footprint from a library

If you can identify an existing footprint in a library that closely matches the footprint you need then it
may be advantageous to start with the close match. Select Design > Edit Footprint and browse the library
to select which footprint to edit. This will open a new Footprint Editor Window fully populated with the
selected footprint. After making the edits you want, choose the File/Save Footprint As command. This will
show the Save Footprint Dialog with all the original information retained such as the footprint name and
the library it came from. It is important that you do not overwrite the original footprint; you must choose
either another name or a different library to save the modified footprint into. If by accident you overwrite
the original, undo all your changes to the footprint and save again. Then you can redo all the changes
and save correctly this time.

Use an existing component as a starting point

If you have a component that is close to what you need or you just want to update one or more similar
components on a design then you can point at a component in the Design View, right-click, and select
Edit Footprint from the context menu. This will open a new Footprint Editor Window fully populated from
the contents of the component. If, after making all changes, you want to save the footprint to a library
then choose the File/Save Footprint As command. Whether you save the footprint to a library or not,
closing the window will prompt you with the Update Components Dialog, which lets you decide how you
want to apply the changes to the design that you started the edits with.

Prepare Mechanical Features

PCB123 now supports the ability to import common mechanical CAD file formats for use as the board
outline. Find these plugins on the PCB123 menu on the menu bar.

Adjusting the board outline

When you first create a new design, you acquire a board outline in one of five ways:

• use the default board outline in which case you have a 5” x 3” rectangle,

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 • specify some other rectangle,
• load a board template that already has a board outline,
• use a gutted previous design for the board outline.
• Import and IDF outline from your mechanical CAD tools via the
PCB123 -> IDF Import/Export plugin.

In any event, you may need to adjust the board outline manually.

To move an entire board outline just left click on it and hold then drag, releasing the mouse button when
you have positioned the board outline where you want.

Moving a board outline corner is simple: just point at a board outline corner, left-click, and release. Now
you are moving a board outline corner. Just click again to release the corner where you want.

Mouse over a corner and press the d key to delete a corner of the board outline or any other polygon
shape. Deleting a corner can also be accomplished with the mouse simply by selecting a corner and
dropping it on the previous or next corner in the board outline. It is called corner reduction. It is very
efficient, and can all be done with the mouse.

To insert a corner in a board outline simply click on the middle third of a segment or at least .050” away
from a corner. You will then be in digitizing mode that allows you to add corners until you stop by
pressing the Esc key, double clicking, or inserting another corner at the same location as the previous
one.

Add mounting hardware

Mounting hardware can be in many forms, but usually it will use a drilled hole. Depending upon your
specific needs, these holes can be either plated (PTH) or non-plated (NPTH).

The Maximum hole size available through the pcb123 service using the Add Pin tool is 0.257” diameter. If

you require a hole larger than 0.257”, you can use the new Create Cutout tool . You can then
select to either draw a circular or rectangular cutout.

To add a NPTH to your board, click on the add pin icon . The pin
properties form will appear at the top of the Edit Panel. Enter the pin name,
click on Non-Plated, and select a size that will be appropriate for your
application. Put the NPTH in the desired location.

To select, change, or move the hole after it is placed, you will need to
make the ‘DrillDwg’ layer visible.

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Right mouse click over the NPTH and click on properties.

Enter the change that you require in the form that pops up. The only options you will have are size and
location. This is where you can fine-tune the placement without changing your grid.

Plated through holes (PTH) can be manipulated in much the

same way, but they will have more features for you to define.

The PTH size will be offered with a default pad width. While
you can make the pad size larger than the default, you will
not be able to enter a size smaller than the default. Pad
width should be large enough to provide a full width contact
for any mounting hardware used. Be sure to use the
maximum dimension shown on your hardware datasheet for
this feature.

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The Tented check box sets the solder mask property for a pin. Checking the tented box will cover (Tent)
a through-hole pin or surface mount pad. Un-checking this option (the default setting) will create an
opening in the solder mask for a through-hole pin or surface mount pad.

The Thermal check box determines if a through-hole pin or surface mount pad will connect to a filled
copper region or plane layer with a thermal relief. Selecting the thermal check box will create a
connection to polygon or plane with a thermal relief. Un-checking this box will allow a pin to directly
connect to the polygon or plane.

The Slot check box is new to PCB123 v5. Checking this option will allow you to create plated an non-
plated slots in your layout. Checking the Slot box enables the Slot Length field. Selecting a square or
oval pad shape enables the Pad Height field. Set you slot properties and place the object.

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Another new feature in V5 is the removal of the list of pre-defined finished hole sizes. In prior releases
you were limited to a set of finished holes sizes. You can now enter in a specific hole size and we will
build as designed. The smallest plated hole you can enter is .008” and the largest is .025”. The smallest
non-plated hole is .0135” and the largest is .257”.

You can also set a specific hole size for slots. The smallest plated slot hole size is .025” and the largest is
.25”. The smallest non-plated slot hole size is .031” and the largest is .257”.

Place components
If you did not start with a netlist then you are probably inserting components manually and placing them
roughly where you think they should go as best you can without the aid of a netlist.

If you did start with a netlist then all the components are spread out beneath the board outline showing
the ratsnest of connections to be routed.

Fixed component locations

The most logical way to begin placing the board is to identify all the components with fixed locations and
place them first. You can right-click on a component to display its properties and from there enter the
precise location for that component. Even if the locations are not precisely fixed starting you placement
with the I/O circuitry is usually a smart strategy.

Before you start placing the bulk of the components, you should select a reasonable placement grid for
the components. The larger the grid the easier it is to align and uniformly distribute components. On very
dense boards, it may become impossible to place every device on the same grid. Having the bulk of the
pins on a uniform grid can pay big dividends while routing.

After placing fixed, I/O, or generally critical components there are a couple of strategies to employ for
placing the remainder of the components:

• If you have the schematic handy then you can press Ctrl+F to find and select other components
and snap them to the cursor for placement.
• If you started with a netlist, you can also use the resulting ratsnest as a placement guide. By
roughly placing the devices with the larger pin counts, you try to minimize the overall connection
length by placing components that heavily interconnected close together.

These are just some rough guidelines. You design may have some restrictions such as critical nets that
dictate a less-than-optimal placement for overall routing, or there may be height restrictions on some
devices.

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Autoplace components

To get a quick start on the layout process, you may choose to use the menu item, Design -> AutoPlace.
Using this function, PCB123 will make its best effort to pre-arrange component footprints in a way to
minimize the amount of routing required.

Smart Auto-placement is a complex algorithm that often relies heavily on heuristics and ‘best practices.’
The Auto-Place function in PCB123, while useful, is not intended to be a full-blown autoplacer in the spirit
of some other enterprise-level tools.

PCB123 provides an Autoplace function as well. While you create the schematic for your design, PCB123
tracks both the schematic symbol in the schematic sheet, and the associated footprint for that schematic
symbol. As you place symbols, the footprints and rats-nest connection data are queuing up on the layout
view, ready for placement and routing.

Auto placement is a good tool for getting all of the component footprints on the screen. After that, they
will all probably still need to be moved into a more appropriate location. The auto-placement feature has
no practical idea what each component’s relation to the other components on the board might be. For
example, if your decoupling capacitors are all lined up on page three of your schematic, with ICs on page
1 and 2, your decoupling capacitors will all place in a little patch of real estate independent of any
relationship they may have in the real world.

The autoplacer can be used iteratively as you work through the initial placements on your board. Use the
LOCK setting on the component properties pane to lock down a component and keep the autoplacer from
relocating it.

Manual place components

Pragmatically speaking, whether you’ve used AutoPlace or not, you’ll probably want to do some amount
of manual placement of components.

If the component footprints are already placed on your layout view, you can manually adjust the
component placement. Click on the selection tool. In selection mode, hover the mouse pointer over a
component until the mouse cursor turns into a chip package icon. Then left-click the component to enter
move mode. The component will ghost interactively on the screen; place the component in its new
location. Ratsnest data will follow; previously routed connections will ratsnest from any broken
connections to the component in its new location.

Power, ground, and critical routing

Power and ground plane layers

In this section, we’ll show you how to add a Plane to the routing layer, and name the plane ‘+12v’

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In this case we have selected a trace on the +12V net. Clicking on the Unroute Net menu item will
remove+12V trace routing from all layers

Set the edit layer to layer Bottom, using the edit pane on the left side of PCB123.

Click on the add Draw Polygon icon, draw a polygon around the board
to cover the area under all +12V pins from any layer. It helps to check
bottom layer routing and adjust any traces that will cut across the
plane.

The plane you draw will be just an outline with default line width.
Right mouse over the new polygon you drew and select Toggle
Filled/Unfilled.

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This is your filled polygon. It is named 12VPLANE, but not attached to a net yet.

Right mouse over the plane area again, select the net name (+12V) and ok the form.

Now, Route all +12V pins out to a breakout via to finish your connections.

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Reroute your pre-existing traces, and cleanup.

If your board has a large number of power and ground pins, if it will be drawing a high current, or if
there are high speed signals, you will want to add plane layers to your board.

Sometimes you will need both power and ground, others just ground layers will be sufficient, with routed
power.

To define an internal layer as a power or ground layer has been simplified as compared to many other
cad programs you may have seen:

Open your pcb123 layout window.

Click on Design, Board Configuration.

Select Four or Six layer Board, this will also free up the ‘Use Inner as plane layer buttons.

Select the layers you want to make into plane layers.

Or,

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Click the Ok button.

Typically you will want to alternate signal and plane layers, keeping each signal layer adjacent to a plane
layer. The pictures above show a typical setup for a 4 or 6 layer board.

Place your cursor over a ratsnest/guide for your power or ground net to be assigned a plane layer, press
the right mouse button, select properties.

In the Net xxx properties menu, (my net is called “sink”) select the plane or planes that will connect to
your net.

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The only thing left to make your power/ground connections will be routing from surface mount pins to a
via for connectivity.

For power or ground that will be attached to a plane layer, I would not want to auto-route the net, since
doing so would add a huge amount of clutter to the signal routing layers. You may want to use the auto-
router to perform breakout, but after that, turn off auto-routing for your power/ground nets.

Routed power and ground

As your boards become more complex, you will have more than just one or two power nets.
When this happens, you may need to manually route some of them.

You will still not want to auto-route power or ground due to the amount of clutter that this can create.

Power should be routed before your other circuitry in order to ensure that you leave enough room to get
the job done. Power traces are typically wider than signal traces, and usually need extra spacing to keep
from negatively affecting your more sensitive signals.

Power and ground nets usually make use of discrete components such as caps, resistors, inductors, etc…
These parts can have specific placement and routing constraints that will not be possible if you have
already routed the rest of your nets.

Some things that need to be taken into account before you start routing your power are;

• Current present on the net. (how wide do the traces need to be?)
• Voltage, difference between the net and other nets on the board. (how far apart do your nets
need to be for safety reasons)
• Space required from sensitive nets, amount of ‘noise’ on the net will have to be considered. (do
some nets need to be farther from your power nets to work?)
• Decoupling, bypass, and bulk capacitors will need to be carefully placed and routed prior to
power net routing.
• Make a plan, it’s sometimes best to do it on paper with colored pens to make sure you can make
your connections before spending a bunch of time in cad just to find out that you need to rip
everything up and spread your parts out for more room.

Critical routing

Some nets may have special needs such as a minimal routing length or routed in a particular sequence
from pin to pin. Often it is easier to deal with these nets at the beginning then later on in the design
when things may get dense.

Clock nets should be routed first and very carefully planned out. These nets control pretty much
everything else that happens on your board, and if clocks are not properly connected and protected,
nothing else will really work as well as you hope.

Any nets with a specific timing requirement should be routed next. Nets such as usb, data and address
lines, etc… should be carefully scrutinized for length, spacing, and impedance requirements prior to
making the actual connections on your board.

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Some nets will require “differential pair” routing, two nets running carefully side by side for the entire
distance that they travel across your board.

Once routed, these “critical routing” traces should be left alone and only moved if there is no other
option.

General routing

General nets are any nets that don’t have special routing or other requirements.

All you really need to do is connect them from one pin to another.

These nets will be hooked up after all of your power, ground, and critical nets are complete.

You will still want to make use of a neat and tidy routing plan for these non-critical nets or you will
quickly run out of room. While the temptation to auto-route them is always present, your board will look
better and almost always perform better if you manually route them.

Routing should follow some rules in order to make the most efficient use of the board area you have;

• Route orthogonally where possible. Each layer is set up to route one direction, either horizontally
or vertically.
• Use 45” chamfered corners when routing. This makes for shorter overall routing, fewer
roadblocks, and will reduce unwanted reflections on your signals.
• Route straight out of component pins a distance equal to the width of the trace before changing
direction. This will remove acute angle features resulting in ‘acid traps’ at board fabrication. Acid
traps are sharp corners that can be hard to clean during etching processes. They can result in
long term reliability problems on your finished product.
• Don’t run these types of traces right next to your critical routing nets, they can cause crosstalk or
timing problems on your critical nets.

Fanout and autorouting

If your board has a considerable percentage of surface-mounted devices then you may want to perform a
Fanout on your design, especially if your board is dense or has more than two routing layers. The idea
behind this is that you have to route out of the SMD pads on the layer they are on so you may as well
make sure you can at least escape the pad to an immediate via. Once this is done, you have the option
of routing the remainder of the connection on any suitable layer. Besides automatically fanning out a
board you can do it manually by routing out of a pad and then pressing the ‘V’ key to terminate the route
at a via. You can always remove unneeded vias after the board is complete.

On dense boards, running the autorouter can be beneficial in determining trouble spots on the board.
The autorouter settings can be modified in the User Preferences Dialog. You can always undo the results
of an autoroute. Autorouting may be an acceptable solution on sparsely to moderately dense designs or
designs that have very good connection ‘flow’ to them.

Using the automatic fanout feature can radically decrease the amount of time spent just breaking out
your signals from surface mount components.

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The automatic fanout tool is preset to use your routing grid for via placement. It will place vias in
locations that may not be perfect for your application. On one test (shown below) components were
placed top and bottom of the board. Via fanout was run and vias were placed in locations that short two
nets together. These vias or components will need to be moved prior to any other routing activity.

Via placement shown below resulting from automatic via fanout. The vias on sd_wp net are not
necessary, traces should be routed directly from pin to pin for this net. Vias can easily be removed from
these locations.

After running automatic fanout, and before running the autorouter, you will want to clean up any
undesirable fanout vias, perform any power net, and critical routing, make sure your routing grid is set to
a number that makes sense for your circuit, turn off fanout before autorouting, setup layer bias and
direction, and hit the go button.

It makes sense to limit the number of layers that you use for autorouting. Doing so will limit the number
of layer transitions that your signals make before they reach their destination. You can also limit the

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number of vias using the via bias option. The options are Use freely, neutral, avoid using, and no vias.
Just remember, less is better in most cases.

After your autorouting run is complete, you should do some cleanup. One of the things that needs to be
done is management of your signal return path.

Signal return path is the route that your signal will find along the path of lowest impedance, hopefully
directly under the actual signal trace as routed on the board.

To help visualize this, think of your house wiring. There is a black wire and a white wire. (we won’t worry
about the safety ground, bare wire right now).

The black wire can be considered the signal wire. The white wire provides the signal return. They are
spaced very carefully in their cable assembly to provide a controlled and reasonably low impedance signal
return. If you simply ran a wire from the breaker out to all of the appliances on the net, and looped it
back to the breaker box ground rail, the lights would come on but the tv and radio would suffer from
uncontrolled static. On your circuit board this is called ‘noise’. It can usually be controlled by taking a few
fairly simple steps that I will try to describe for you.

For the circuit below, we have outer signal layers, and inner plane layers. The plane layers are named
PWRGND and +3.3V in this area of the board.

Net 124/19 is routed such that it requires a via to transition from top to bottom layer at pin 1 of the
pullup resistor shown. In order to provide a good signal return path, you would place a bypass capacitor
as shown with a via to each of the reference planes. This will be necessary each location that the net
changes from top to bottom layer.

For places where the routing layer changes and there are two ground layers, using a via to tie the ground
layers together near your signal via will provide the same service as the bypass capacitor between
PWRGND and +3.3V shown above.

Depending on the signal rise time, power, and timing requirements, along with a huge array of other
considerations, one bypass capacitor/ return via may suffice for a number of signals in an area, or you
may want one to one coverage.

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Manual routing

Using the Freestyle tool you can freely insert routes from pins and other routes. You can even define new
connectivity this way. There is no auto-finish because there is no end-point defined. The route is
terminated by pressing the escape key (leaving a dangling end) or by routing to another pin or route.

In order to make the most efficient use of real estate on your boards, you can manually route all of the
signals. This is the preferred method for boards that will be visible to the end user for a lot of reasons.
Manually placed and routed boards, when done carefully, just look better than the most carefully
autorouted boards. Manually routed boards will also have less vias, can require less layers, and will
usually perform better in the field.

In order to manually route your signals, you will want to make sure that you follow the order of routing
precedence described above. Route your power according to specific current and voltage rules to provide
a safe and robust power delivery system.

Route clocks and other high speed nets to meet the requirements outlined in their specifications.

Connect all of your other general routing nets to complete your board.

Below is a crystal routed with it’s decoupling capacitors. Routing should be as short as possible, nets
should be routed together as a differential pair, and the wire length should be matched as closely as
practical. Again, this should not be a problem because you can make any adjustments now, before other
routing clutters up your board.

The automatic fanout of the pins on these memory chips will result in very crowded trace routing, and
area fill splits between the vias. Moving the vias to a staggered pattern will relieve these problem areas.

Something like this will provide much more routing space for the signals running between these memory
parts.

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Routing techniques

Routing should be orthogonal with mitered corners in order to make efficient use of your board area.

Routing with random angle traces will be very hard to maintain and will take much more space since
traces can’t be routed parallel to each other.

Mitered corners are important for reduction of signal reflection which causes noise and timing problems.
Mitered corners also reduce the amount of area that your traces use on the board

When manually routing a net connecting two pins that are not located on your routing grid; start routing
from one pin, route most of the trace but stop before you make the last connection, hit the esc. Button
on your keyboard to stop routing, move your cursor to the unrouted pin, click on it to start routing, finish
routing the wire to provide neat pad entry and on-grid trace routing.

Fills, and Nomenclature

Active copper fill regions

In order to have more than one power or ground net represented on a single layer, you will frequently
add a copper fill for each of your power/ground nets.

To reduce the likelihood of errors in your connectivity, you will need to attach each power fill region to a
specific net name.

In the example below, we will add a power plane to +12V.

If the net is already routed, you will want to unroute all of the traces on that net.

Center mouse over trace on net to be removed. In this case we have selected a trace on the +12V net.
Clicking on the Unroute Net menu item will remove+12V trace routing from all layers.

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You will have ratsnest guides showing for the power net now, making it more obvious where all of the
connections need to be made.

Set your edit layer to your intended power or ground layer In

this case, it will be layer ‘Bottom’.

Click on the add Polygon icon, draw a polygon around the board to cover
the area under all +12V pins from any layer. It helps to check bottom
layer routing and adjust any traces that will cut across the plane.

The poly properties menu will open above the display window, simply enter the information that you
need to define your plane and start drawing it on the board.

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Your area fill will attach to any items that are connected to +12V and pass through or reside on layer
‘bottom’.

Route all +12V pins out to a breakout via to finish your connections.

Gerber output will automatically be generated with thermal relief patterns for all pins and vias.

Nomenclature

Nomenclature, or silkscreen is printed on your board using a non-conductive epoxy, usually in a

contrasting color from silkscreen layers. If your board will have visible nomenclature such as reference
designators, part number, revision, etc… you will need to adjust it’s placement and sometimes it’s size.

Text size needs to be large enough for us to print legibly, but not so large that it can’t be placed neatly
on your board.

A reasonable size for nomenclature is 0.050” tall characters, 0.006” – 0.008” line width.

0.006” is the minimum line width that we can print with a guarantee that it will be complete and legible.

To edit information text such as company information or board part number, click on the add text button
at the top of your edit window.

Enter your required text using the keyboard, or you can copy and paste from another document for
quicker more accurate entry.

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To edit text size, orientation, line width, layer, etc… after text entry, right mouse click on Properties,

Make any changes to the form that you feel would improve the look and legibility of your text items and
click on ok..

The same changes can be done to component name, reference designators shown in the popup menu
below.

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After your text has the size and thickness that you like to see, you may have to move it to a more likely
location.

Set your select filter to text using the icon shown below.

Put your cursor over a text item that needs to move, right mouse to select and simply drag the text to it’s
new location

While the text is selected, push the letter R (upper or lower case is fine) and the text will rotate
90degrees (U28 had to be rotated 270 degrees so “RRR” did the trick.

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Order Boards
PCB123 is unique in that the tool tracks your design against a fully documented set of manufacturing
process parameters. In fact, because of the close connection between the tool and manufacturing
capabilities at Sunstone Circuits, PCB123 can even provide real-time quoting for board fabrication as you
design.

The in-tool quote-and-order functionality provides you with two key benefits:

1. You can design to your fabrication budget, and get immediate notification if a design change
affects your pricing.
2. Thanks to the web interface ordering process, you can efficiently submit your design to Sunstone
for manufacture, with a clear understanding of the manufacturability (thanks to DRCs) and
pricing for your order.

The order process itself is quite easy On the following pages, we’ll walk you through the ordering
process.

The Order process

1. Pre-Order DRC check

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2. Sunstone Account Log-in

3. Board Configuration Review Page. You can review

the settings used for the board being ordered. On
this page, at this point in the process, you can
modify the board quantity, and the ROHS
manufacturing options. Any other configuration
options will require quitting the order process and
accessing the board configuration inside the editor
environment.

4. Add On Services Page. Additional services can be

selected here. As of this printing, PCB123 provides
the following cost-adder services:

• Flying Probe Electrical Testing

• Assembly services (via a partner company)
• Expedited manufacturing

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5. File Transfer. Click the transfer button on this page,
and your PCB123 design file will be transferred via
your internet connection to Sunstone Circuits. Along
with the design file we will receive the board
configuration and basic manufacturing parameters you
specified in step 2. Please note, your order is not yet
complete. But, the only remaining steps are the
payment details.

6. Shipping Information. After the transfer is complete, order control transfers to a web browser
page similar to the example below. Enter your shipping details, ship method, ship account
number and select Next to continue.

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 7. Payment Information. Here you can either enter credit card or billing information or, if you have
credit card information already on file in your Sunstone account, you can choose the pre-loaded
information. This page confirms the cost-adder services you may have selected, and also shows
you the estimated ship date. Please be aware that, for some payment options like Phone/FAX,
your order will not be released to manufacturing until payment information is received by
Sunstone Circuits. As such, the ship date is an estimate until payment is confirmed.

Click next on this page, and you proceed to order confirmation

8. Review and Submit Order: Final confirmation of the

order, services, ship date, options, etc. At this point, all
payment and manufacturing information is complete.
Clicking the SUBMIT ORDER button places the order and
initiates the process to charge the credit card account.

And that completes the order process. Your order appears in the
PCB123 order queue at Sunstone Circuits and immediately
moves onto the manufacturing floor for tooling, imaging and
manufacture.

You can check on the status of your order (including where it is

in manufacturing) at any time by logging into your account at
www.sunstone.com.

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Routing your Design

Before you route

After you have all the components placed on the board, you may need to setup special rules for some
nets. These include:

• Plane Layer Nets: If you have plane layers, you will need to establish which nets are tied to the
planes. You can navigate to the nets in the Object Hierarchy or graphically select the nets and
use RMB Properties to get to the Net Properties Dialog. Assuming you have already identified at
least one inner layer as a plane layer you can click on the plane layer checkboxes in the net
properties dialog. This tells the system that as soon as a pin connects to a plane layer either
because it is a thru-hole pin, it is routed to another thru-hole pin or via, then it is considered
connected. If you have multiple nets assigned to the same plane layer you will have to isolate the
pins from each net by adding a polyline that encompasses just the pins of one of the plane nets.
This has to be done manually.

• Special Net Widths: Depending on the copper weight of the board, the default width of nets
will be either .007” or .012”. This may not be adequate for certain nets, especially those that may
be carrying higher current. You can set the line width for these nets in Net Properties Dialog.

• Special Net Spacing: Depending on the copper weight of the board, the default spacing for
nets will be either .007” or .012”. This may not be adequate for certain nets, especially those that
may be carrying a high potential and need to meet regulatory requirements or nets that are edge
sensitive and need to ensure minimal coupling. You can set the net spacing in the Net Properties
Dialog.

You can also set Per-Layer spacing rules in the User Preferences Dialog.

Routing the board

After you have all the components placed on the board, your next task is to route all the nets. There are
many factors to consider and there are many tools to help. Generally, you want each layer to have a
preferred routing direction or ‘flow’. Too much meandering on a layer most likely will cut off routing
channels before all the routing is complete.

As for a routing strategy, here is a sequence to consider:

1. Fanout: If your board has a considerable percentage of surface-mounted devices then you may
want to perform a Fanout on your design, especially if your board is dense or has more than two
routing layers. The idea behind this is that you have to route out of the SMD pads on the layer
they are on so you may as well make sure you can at least escape the pad to an immediate via.
Once this is done, you have the option of routing the remainder of the connection on any suitable
layer. Besides automatically fanning out a board you can do it manually by routing out of a pad
and then pressing the ‘V’ key to terminate the route at a via. You can always remove unneeded
vias after the board is complete.

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 2. Critical Routing: Some nets may have special needs such as a minimal routing length or routed
in a particular sequence from pin to pin. Often it is easier to deal with these nets at the beginning
then later on in the design when things may get dense.

3. Short connections: Short connections are very easy to route at the start of a design but
because of limited options can be extremely difficult to route on a dense board if saved until the
end.

4. Wide Traces: for the same reasons as mentioned above.

For general routing, you have several options available to you:

• Autoroute: This may be an acceptable solution on sparse to moderately dense designs or

designs that have very good connection ‘flow’ to them. On dense boards, running the autorouter
can be beneficial in determining trouble spots on the board. The autorouter settings can be
modified in the User Preferences Dialog. You can always undo the results of an autoroute.

• Partial Autoroute: You can select a connection or group of connections, right-click the mouse,
and select Autoroute from the context menu. This will engage the autorouter for just those
connections.

• Pin-To-Pin Manual Routing: If you started your design with a netlist then you can just click
on a connection (ratline) and start digitizing corners. Because there is knowledge of where the
connection terminates you can double click at anytime and the system will automatically finish
routing the connection using a straight line or an orthogonal pair of lines. This type of auto-finish
does not avoid obstacles and may produce DRC markers.

• Freestyle Manual Routing: Using the Freestyle tool you can freely insert routes from pins and
other routes. You can even define new connectivity this way. There is no auto-finish because
there is no end-point defined. The route is terminated by pressing the escape key (leaving a
dangling end) or by routing to another pin or route.

For manual routing, there are two broad strategies. One of them is intuitive and the other is less intuitive
but can be a very powerful technique on dense designs.

Complete each Connection, one at a time: this is an obvious technique that involves selecting or
inserting connections, one at a time, and then routing them to completion. It may require a lot of
panning around and can possibly lead to a large amount of rerouting toward the end of dense designs.

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Sweep route one window at a time: take a look at the picture below. It shows one completely routed
window of a design. The idea is to zoom in to a comfortable magnification and to route everything in that
window. If a connection
passes through the window on
a diagonal, then drag it to a
corner and ‘tack’ it there
because it has no business in
the current window. If you did
not turn off angle snap in User
Preferences then you may
have to override the snap
behavior by holding down the
Ctrl key while routing. For
connections that pass
orthogonally through the
window use the same tactic
but find an open channel in
the window and route it
through the window. Once the
window is complete, pan to
the next window and route
that one. You should start in
the densest region of the board and pan against the long axis of the board, I.E. if the board is mostly
horizontal then pan vertically as your primary pan direction. This very powerful technique results in less
rerouting and can identify serious trouble quicker than any other method.

Adding copper regions

If you need to add shielding around nets or generally make other nets as wide as possible a simple
method to do this is to add copper pour regions to your design. Simply draw a closed board outline that
has been assigned to a net. Objects that are contained within the board outline region that do not belong
to the board outline’s net will be isolated from the copper region. Those that are assigned to the same
net will be tied to the copper region.

In the picture below, NET1 is surrounded by a copper pour that has been assigned to the GND net.
Copper pour does not flood over anything that has a different net property than itself. Even pins that do
have the same net property as the copper are cleared out and tied to the copper through ‘spokes’ to help
soldering by focusing the heat on the pin.

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The default isolation gap between copper pour and other objects is 0.008” for standard 1oz copper clad
and 0.013” for 2.5oz copper clad boards. This clearance may be increased on certain objects whose net
spacing rule dictate a greater clearance, including the copper pour net itself. By specifying worst case
spacing on grounds and voltages, copper pour can be safely used while guaranteeing adherence to
standards and regulation bodies requirements such as Underwriter Labs (UL).

Care must be taken when adding copper pour to congested areas so that pins are not isolated. Pins that
belong to the same net have connection lines, or a ratsnest between them. The connection lines
disappear when:

• A continuous routed path is completed between the pins.

• The pins’ net is assigned to a plane layer and the pins hit the plane layer through a plated hole.
• The pins are contained in a copper pour region assigned to the same net.

Because the display of the ratsnest is calculated on the fly, connections made with copper pour are
assumed to be complete. However, this may not always be true. It is possible to isolate pins by carving
up the copper pour region with too many other-net objects.

Running a full DRC check on the board will detect possible isolations and the resulting error markers
should be investigated carefully. The DRC check for isolations is pessimistic. First, It rasterizes the copper
region at some minimum feature size so
a pin might be flagged as isolated even
though it may be connected by one or
more slivers smaller than 0.004”.
Second, the isolation check is performed
on a per-copper pour basis without
regard to the rest of the net topology.
This means that two pins inside a copper
pour region of the same net may be
reported as isolated even though they
are connected by a different means such
as another copper pour region on a
different layer or even a plane layer. This
may be corrected in the future but is
currently considered beyond the scope of
the software.

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An example of isolated pins and the corresponding DRC error marker is shown to the left. Note that only
one pin is reported as isolated as the other is considered connected to the copper. Only the smallest
number of isolated pins is reported by the DRC. The largest connected set of pins is not reported as
isolated to reduce the number of error markers generated.

You can also add solid regions of copper that do not clear anything out by simply leaving the net property
blank.

If you add a board outline to a plane layer or a soldermask layer, you are actually clearing copper or
soldermask from that region because those layers are assumed to be continuous planes and anything on
them is considered a break in the plane.

Design Changes

Design changes are an inevitable unpleasant fact so PCB123 has provided some tools to make
incorporating design changes as simple and painless as possible. There are two methods for performing
design changes. They are:

Manual Changes: some types of changes are obvious. Adding a new component is as simple as clicking
on the Add Component toolbar button and adding a connection is as simple as clicking on the Add
Connection toolbar button. To delete a component just point at it and press the Del key on your
keyboard. To remove a pin from a net use the connection tool, right click on a pin, and select Disconnect
Pin from the Context Menu. You can change the footprint for a component in Component Properties
Dialog.

Automatic ECO: if your design is captured in a schematic then a very powerful tool available to you is
the Automatic ECO feature. It will compare a design against a netlist and perform all the necessary
changes to the design to make it match the netlist. It will do this in a highly optimal manner, disturbing
the existing design as little as it can. It will even re-bind component footprints so if nothing changed on
your schematic except a part type change then it will detect that in perform the update.

Design Rule Checking

One of the last tasks you want to perform on your design is Run DRC. It is important enough that it is
automatically run before you place an order. During the course of design, certain checks are done
dynamically – mainly checks for shorts. Running a full DRC not only detects shorts but it also will detect
opens and a range of fabrication rules such as pad annular ring size and drills too close together.
Warnings may also be generated such as silkscreen on exposed copper areas such as pads.

After DRC has been run you can cycle through the errors and resolve them. Pressing the ‘N’ key on your
keyboard will pan you to the next error. When you have reached the end of the error list, you will be
prompted to run another DRC to check if you cleared them all.

Object Editing

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This section describes the operation of the commands used to edit objects in the PCB123 tool
environment.

Setting the grid

The quickest way to change the grid is to press the ‘G’ key on your keyboard. You can also select Grid
from the Edit menu.

The working (snap) grid and the display grid are not independent.

See the Grid Command for more information.

See the Grid Dialog for more information.

Changing layers

There are many ways to change the current layer but the easiest way is to type the layer number on the
keyboard. The layer numbers are:

• 1 – Top layer
• 2 – Bottom layer
• 3-6 – Inner layers (if present)
• Ctrl+1 – Top soldermask (if present) (not implemented in v5)
• Ctrl+2 – Bottom soldermask (if present) (not implemented in v5)
• Shft+1 – Top silkscreen (if present)
• Shft+2 – Bottom silkscreen (if present)

In addition to typing layer numbers, you can select View/Layer from the menu. You can also LMB click a
layer in the Layer Display panel shown below:

Lastly, you can use the Layer toolbar (shown above) to click among the active layers.

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Changing layers is allowed while editing many objects. For instance, while you are routing you can
change the layer to insert a via at the last corner.

Changing line width

The simplest way to change the width of a line while drawing is to press the ‘W’ key. This will invoke the
Line Width Dialog. You can also RMB to get the context menu, which has a Change Line Width item.

Add a component to the board

If you want to manually add a component to your design (as opposed to automatically with a netlist)

then the simplest way to do this is by clicking on the Add Component Button or the Add Footprint
Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert > Add Component or Insert > Add
Footprint from the menu bar. Using the Add Component option allows you to choose from the library of
parts that contains footprints that have been paired with symbols.

Using the Add Footprint option you can choose directly from the footprint libraries. Since these footprints
have not been paired with symbols a generic symbol will be created when you place the part on your
layout. You will find the schematic symbol for this footprint on the SyncPage_A.

Move a component

Depending on your experience, there may be a tendency to point at a component, hold down the LMB
and drag that component. Though this is allowed, a much easier way is to point at the component and
LMB click and release. This attaches the component to your cursor and allows you to do such things as
use the RMB for context commands. You click once to select it and begin moving and click again to
release it where you want.

Move a component to the other side of the board

Once you have a component selected the easiest way to move it from one side of the board to the other
is by pressing the ‘O’ (for opposite) key on your keyboard. Alternatively, with the component selected you
can RMB to display the context menu and select the Opposite command.

A component placed on the bottom of the board is automatically mirrored for you.

Rotate a component

Once you have a component selected on your cursor the easiest way to rotate it is to press the ‘R’ key on
your keyboard. Alternatively, while you have the component on your cursor you can RMB to display the
context menu and then select the Rotate command.

Component rotation is always performed counter-clockwise.

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By default, component rotations are performed in 90-degree increments but you can change this default
in the User Preferences - General dialog.

Edit a component

There are two ‘levels’ of component editing: you can edit information about the component and you can
edit the contents of the component.

To edit information about the component and you have one or more components selected you can press
Alt+Enter on your keyboard or alternatively RMB to display the context menu and select the Properties
command to invoke the Component Properties dialog.

To edit the contents of a component, select a component, RMB to display the context dialog, and select
the Edit Footprint command. This will invoke the Footprint Editor, which allows you to graphically modify
the component contents such as pins and outline data.

Add a pin to the board

If you want to manually add a pin to your design, then the simplest way to do this is by clicking on the

Add Pin Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert/Pin from the menu bar.

Once you have selected this command, a default pin will be attached to your cursor and there will be a
Pin Context Pane in the left panel that allows you to edit some of the more common pin properties.

Add a slot to the board

The PCB123 V5 Add Pin tool now includes a property to create slots on your layout and footprints. You
can have up to 4 slots and cutouts on a layout when ordering through the PCB123 software. If you have
more than 4 slots and cutouts you can go to wwww.sunstone.com and order through our Full Feature or
Custom Quote service. Add a pin as described above and you will see the slot check box.

Select the Rectangle or Oval pad shape and set the pin properties for you plated or non-plated slots.

Move a pin

Only board-level pins can be moved in a design. To move component pins, you must edit the component
in the Footprint Editor.

Depending on your experience, there may be a tendency to point at a pin, hold down the LMB and drag
that pin. Though this is allowed a much easier way is to point at the pin and click it. This attaches the pin
to your cursor and allows you to do such things as use the RMB for context commands. You click once to
select it and begin moving and click again to release it where you want. Try it, it feels good.

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Change a pin

If you have one or more pins selected you can press Alt+Enter on your keyboard or alternatively RMB to
display the context menu and select the Properties command to invoke the Pin Properties Dialog
which allows you to change any pin property.

Add a polygon or polyline

If you want to add a polyline or filled polygon to your design then the simplest way to do this is by

clicking on the Add Polygon Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert >
Polygon from the menu bar.

Once you have selected this command, this symbol will appear next to the cursor informing you that
you are in Add Polygon mode and the system is waiting for you to click the first corner. After clicking the
first corner, a line segment will then be drawn from the last corner clicked to the current cursor location.
To stop digitizing the board outline you can either press the Esc key on your keyboard or just double-click
the last corner.

If you double back over a line segment, the overlapping portion of the segment will be removed. You can
keep doubling back to the previous corner to incrementally undo the board outline.

Once you have selected this command there will be a Polygon Context Pane in the left panel that allows
you to edit some of the more common board outline properties.

You can also perform many of the global commands such as Change Grid while creating board outlines.

Add a circle

If you want to add a hollow circle to your design then the simplest way to do this is by clicking on the

Add Circle Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert/Circle from the menu
bar.

Once you have selected this command, this symbol will appear next to the cursor informing you that
you are in Add Circle mode and the system is waiting for you to click the circle center. After clicking the
circle center moving the mouse simply adjusts the circle radius. Click again at the desired radius to
accept.

You can also perform many of the global commands such as Change Grid while creating circles.

Add an arc

If you want to add an arc to your design then the simplest way to do this is by clicking on the Add Arc
Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert/Arc from the menu bar.

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Once you have selected this command, this symbol will appear next to the cursor informing you that
you are in Add Arc mode and the system is waiting for you to click one end of the arc segment. After
clicking the arc start, you will be rubber banding a line. Click again to establish the arc end then any
mouse movement will adjust the radius. After you have the desired radius click again to accept the arc.

You can also perform many of the global commands such as Change Grid while creating arcs.

Add a cutout

In V5 you can now add cutouts to your designs using the Create Cutout tool . You can order
through PCB123 with up to slots and cutouts in your layout. If you have more than 4 PCB123 will not
allow you to order through the software. If you have more than 4 slots and cutouts you can go to the
www.sunstone.com website to order through our Full Feature or Custom Quote service.

The cutout tool allows you to draw rectangular cutouts with up to 4 vertices and round cutouts. The
cutout shapes are automatically included as part of your board outline. These objects can be moved and
rotated independent of the board outline.

Move a board outline

To move an entire board outline just left click on it and drag, releasing the mouse button when you have
position the board outline where you want.

Move board outline corners

Moving a board outline corner is simple: just point at a board outline corner, left-click, and release. Now
you are moving a board outline corner. Just click again to release the corner where you want.

Delete board outline corners

Mouse over a board outline corner or corner or any polygon and press the d key. This process can also
be accomplished with the mouse simply by selecting a corner and dropping it on the previous or next
corner in the board outline. It is called corner reduction. It is very efficient, and can all be done with the
mouse.

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Insert corners in a board outline

To insert a corner in a board outline simply click on the middle third of a segment or at least .050” away
from a corner. You will then be in digitizing mode that allows you to add corners until you stop by
pressing the Esc key, double clicking, or inserting another corner at the same location as the previous
one.

Add a connection between two pins

To add a connection between two pins click on the Connection Tool to place the system in Add
Connection Mode. Once in this mode simply click on the first pin you want to add the connection
between. After clicking on the first pin, you will be rubber-banding a line while the system waits for you
to click on the other pin that completes the connection.

If neither pin is tied to a net then a new, unique net name will be created for the connection. If one of
the pins is tied to a net, then the connection and the other pin will inherit that net name. If both pins are
tied to different nets then you will be prompted to merge the nets together.

Remove a pin from a net

To remove or disconnect a pin from a net first make sure you have the Select Object tool active then
mouse over a pin you wish to disconnect. Right click on the pin and select Disconnect pin from net.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the pin in the Object Hierarchy tree and select Properties from the
context menu. This will invoke the Pin Properties Dialog where you can either disconnect the pin from
any net or assign it to a different net.

Start routing from a pin

If there is already a ratline (connection) tied to a pin simply click on it to begin routing. If the pin is a
thru-hole pin then you will be routing on the current layer. If the pin is an SMD pin then the route will
begin on whatever surface layer the pin is on. Once you have begun routing you can continue to digitize
new corners until the route is completed or you press the Esc key to stop routing.

Alternatively, you can click on the FreeStyle Routing Tool and then click on a pad to start routing.
The same features as above apply in this mode with the only difference being if the pin was not
previously tied to a net then a new, unique net name will be created with the pin and the route tied to it.

Start routing from another route

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You can start a new route from a previous on by clicking on the FreeStyle Routing Tool and then
clicking on an existing route. The new route will inherit the net from the route you clicked on and you will
be routing on the same layer as that route.

Add a via between layers

There are a few ways to add vias.

1. You can use the add pin tool to place a via manually at any location. This will create a via that is
exposed through the solder mask and is thermally relieved when connected to filled polygons and plane
layers.

2. A fanout via: To end a trace at a via you can start routing your trace at a pad. When you get to the
location you would like to add your via left click and press the v key on your keyboard. A fanout via will
be covered by solder mask and will be thermally relieved in a plane layer but not thermally relieved in a
filled polygon.

3. Add a via while routing a trace and continue routing on another layer: Start a trace at a pad and route
to the location you will need a via. Left click to stop the trace. If you are routing on a two layer board you
can press the z key on your keyboard. This will add a via and switch you to the opposing layer to
continue routing. If you are routing on a multi-layer board you can use the number key across the top of
you keyboard to add a via and switch layers to continue routing. This type of via will be covered by solder
mask and will be thermally relieved in a plane layer but not thermally relieved in a filled polygon.

1 = top
2 = bottom
3 = inner layer 1
4 = inner layer 2
5 = inner layer 3
6 = inner layer 4

Example:
You are routing on the top layer and you want to add a via and continue routing on layer 2 (inner layer
1) of a multi-layer board: Start your trace from a pad on the top layer. Route to the location you will
need a via. Left click and press the number 3 key across the top of your keyboard. This will add
the via and switch to inner layer 1 (layer 2 of your layout) to allow you to continue routing. Route the
trace to the desired end-point.

An alternative to using the number key across the top of your keyboard is to use the toolbar on the far
right side of your screen. This toolbar works just like pressing the number keys across the top of your
keyboard. Press the button corresponding to the layer you would like to continue routing on. A
description of the buttons follows.

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Insert corners in a route

To insert a corner in a route simply click on the middle third of a segment, or at least .050” away from a
corner and you will by in a digitizing mode that allows you to add corners until you stop by either
pressing the Esc key or double clicking to auto-complete the segment. It is easy to tell if you are in Insert
Corners mode because the segment you click on is essentially “ripped up” and will show a ratline from
the cursor to the next corner.

Delete route corners

Mouse over a corner and press the d key to delete a corner. This process can also be accomplished with
the mouse simply by selecting a corner and dropping it on the previous or next corner in the board
outline. It’s called corner reduction. It is very efficient and can all be done with the mouse.

It can also be accomplished by getting into Insert Corners mode and effectively routing “backwards” as
doubling back over existing corners has the effect of removing them.

Move a route corner

Moving a route corner is simple: just point at a corner, left-click, and release. Now you are moving the
corner. Just click again to release the corner where you want.

Releasing the corner over the prior or next corner has the effect of deleting the prior or next segment.

Move a route segment

If you point at a route segment and hold down the left mouse button while dragging, the entire route
segment will move with the cursor.

Change the width of a route segment

You can only change the width of an individual route segment while you are routing by pressing the ‘W’
key on your keyboard or RMB and selecting Width… from the context menu. To change the width of an
existing route segment you must first click on that segment to get into Insert Corner mode and then
press the ‘W’ key.

Add text to the board

If you want to add text to your design then the simplest way to do this is by clicking on the Add Text
Button on the Insert Object Toolbar. You can also choose Insert/Text from the menu bar.

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Once you have selected this command you will immediately be prompted for the string to add with the
Add Text Dialog. After entering a string and dismissing the dialog a piece of text will be attached to
your cursor. While it is attached you can press the ‘R’ key to rotate it, the ‘W’ key to change its width, or
a layer number to change its layer. When changing its layer interactively it will automatically toggle its
mirrored state between the top and bottom layer.

Whenever you have a piece of text attached to your cursor you can modify many of its properties then
and there in the Text Pane of the Edit Panel. You can always select Properties on the text to display the
Text Properties Dialog.

You can also perform many of the global commands such as Change Grid while creating text.

Rename a component

If you are new to PCB123 renaming a component may appear counter-intuitive at first because you may
just point at a reference designator text object and attempt to change its name only to find that you
can’t. You must select the component object and change its name in the Component Properties
Dialog. The text object is just a manifestation of a macro placeholder (&RefDes) that inherits its value
from the component reference designator. When you change the component name the text will
automatically reflect the new name.

When you rename a component for the first time a special attribute record is generated internally that
remembers the original name. The original name will appear in a BOM Report so you can back-annotate
your schematic if you so desire. This is also to facilitate the automatic back-annotation of schematics in
the future.

Pan

You have two options to pan the display. Both options work in both layout and schematic.

Option 1: Hold down shift and move your mouse.

Option 2: Hold down the right mouse button and move your mouse. This option is new to version 5.1 and
has some optimized display options to make panning very smooth.

Designing a board without a netlist

Depending upon the nature or complexity of the design, you may opt to skip a schematic altogether and
start right in on the physical layout. In this case, you probably will not use or need a netlist or a
schematic editor. PCB123 can support you on these very simple designs as well. Just dive right in with
physical layout.

About loading a Netlist

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If you have captured your design in a schematic tool then you should be able to create a netlist that
PCB123 can import. If you use the PCB123 schematics package to capture your design then any device
you use from the standard libraries will be mapped to a footprint in the layout software.

If you are using a third party schematics package it should be able to emit a Tango or Protel formatted
netlist that can be read into the PCB123 layout software. The devices you use in the third-party
schematics package most likely will not specify an explicit footprint that matches the PCB123 library. Not
to fear: when you load a netlist that specifies footprints that cannot be matched in the library, or a netlist
that only specifies part types then during the netlist load process you will be prompted to browse for a
footprint with a very flexible tool called the Part Browser. This tools lets you perform a search against
various criteria and graphically preview the footprints. Once you have selected a footprint to use you will
be given the opportunity to let the system forever remember the mapping between your part type and
the footprint you chose for that part. It will not ask for a footprint again when it encounters that part.

You can import your netlist from three different locations.

1. The new board wizard.

2. The board configuration on the first run.

3. With a board in view select Design > Netlist > Compare/Update Design. This is just about the same as
previous version. After you have selected the netlist you will see the new UI shown below.

The red ! in the left column tells you that you have not selected a footprint for this row. The second

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column is the name of the symbol in your netlist. The third column is the name of the footprint from your
netlist. Select a row and then go up to the two buttons in the upper right corner of the table

. The left button allows you to select a part from the parts taxonomy. The right button

allows you to select a part directly from the footprint libraries.

As you select your parts you will see the red ! change to green check marks. Once you have all of the
parts selected you can select the OK button and all of the parts will be placed on a blank board outline.

If you encounter an error you may have selected a footprint that does not match the information listed in
your netlist. You will see a popup text dialogue with information that will help you to locate the issue.
After selecting the correct footprint select OK and you will arrive at your layout with all of the parts on
the screen.

Go directly to Design > Netlist > Compare/Update Design to make your modifications.

Starting the layout with a netlist opens a large array of benefits that you may or may not take advantage
of. They include:

• Autoplace – You can run the Autoplace tool. This tool can be real handy just to gauge board
density and get a feel for the overall flow of routing.

• Placement Optimization – You can easily see what is connected to what as you place
components on the board. In addition, the length of nets is continuously optimized as you move
part around.

• Easier Rules Specification – With all nets specified at once you can specify which ones need
special width or spacing considerations and establish which nets are tied to any plane layers.

• Fanout and Autorouting – With a complete netlist loaded, you can run automatic tools that
fanout surface mount devices and autoroute your board. Even if you don’t normally use an
autorouter running it can identify trouble spots in your design.

• Automatic ECO – If you make a change to your schematic after your layout has been started
you can compare the new netlist against the design and have the system automatically make the
necessary changes to the design so that it matches the new netlist.

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Part 4 - Schematic Reference

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Main Menu
When in schematic view, the following menu bar is displayed.

If you do not have a design open, only the File, View, PCB123, and Help menu items are available.

File menu

New

The File-New command is one method of creating a new PCB design. It will invoke the Board
Configuration Dialog to allow you to set board parameters or load a netlist unless you have checked the
Do Not Show button in the Board Configuration dialog in which case a blank design is created.

Open…

The File-Open command invokes a standard Windows file dialog that allows you to browse to and select
one or more PCB123 design files. You can select multiple designs to open by holding down the Shift or
Ctrl key while clicking on files. If you select multiple design files, each one will be opened in its own
window.

Close

The File-Close command closes the currently active design. If the design has been modified, you will first
be prompted to save your changes.

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Save

The File-Save command writes a copy of the currently active design to disk using the same filename the
design was opened with. If it is a new design that hasn’t been previously saved, then you will be
prompted for a filename to save as (see below).

Save As…

The File-Save As command prompts you for a filename using the standard Window file dialog. This will
write a copy of the currently active design to disk under the name supplied. If the file exists, you will be
prompted to overwrite the existing file.

The entire state of your design is saved to disk with the exception of DRC markers and the local footprint
cache. All display settings are saved in the file so the next time the file is opened it will appear the same
as when it was saved.

Backup Now

The File-Backup Now command initiates an immediate backup of the currently active design.

Normally, in the course of design, PCB123 automatically saves a backup of all open designs once every
ten minutes. It saves them to the Backup subdirectory using the name of the design and appending
“_BACKUPn” where n is from 1 to 5, 1 being the most recent backup.

Print

The File-Print command invokes a schematic print dialog box.

From the Schematic print command, you can print the current page
or all schematic pages in your design. You can specify who to fit or
scale your output, and you can specify color printing options.

Print Setup

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The File-Print Setup command invokes the standard Windows print setup dialog and is used to set print
defaults for the above print command.

Exit

The File-Exit command exits the PCB123 program. You will be prompted to save any modified documents
that you may have open.

Edit menu

Undo

The Edit-Undo command undoes the last change to currently active design. Virtually all changes to the
design are recorded and can be undone in reverse order they were made. There is no limit to the size of
the undo buffer other than memory limitations.

What constitutes a change for purposes of undo is operation dependent. In many cases an entire group
of changes will be undone with a single undo command. For instance, selecting undo after an autoroute
will undo the entire autoroute results, not just the last connection the autorouter completed.

When a change is undone, that change will be added to the Redo buffer in case you change your mind
and want to redo it again. See below.

Redo

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The Edit-Redo command redoes the last undo operation. Repeated undo operations are stored to the
redo buffer so you can redo a whole series of undo operations.

Cut

The Edit-Cut command deletes the currently selected set of objects and places them into the paste
buffer. There is only one paste buffer so only the last cut operation is available for paste.

See the Paste command for more information.

Copy

The Edit-Copy command copies the currently selected set of objects into the paste buffer. There is only
one paste buffer so only the last copy operation is available for paste.

See the Paste command below for more information.

Paste

The Edit-Paste command makes a copy of the objects in the paste buffer and inserts them into the
currently active design.

First, any components in the paste buffer are added to the design by assigning them a new reference
designator that does not conflict with one already in the design. Their alpha-prefix is retained.

Next, any complete routes or connections that start and end at a pins that are also in the paste buffer
will be added to the design. They will retail their original net name with a unique numerical suffix.

Lastly, all text and non-net-attributed board outlines will be copied without change. Net-attributed board
outlines will either inherit a cloned net name or retain their original net names depending on whether
their original net names were cloned during the paste operation.

After all objects are created, they will be in a selected state attached to the cursor ready to be placed.

Delete

The Edit-Delete command deletes all selected objects from the currently active design.

The delete operation can later be undone.

Properties

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The Edit-Properties command is context sensitive. If you have nothing selected it invokes the Board
Configuration Dialog. If you have one or more objects selected, then you will get a property page for
each class of object selected.

See Object Property Pages for more information.

Insert menu
Top-level Insert menu

Insert Port submenu

Add Page

The Insert-Add Page command inserts a new, blank schematic page for use in your design.

Often, designers will find it helpful to break the schematic into multiple pages organized by function. The
network connections between these pages are accomplished using port connectors. The entire schematic
network is then made available to the layout page for physical design.

Add Part

The Insert-Add Part command displays the Select Part dialog box, allowing you to search for, preview
and select the part you need from the schematic parts taxonomy.

Add Analog Ground Port

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The Insert-Add Port – AGND command provides you quick and easy access to a predefined analog
ground symbol.

By selecting the Analog Ground Port, your cursor moves into parts placement mode with an analog
ground pin ready to be placed.

Add Digital Ground Port

The Insert-Add Port – DGND command provides you quick and easy access to a predefined analog
ground symbol.

By selecting the Digital Ground Port, your cursor moves into parts placement mode with a digital ground
pin ready to be placed.

Add Voltage Port

The Insert-Add Port – Voltage command provides you quick and easy access to a predefined analog
ground symbol.

By selecting the Voltage Port, your cursor moves into parts placement mode with a voltage port ready to
be placed.

Add Global Port

The Insert-Add Port – Global Net command provides you quick and easy access to a predefined analog
ground symbol.

By selecting the Global Net, your cursor moves into parts placement mode with a voltage port ready to
be placed.

Global nets serve to connect to the net with the same net name across the entire set of schematic pages.

Add Off-Page Port

The Insert-Add Port > Off-page Port command provides you quick and easy access to a predefined off
page port symbol.

By selecting the Off-page Port, your cursor moves into parts placement mode with an off-page connector
ready to be placed.

Off-Page connectors are similar in function to global nets.

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Add Line

The Insert-Add Line command allows you to add line objects to the currently active design schematic by
first defining one endpoint, then the other.

Add Arc

The Insert-Add Arc command allows you to add arc objects to the currently active design or footprint by
first defining one endpoint, then the other, and then adjusting the radius.

Arcs have definite width and are always chords of a perfect circle. They cannot be elliptical.

Add Polyline

The Insert-Add Polyline command allows you to add a poly-line object to the currently active design.

A polyline is a continuous series of line segments. They have a physical width and may be net attributed.
In most cases polylines are not net attributed as they are widely used for nomenclature such as
component outlines and title blocks.

Once you enter add polyline mode, a series of straight line segments will be connected between each
successive left-mouse click. Double click on the last point to terminate the polyline definition process.

Add Rectangle

The Insert-Add Rectangle command allows you to begin digitizing corners of rectangular board outlines.

As you add a rectangle, you will be prompted to digitize two opposite corner points. The rectangle will
determine its width and length from these two points.

Add Polygon

The Insert >Add Polygon command allows you to begin digitizing corners of polygon and polylines.

A polyline is a continuous series of line segments. They have a physical width and may be net attributed.
In most cases polylines are not net attributed as they are widely used for nomenclature such as
component outlines and title blocks.

A polygon is a closed 2-D surface. They do not have width. What you draw is the absolute edge of the
board outline. They can be convex or concave but should not self-intersect.

See the Board outline Context Pane and the Board outline Property Page for more information.

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Add Text

The Insert-Add Text command allows you to add rendered text “strings” to the currently active design or
footprint. When you first select this command you will be prompted for the string to add with the Add
Text Dialog.

Currently, only the ANSI character set is supported. Extended ASCII characters are not rendered but are
stored in the string.

There is only one font available for text strings because the characters must be stroked and there is no
reliable way to convert a TrueType font into a series of strokes that can be added to the board. This may
change in the future.

View menu
View/Toolbars Submenu

Top-level View Menu

View/Zoom Submenu

View Standard Toolbar

The Toolbars/Standard Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Standard Toolbar.

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View Add Object Toolbar

The Toolbars/Add Object Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Add Object Toolbar.

View Zoom Toolbar

The Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Zoom Toolbar.

Zoom Submenu

The Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Zoom Toolbar.

Zoom In

The Zoom/Zoom In command increases the magnification of the display. If this command was invoked
through the menu then the view center remains unchanged. If this command was invoked with the PgUp
key then the view center will be where the cursor was when the command was invoked.

Zoom Out

The Zoom/Zoom Out command decreases the magnification of the display. If this command was invoked
through the menu then the view center remains unchanged. If this command was invoked with the PgDn
key then the view center will be where the cursor was when the command was invoked.

Zoom All

The Zoom/Zoom All command sets the screen magnification such that all objects fit on, and are centered
on the screen.

Pan Up

The Zoom/Pan Up command moves the view center up nearly one full screen height.

Pan Left

The Zoom/Pan Left command moves the view center to the left nearly one full screen width.

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Pan Right

The Zoom/Pan Right command moves the view center to the right nearly one full screen width.

Pan Down

The Zoom/Pan Down command moves the view center down nearly one full screen height.

Redraw

The Zoom/Redraw command repaints the screen.

Tools menu

Symbol Editor…

The Tools – Symbol Editor… command will present the user with the Symbol Editor dialog box, ready to
create a new symbol from scratch. The function of the symbol editor is discussed elsewhere in this
manual.

Manage Parts…

The Tools – Manage Parts… command will present the user with the Define Part dialog box. From here,
the user can create parts, review or edit the contents of parts, and delete parts as needed.

Generate Netlist from Schematic…

The Tools – Generate Netlist from Schematic command will create a netlist file of your schematics’
electrical network. The user will be presented with a Windows standard file save dialog box, allowing the
user to specify the location for the netlist file to be output.

PCB123 menu
Top Level PCB123 menu

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MY Account…

The PCB123 – My Account command will invoke a browser session to your account status page at
Sunstone.com. Once you’ve logged in, you can view your personal account settings including: your
default user preferences (shipping address, carrier, payment method, etc.); personal profile information
(name, company, email, etc.); and recent order activity including current status for any orders in process.

PCB123 Website…

The PCB123 – PCB123 Website command will invoke a browser session at www.sunstone.com

Report a Bug…

The PCB123 – Report a Bug command will invoke a browser session and take you to the Contact Us page
for technical support on the www.sunstone.com website. From here you can report the bug details.
Customer Service will acknowledge receipt of your bug report, and follow up with you as necessary.

Window menu

Cascade

The Window – Cascade command will rearrange open design windows into a cascading pattern.

Tile

The Window – Tile command will rearrange open design windows into a tiled pattern.

Arrange Icons

The Window – Arrange Icons command will move any iconized design files into an orderly row across the
bottom of the PCB123 editing pane background.

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Part 5 - Layout Reference

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Main Menu
When you have a design open and Layout view is active, then the main menu bar will appear as follows:

If you do not have a design open, only the File, View, PCB123, and Help menu items are available.

File menu
Top-level File menu

Import submenu

Export submenu

New command

The File-New command is one method of creating a new PCB design. It will invoke the Board
Configuration Dialog to allow you to set board parameters or load a netlist unless you have checked the
Do Not Show button in the Board Configuration dialog in which case a blank design is created.

Open… command

The File-Open command invokes a standard Windows file dialog that allows you to browse to and select
one or more PCB123 design files. You can select multiple designs to open by holding down the Shift or

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Ctrl key while clicking on files. If you select multiple design files, each one will be opened in its own
window.

Close command

The File-Close command closes the currently active design. If the design has been modified, you will first
be prompted to save your changes.

Save command

The File-Save command writes a copy of the currently active design to disk using the same filename the
design was opened with. If it is a new design that hasn’t been previously saved, then you will be
prompted for a filename to save as (see below).

Save As… command

The File-Save As command prompts you for a filename using the standard Window file dialog. This will
write a copy of the currently active design to disk under the name supplied. If the file exists, you will be
prompted to overwrite the existing file.

The entire state of your design is saved to disk with the exception of DRC markers and the local footprint
cache. All display settings are saved in the file so the next time the file is opened it will appear the same
as when it was saved.

Save As Template… command

The File-Save As Template command saves the currently active design as a template for design reuse.
Only a limited set of objects are saved as a template – specifically, board outlines, components, holes,
text and board outlines. Net information and routing is not saved as a template, though this may change
in the future.

You will be prompted for a descriptive name for the template and it will automatically be placed in the
Templates subdirectory. The saved template is stored as a Sunstone NLF (Neutral Library Format) file.
This is a fully encapsulated format. There are no external references. All data is represented in the file.

Import Gerber

PCB123 will allow you to import gerber and NC drill data. This is experimental and use it with caution. At
this time the drill data does not import with the correct sizes and all negative polarity layers will not
import correctly.

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Import PCB123 XML

Import XML designs exported using PCB123’s export XML option. This provides you with an alternative
method to view and edit your PCB123 design.

Export BOM command

The Export BOM (Bill Of Materials) command outputs a BOM report for the currently active design. You
will first be prompted for a report filename (default is design name with a .bom extension) and you will
then be prompted to view the report.

The BOM report is a simple linear list of components alphabetically sorted by reference designator. In
addition, each entry lists the components part type, footprint name, and the original component name if
the component has been subsequently renamed.

Export Netlist command

The Export Netlist command outputs a native PCB123 netlist report for the currently active design. You
will first be prompted for a netlist filename (default is design name with a .net extension) and you will
then be prompted to view the netlist.

There are two sections in the netlist report. The first section is a linear list of components alphabetically
sorted by reference designator. The second section is a linear list of nets alphabetically sorted by net
name. Inside each net there will be a list of zero or more component pins.

Export XML Data

Export your PCB123 design in XML format.

Backup Now… command

The File-Backup Now command initiates an immediate backup of the currently active design.

Normally, in the course of design, PCB123 automatically saves a backup of all open designs once every
ten minutes. It saves them to the Backup subdirectory using the name of the design and appending
“_BACKUPn” where n is from 1 to 5, 1 being the most recent backup.

Print… command

The File-Print command invokes the standard Windows print dialog and will print whatever is visible on
the screen. It is meant for quick screen shots when you want a hard copy of some isolated section of the
board or a reference print that is not scale dependent.

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If you need scaled prints of the entire design use the Print Artwork command.

Print Setup… command

The File - Print Setup command invokes the standard Windows dialog for configuring the print settings.
Along with specifying the printer to use, this command can also be used to set paper sizes and
orientation for print jobs.

Print Artwork… command

The File-Print Artwork command invokes the Print Artwork dialog that allows you to do a detailed print
that will match what you see on the boards that will be built. In fact, the Print Artwork command
executes the same code that Sunstone generates Gerber files from with the exception of non-plated
holes which are a special case to Print Artwork and will show up in the prints.

See the Print Artwork Dialog for more details.

Exit command

The File-Exit command exits the PCB123 program. You will be prompted to save any modified documents
that you may have open.

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Edit menu
Top-level Edit Menu Rename submenu

Selection submenu

Undo command

The Edit-Undo command undoes the last change to currently active design. Virtually all changes to the
design are recorded and can be undone in reverse order they were made. There is no limit to the size of
the undo buffer other than memory limitations.

What constitutes a change for purposes of undo is operation dependent. In many cases an entire group
of changes will be undone with a single undo command. For instance, selecting undo after an autoroute
will undo the entire autoroute results, not just the last connection the autorouter completed.

When a change is undone, that change will be added to the Redo buffer in case you change your mind
and want to redo it again. See below.

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Redo command

The Edit-Redo command redoes the last undo operation. Repeated undo operations are stored to the
redo buffer so you can redo a whole series of undo operations.

Cut command

The Edit-Cut command deletes the currently selected set of objects and places them into the paste
buffer. There is only one paste buffer so only the last cut operation is available for paste.

See the Paste command for more information.

Copy command

The Edit-Copy command copies the currently selected set of objects into the paste buffer. There is only
one paste buffer so only the last copy operation is available for paste.

See the Paste command below for more information.

Paste command

The Edit-Paste command makes a copy of the objects in the paste buffer and inserts them into the
currently active design.

First, any components in the paste buffer are added to the design by assigning them a new reference
designator that does not conflict with one already in the design. Their alpha-prefix is retained.

Next, any complete routes or connections that start and end at a pins that are also in the paste buffer
will be added to the design. They will retail their original net name with a unique numerical suffix.

Lastly, all text and non-net-attributed board outlines will be copied without change. Net-attributed board
outlines will either inherit a cloned net name or retain their original net names depending on whether
their original net names were cloned during the paste operation.

After all objects are created, they will be in a selected state attached to the cursor ready to be placed.

Delete command

The Edit-Delete command deletes all selected objects from the currently active design.

The delete operation can later be undone.

Rename Net command

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This command allows you to rename any existing net on the design.

Rename Part Command

This command provides a simple method to make corrections to part names without removing the part
from the design. Change to the part name will show up in the bill of materials. Changing the part name
does not update the library entry.

Rename Reference Designator

Change the reference designator for any single part.

Load Selection… command

The Edit-Load Selection command is identical to the Paste operation except the pasted objects are from a
previously saved set of objects or from a design template as opposed from the paste buffer. You will be
prompted for a selection to load.

Currently this operation excludes any net information. A saved selection can contain everything except
nets. See the Save Selection command for more information.

Save Selection… command

The Edit-Save Selection command saves the selected objects from the currently active design to a disk
file for later reuse. No net information is currently saved though this may change in the future.

This command is only available when you have an object or objects selected. Once invoked, you will be
prompted for a description of the selection set.

Find… command

The Edit-Find command prompts you for the name of an object in the currently active design and then
centers the viewport on that object.

See the Find Dialog for more details.

Bring to Cursor… command

The Edit-Bring to Cursor command is similar to the Find command but instead of zooming you to an
object it selects the named object and snaps it to the cursor.

See the Find Dialog for more details.

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Measure… command

The Measure command activates the ruler and allows you to measure the distance between objects.

Line Width command

The Edit-Line Width command is only available when you are adding/editing polylines and routes. When
selected, you will be prompted to enter a line width with the Line Width Dialog.

For polylines, the new line width applies to the whole polyline.

For routes, the new line width applies to the currently active line segment and subsequent segments you
add to the route.

Grid command

The Edit-Grid command sets the working (snap) grid and the display grid for the currently active design.
You can set the X and Y grid independent by separating the two values with a comma.

See the Grid Dialog for more details.

Select Pins command

The Edit-Select Pins command toggles the ability to select board-level pin objects in the currently active
design or component pins in Edit Footprint window.

Select Polygons command

The Edit-Select Polygon command toggles the ability to select Polygon objects in the currently active
design.

Select Text command

The Edit-Select Text command toggles the ability to select text objects in the currently active design.

Select Components command

The Edit-Select Components command toggles the ability to select component objects in the currently
active design.

Select Tracks command

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The Edit-Select Tracks command toggles the ability to select track (route) objects in the currently active
design.

Select Anything command

The Edit-Select Anything command turns on the ability to select all objects in the currently active design.

Select Nothing command

The Edit-Select Nothing command turns off the ability to select of all objects in the currently active
design.

Properties command

The Edit-Properties command is context sensitive. If you have nothing selected it invokes the Board
Configuration Dialog. If you have one or more objects selected, then you will get a property page for
each class of object selected.

See Object Property Pages for more information.

Insert menu
Add Cutout submenu

Select command

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The Insert-Select command is the default state for selecting objects. When you stop adding or modifying
objects by pressing the Escape key or selecting RMB-Cancel the system enters the Select state.

Add Cutout

The Add Cutout command allows you to choose to draw circular or rectangular cutouts. The cutouts are
automatically added to the board outline layer. A cutout drawing using Draw Rectangle may have a
maximum of four vertices.

Add Pin command

The Insert-Add Pin command immediately allows you to start adding pins to the currently active design or
footprint.

When you first select this command, a pin will be attached to the cursor whose properties will be
defaulted, usually to the same values as the last pin inserted.

By default, board-level pins do not have names, though they can be assigned names – even duplicate
names. Board-level pins do not show up in a netlist report, only component pins do.

When creating a footprint, pins names start at 1 by default and increment from there. The only time a pin
name can be reused in a footprint is if it has no name at all.

See the Pin Context Pane and the Pin Properties page for more information.

Add Freestyle Route command

The Insert-Add Freestyle Route command allows you to begin digitizing new route corners. You must
start the new route from a pin or another route. If starting from another route, the new route will inherit
the starting route’s layer and net.

If starting from a pin the new route layer will either be the pin layer in the case of a SMD pin or the
current layer if it is a thru-hole pin. If the starting pin already has a net attribute then the route will
inherit that pins net.

Once you have started routing you can digitize new corners by left-clicking the mouse and you can insert
vias by changing layers or pressing the ‘Z’ key or change the current width by pressing the ‘W’ key.

To terminate a freestyle route you can press the escape key, click on another pin, or click on another
track on the same layer as the last segment. If the new route has a temporary net then it will be
‘hardened’ by either inheriting the terminating objects net property or by creating a new net and
assigning everything in the temporary net to the new net.

Add Polygon command

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The Insert-Add Polygon command allows you to begin digitizing corners of polygon and polylines.

A polyline is a continuous series of line segments. They have a physical width and may be net attributed.
In most cases polylines are not net attributed as they are widely used for nomenclature such as
component outlines and title blocks.

A polygon is a closed 2-D surface. They do not have width. What you draw is the absolute edge of the
polygon. They can be convex or concave but should not self-intersect.

If a board polygon has no net attribute, then the entire polygon is filled.

If a polygon does have a net attribute, then it becomes a copper pour and any object inside the polygon
that does not have the same net attribute is “scratched” out of the polygon so as not to create a short. If
a pin resides inside a copper pour polygon, and that pin has the same net attribute then the pin is
cleared for thermal isolation but “spokes” are added between the pin and the copper pour to tie them
together electrically. Determining where a thermal spoke is legal can be a fairly intensive calculation.
Therefore what you see on the screen is only an approximation of the actual spokes. You must perform a
Print Artwork to get a true representation of the thermal spokes.

See the Board outline Context Pane and the Polygon Property Page for more information.

Add Arc command

The Insert-Add Arc command allows you to add arc objects to the currently active design or footprint by
first defining one endpoint, then the other, and then adjusting the radius.

Arcs have definite width and are always chords of a perfect circle. They cannot be elliptical.

Add Circle command

The Insert-Add Circle command allows you to add hollow circle objects to the currently active design or
footprint by first defining the circle center, and then sweeping out a radius.

Circles have definite width. They cannot be elliptical.

Add Text command

The Insert-Add Text command allows you to add rendered text “strings” to the currently active design or
footprint. When you first select this command you will be prompted for the string to add with the Add
Text Dialog.

Currently, only the ANSI character set is supported. Extended ASCII characters are not rendered but are
stored in the string.

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There is only one font available for text strings because the characters must be stroked and there is no
reliable way to convert a TrueType font into a series of strokes that can be added to the board. This may
change in the future.

Add Component command

The Insert-Add Component command allows to you interactively insert components into the active
design.

When this command is selected the Add Component Dialog will be shown. After you select a part type or
footprint with this dialog, a component will be created and snapped to the cursor ready for placement.

A unique reference designator (name) will be created for the component that uses the same alpha prefix
as the last component added but with a unique numerical suffix.

These parts are footprints and symbols that been paired and added to the PCB123 parts taxonomy.

Add Footprint command

Add footprint allows you to select directly from the PCB123 footprint libraries and place parts on your
layout. Once a footprint is placed on the layout, an auto created generic symbol is created and placed on
the schematic sync page.

Add Connection command

The Insert-Add Connection command is really a tool that has a couple of features that allow you to define
and modify nets.

The default mode for the tool allows to specify point-to-point wiring for a net by first clicking on a
component pin and then clicking on subsequent pins to define the connectivity of a net.

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View menu
Toolbars submenu

Top-level View menu

Zoom submenu

Layers submenu

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Refresh All

The Refresh All command not only repaints the screen but refreshes the Object Hierarchy and rebuilds
some internal tables. Pressing the Esc key when nothing is selected performs the same operation.

Go-To First Error

The Go-To First Error command zooms to, and centers the display around the first DRC error. If there are
no DRC errors then you will be prompted to run a DRC.

Go-To Next Error

The Go-To Next Error command zooms to, and centers the display around the next DRC error. If there
are no more DRC errors then you will be prompted to run another DRC and go to the first error found.

User Preferences

The User Preferences command is used to invoke the User Preferences Dialog.

Toolbars/Edit Panel

The Toolbars/Edit Panel command toggles the visibility of the Edit Panel.

Toolbars/Standard Toolbar

The Toolbars/Standard Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Standard Toolbar.

Toolbars/Add Object Toolbar

The Toolbars/Add Object Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Add Object Toolbar for either the
layout or schematic.

Toolbars/Layers Toolbar

The Toolbars/Layers Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Layers Toolbar.

Toolbars/Selection Toolbar

The Toolbars/Selection Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Selection Toolbar.

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Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar

The Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Zoom Toolbar.

Zoom/Zoom In

The Zoom/Zoom In command increases the magnification of the display. If this command was invoked
through the menu then the view center remains unchanged. If this command was invoked with the PgUp
key then the view center will be where the cursor was when the command was invoked.

Zoom/Zoom Out

The Zoom/Zoom Out command decreases the magnification of the display. If this command was invoked
through the menu then the view center remains unchanged. If this command was invoked with the PgDn
key then the view center will be where the cursor was when the command was invoked.

Zoom/Zoom All

The Zoom/Zoom All command sets the screen magnification such that all objects fit on, and are centered
on the screen.

Zoom/Pan Up

The Zoom/Pan Up command moves the view center up nearly one full screen height.

Zoom/Pan Left

The Zoom/Pan Left command moves the view center to the left nearly one full screen width.

Zoom/Pan Right

The Zoom/Pan Right command moves the view center to the right nearly one full screen width.

Zoom/Pan Down

The Zoom/Pan Down command moves the view center down nearly one full screen height.

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Zoom/Redraw

The Zoom/Redraw command repaints the screen.

Layers/Top

The Layers/Top command sets the current layer to the Top layer. It also repaints the screen with the Top
layer being painted last.

Layers/Bottom

The Layers/Bottom command sets the current layer to the Bottom layer. It also repaints the screen with
the Bottom layer being painted last.

Layers/Inner1

The Layers/Inner1 command sets the current layer to the Inner1 layer. It also repaints the screen with
the Inner1 layer being painted last. This command will only be available if the current design has more
than 2 layers.

Layers/Inner2

The Layers/Inner2 command sets the current layer to the Inner2 layer. It also repaints the screen with
the Inner2 layer being painted last. This command will only be available if the current design has more
than 2 layers.

Layers/Inner3

The Layers/Inner3 command sets the current layer to the Inner3 layer. It also repaints the screen with
the Inner3 layer being painted last. This command will only be available if the current design has more
than 4 layers.

Layers/Inner4

The Layers/Inner4 command sets the current layer to the Inner4 layer. It also repaints the screen with
the Inner4 layer being painted last. This command will only be available if the current design has more
than 4 layers.

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Layers/Silkscreen Top

The Layers/Silkscreen Top command sets the current layer to the Top Silkscreen layer. It also repaints
the screen with the Top Silkscreen layer being painted last.

Layers/Silkscreen Bottom

The Layers/Silkscreen Bottom command sets the current layer to the Bottom Silkscreen layer. It also
repaints the screen with the Bottom Silkscreen layer being painted last.

Layers/Soldermask Top

The Layers/Soldermask Top command sets the current layer to the Top Soldermask layer. It also repaints
the screen with the Top Soldermask layer being painted last.

Layers/Soldermask Bottom

The Layers/Soldermask Bottom command sets the current layer to the Bottom Soldermask layer. It also
repaints the screen with the Bottom Soldermask layer being painted last.

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Design menu

Top-level Design menu

Netlist submenu

Tools submenu

Board Configuration

The Board Configuration command invokes the Board Configuration Dialog which is where you set such
parameters as the number of layers, whether or not you want soldermask, etc.

New Footprint

The New Footprint command creates a new, unnamed, empty footprint and switches the view to the
Footprint Editor.

Edit Footprint

The Edit Footprint command invokes the Library Browser (same as the load part dialog) so you can select
a footprint to edit. Once you have selected a footprint then that footprint will be loaded into a Footprint
Editor for you to modify and save.

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Manage Library

The Manage Library command invokes the Library Manager Dialog which lets you perform such
operations as create new libraries, catalog existing libraries, and cut and paste among libraries.

Optimize Net Lengths

The Optimize Net Lengths works only on unrouted portions of nets, not existing routing. The left side of
the picture below contains a net before optimization and the right side after optimization. You can
override this behavior on a per-net basis by setting the Do Not Optimize flag in the Net Properties dialog.

Autoplace

Autoplace makes a best effort attempt to place components on the layout board in a manner that
minimizes overall routing complexity. The Autoplace function is not designed to be exhaustively accurate,
but rather as a convenience to get you started as you complete schematic design and transistion to the
early stages of physical layout.

Fanout SMT Pads

The Fanout SMT (surface mounted) Pads command

automatically routes out any connection tied to a
surface mount pad and then terminates at a via as
pictured below.

If a connection coming out of a surface mount pin

needs to be tied to a plane then fanning it out
basically completes the connection to that pin and
the ratline will disappear. Fanout also aids a very
important routing strategy for high-density SMT
boards. Because the surface layers on these boards
are highly congested with pads most of the routing
has to take place on inner layers. A smart strategy

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to get to these inner layers is to fanout the board early in the design process – preferably before any
other routing.

Autoroute

The Autoroute command attempts to automatically complete all routing on the board. A reasonable set of
defaults are used by the router but a detailed explanation of possible settings that can control the router
can be found under Autorouter User Preferences.

Gloss

The Gloss command automatically performs aesthetic

rerouting. It typically removes redundant corners and
segments, often spreads routes out, and generally fixes
such minor problems as acute angles and 90-degree
bends. An example is shown below.

Netlist

Access the netlist management forms.

Compare/Update Design

The Compare/Update Design command loads a master netlist from disk, converts it to a PCB, and detects
any differences between the master PCB and the current slave PCB. The difference list is then optimized
to a set of changes that will have the least impact in the board. The list will then be presented to you in
the form of an ECO Report Dialog. When this dialog is dismissed you will then have the option of
automatically performing the changes that will make the slave match the master.

Even if there were no changes detected during the comparison all component footprints will be updated
from the master.

Manage Stored Part Associations

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This form allows you to update any previously defined parts associations for use in future projects where
a netlist will be imported into PCB123.

Clear DRC Errors

The Clear DRC Errors command will simply delete all the DRC markers from the current design. DRC
markers are generated from running the DRC command or interactively while editing your design.

Run DRC

The Run DRC (Design Rule Check) performs the following checks on all objects in the current design:

Track-To-Track Spacing Violation – Two tracks (routes) from different nets are less than the required
minimum distance apart.

Track-To-Pad Spacing Violation - A track and a pad from different nets are less than the required
minimum distance apart.

Track-To-Via Spacing Violation - A track and a via from different nets are less than the required
minimum distance apart.

Track-To-Board outline Spacing Violation - A track and a board outline from different nets (or board
outline with no net) are less than the required minimum distance apart.

Track-To-Text Spacing Violation - A track and a piece of text are less than the required minimum
distance apart. This will result in overlapping or unreadable text.

Pad-To-Pad Spacing Violation – Two pads from different nets are less than the required minimum
distance apart.

Pad-To-Via Spacing Violation – A pad and a via from different nets are less than the required
minimum distance apart.

Pad-To-Board outline Spacing Violation – A pad and board outline from different nets (or board
outline with no net) are less than the required minimum distance apart.

Pad-To-Text Spacing Violation – A pad and a piece of text are less than the required minimum
distance apart. This will result in overlapping or unreadable text.

Via-To-Via Spacing Violation – Two vias from different nets are less than the required minimum
distance apart.

Via-To-Board outline Spacing Violation – A via and a board outline from different nets (or board
outline with no net) are less than the required minimum distance apart.

Via-To-Text Spacing Violation – A via and a piece of text are less than the required minimum
distance apart. This will result in overlapping or unreadable text.

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Board outline-To-Board outline Spacing Violation – Two board outlines from different nets are less
than the required minimum distance apart.

Board outline-To-Text Spacing Violation – A board outline and a piece of text are less than the
required minimum distance apart. This will result in overlapping or unreadable text.

Text-To-Text Spacing Violation – Two pieces of text are less than the required minimum distance
apart. This will result in overlapping or unreadable text.

Object-To-Board Outline Spacing Violation – A route, pad, via, board outline, or piece of text is too
close to the board outline.

Drill-To-Drill Spacing Violation – Two holes overlap at offset locations. This condition will result in a
broken drill bit.

Unfinished-Route Violation – There is a connection between two pins that still needs to be routed to
complete the circuit.

Board-Too-Small Violation – The minimum dimension in either the x or y axis is ¼ inch. If you
receive the Board-Too-Small violation, then the board is less than ¼ inch in either axis. We cannot
manufacture a board that small.

Silkscreen-Over-Pad Warning – Silkscreen outline or text runs into a pad that is unmasked. This is a
problem for the fabrication process as well as possibly making the silkscreen illegible.

Dangling-Trace Warning – A route does not end at a pad, via, or other route. Traces in this
configuration creates an antenna effect. While the antenna may be intentional, PCB123’s DRCs will alert
you to the condition as a precaution.

Pad-Annular Warning – The pad size minus the drill size is less than the recommended minimum.

PCB123 menu
Top Level PCB123 menu

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MY Account…

The PCB123 – My Account command will invoke a browser session to your account status page at
Sunstone.com. Once you’ve logged in, you can view your personal account settings including: your
default user preferences (shipping address, carrier, payment method, etc.); personal profile information
(name, company, email, etc.); and recent order activity including current status for any orders in process.

PCB123 Website…

The PCB123 – PCB123 Website command will invoke a browser session at www.sunstone.com

Report a Bug…

The PCB123 – Report a Bug command will invoke a browser session and take you to the Contact Us page
for technical support on the www.sunstone.com website. From here you can report the bug details.
Customer Service will acknowledge receipt of your bug report, and follow up with you as necessary.

Density Graph

PCB123 sample plug-in.

DXF Import/Export

This is a sample PCB123 plug-in to import/export a simple DXF board outline and mounting holes. This
plug-in does not support arcs in the board outline. Only the board outline and holes that are not part of
footprints or connected to traces will be exported.

IDF Import/Export

Similar to DXF plug-in. This sample plug-in allows you to import/export the board outline and mounting
holes in IDF format.

Relax Routing

PCB123 sample plug-in.

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Window menu

Cascade

The Window – Cascade command will rearrange open design windows into a cascading pattern.

Tile

The Window – Tile command will rearrange open design windows into a tiled pattern.

Arrange Icons

The Window – Arrange Icons command will move any iconized design files into an orderly row across the
bottom of the PCB123 editing pane background.

Toolbars

Main toolbar

The Toolbars/Main Toolbar for the Schematic editor toggles the visibility of the Main toolbar. The main
tool bar provides quick access to common file level and viewing commands such as: new design; save;
open; cut; copy; paste; rotate; print.

Add Object toolbar

The Toolbars/Add Object Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Add Object Toolbar. The Add
Object Toolbar gives quick and easy access to commands for adding objects to the schematic, including”
Title Bar info; component symbols; polylines; board outlines; arcs; circles and text.

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Layer toolbar

The Toolbars/Layer Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Layers toolbar. The Layers
toolbar typically displays vertically, along the right edge of the PCB123 application window. The
Layers toolbar provides one-click view filtering for all layers specified in the currently active edit
panel.

Selection toolbar

The Toolbars/Selection Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Selection toolbar. The
Selection toolbar typically displays vertically, along the right edge of the PCB123 application
window. The Selection toolbar provides one-click view filtering for selectable items in the layout
editing panel.

Zoom toolbar

The Toolbars/Zoom Toolbar command toggles the visibility of the Zoom toolbar. The Zoom
toolbar typically displays vertically, along the right edge of the PCB123 application window. The
Zoom toolbar provides one-click view adjustment in the edit window

3-D View toolbar

Top Level 3D Menu

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Wireframe

The 3D – Wireframe command disables the 3D view’s solid surface rendering feature. This view often
allows for close viewing of vias and traces in multi-layer designs. Wireframe can also provide a faster
rendering of the 3D model on some computers.

Show Silkscreen

By default, the 3D view displays the silkscreen layer data. Turning the 3D – Show Silkscreen command
off removes silkscreen data from the 3D model.

Panels

Display panel

The Display Panel provides easy access to layout window display parameters to assist in the design
creation, review and editing process. The display panel contains three major functional regions: the
Global View, the Appearance menu, and the Layer Display

Global View provides the user with a thumbnail view of the entire design space. A ghost rectangle shows
the current zoom and pan location for the edit window. As the edit view zooms in further, the ghost
rectangle naturally gets smaller. By dragging/dropping a rectangle directly on top of the Global View, you
can quickly reset your edit pane view to a new location without tedious panning and zooming commands.

Also in the global view are a read-only display of the current cursor position coordinates, a read-only view
of the current grid space settings, and user-selectable units for reporting positions in the design space.
The available units include: Inches; Mils, Centimeters and Millimeters.

The Appearance region allows you to change the rendering for grids, backgrounds, ratsnest data, layer
data blending and other methods for customizing the representation of your design. These tools allow
you some sophisticated methods for managing the context data represented around your current area of
concentration. Many of these appearance features can also be edited on the User Preferences dialog. A
functional description for each attribute on the appearance page can be found in the User Preferences
Display Page section.

The Layer Display region allows the user to turn layers and data types on or off. Presented in tabular
view with rows representing a layer and columns representing a data type, users can interactively select
the data to display. This technique comes in handy when concentrating on data for a specific layer, such
as a ground plane or component/connector escape routing.

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Parts panel

The parts panel allows you to search for parts that are listed in the PCB123 parts libraries. These are
parts that have footprints that are paired with schematic symbols. These parts often have additional
properties associated with them to further specify the parts type and characteristics. Many of the parts
listed in the Ultra Library contain Digi-key part numbers.

Once you select a part from the library you are provided with a preview of both the symbol and footprint
to aid in parts selection. The Add parts button found in this panel provides an alternative window to
search through the libraries. The Add Parts window allows you to see lists of parts that match your
search criteria.

Using the Manage Parts button you can add or remove parts from the Parts Libraries. Here you can
match previously created footprints and symbols to create new parts to use in your layouts and
schematics. The Parts In Use section of this panel provides a list of all of the parts that have ever been
added to your design. You can select parts from this area and place them on your layouts and
schematics.

Project panel

Unlike the Display Panel, the Project Panel stays the same for all tabbed views of the design. The Project
Panel displays three buttons across the top: Statistics Report; Netlist Report; BOM Report. Each of these
three buttons generates and ascii format report based on your current design.

The Board Configuration area provides an interactive tree-style hierarchical access to all the design
primitives: nets, components, pins, etc. and the associated meta-data. Properties can be edited from this
location so care must be used by casual users not to inadvertently change their design.

The Schematic Properties are provides an interactive area for setting and adjusting line styles, text fonts
and styles, and data fields for the design title block.

DRC/ERC panel

The DRC/ERC tab contains a live listing of all the current

design violations in the project.

The DRC will report on shorts, opens, and violations of

manufacturing rules such as minimum spacing between
objects of different nets, and pad size vs. drill size violations.

Locations of errors reported by the DRC are marked with a

grey circle-? icon. By hovering the mouse pointer over the
error, users can access a summary explanation for the cause
of the error being reported.

The DRC/ERC tab also allows users to access violations by

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category or by layer. At the top of the DRC/ERC tab are the ‘stepper’ functions, allowing users to move
from error to error so as to view/fix each one interactively.

Context Panes

Pin properties

On the Pins tab, a selected pin will present

its information here. The Pin Name and
optionally-assigned Net name are editable.
The Pin Geometry parameters allow for
specification of the pin shape, height and
width, and the hole size (for thru hole
parts). The Pin Location section allows
users to reposition or rotate the pin to
achieve customize or correct parts.

By selecting individual pins, users can

achieve pin-by-pin access to the pin
properties on the selected component.

Please note that unless the part is a user-

specified custom part, it is not
recommended practice to change the pin
geometry or location information.

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Component properties

On the components tab, shown here, users

can change the Reference Designator, x
location, y location and component rotation.
Changing the values for these three
parameters will move the component origin
to the newly specified settings. Please note
that this may cause the component to move
away from any previously placed traces.

The Opposite check box will move the

component to the opposite side of the
board. When checked, the component will
be on the BOTTOM layer; when unchecked,
the component is on the TOP layer.

Part Type and Packaging can also be

specified from the Component Properties
pane.

Polygon properties (Schematic)

The Polygon properties view offers two ways to interact

with polygon properties. Selecting the Properties menu
pick from the right-click menu presents the following
properties table. Users can add, delete and specify
properties as needed to change the character of the
polygon.

When the polygon is selected, the Edit Panel also allows access to some commonly used polygon
properties.

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Here the user has access to Line Width, Line Style, and
Fill Style. The user Also can specify an Identifier, chose
the line color, and fill color.

Text properties (Schematic)

The Text properties view is available by from the right

mouse menu on a selected text instance. Text properties
presents the user with a tabular dialog in which the user
can add properties and specify values for the text box
selected. By default, the Text properties dialog uses the
text defaults, and no specific overriding properties are on
the list. In this example, the user has specified properties
that will affect only the selected text.

Dialog Boxes

About… Dialog

Besides some shameless vanity information, the Help/About dialog tells what version of PCB123 you are
running and how much memory is the software is using.

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Add Text Dialog

The Add Text Dialog is invoked when the Text

Tool is selected in current design or
footprint. It simply prompts you for the string of
text to add.

Board Configuration Dialog

The Board Configuration Dialog is invoked from the Design menu or by RMB Properties when nothing is
selected. It will also be shown when you choose to bypass the New Board Wizard and select File/New in
which case additional fields will be activated that allow you to load a netlist for instance.

It is primarily used to specify various board manufacturing parameters.

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The Board Name filed is simply a label for your design. There are no restrictions on it.

The Board Size X and Y fields specify the rectangular size of the board. These fields are only active
when this dialog is invoked in response to File/New, otherwise they are grayed out and only inform you
of the existing current board size.

The Netlist File Name field can only be used when this dialog is invoked from File/New. It is used to
specify a netlist or netlists to load into the new design.

The Layers Required field is where you can specify the number of layers in your design. The default is
two layers but if you choose more than two then other options will be enabled such as plane layer
assignments. If you invoked this dialog from Design/Board Configuration on an existing design and you
decrease the layer count then objects on the deleted layers will be permanently removed from the
database. Any routing on the removed layers will be unrouted and the ratsnest possibly updated.

The Power Planes checkboxes are only enabled when you specify more than two layers for your design.
When they are enabled you can check which layers will be treated as poser planes. Nets that get

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assigned to power plane layers are assumed to be connected as soon as something in the net touches a
plated-through-hole.

The Solder Mask checkbox is only enabled for two and four layer boards. Six layer boards automatically
get a solder mask. Solder mask, also known as solder resist is a green coating that is uniformly applied to
the board except where solderable surfaces are required such as pads. You must check Solder Mask if
you want silk screen on your board. There is an additional manufacturing charge for selecting solder
mask.

The Silk Screen radio buttons are only enabled if you have solder mask enabled. You can choose to
have no silk screen, silk screen only on the top layer, silk screen only on the bottom layer, or silk screen
on both top and bottom. If you choose to have silk screen on the bottom layer (or both top and bottom)
then there is additional fixed cost applied.

The Material Thickness is almost always 0.062”. There are several restrictions placed on a 0.031”
board which are the board can only be a two-layer board, must have solder mask, and cannot have a
2.5oz copper weight.

The Finished Copper Weight option is almost always 1oz. There are several restrictions placed on a
2.5oz copper board which are the board can only be a two-layer board, must have solder mask, and
cannot be 0.031” thick.

The Quantity drop list is where you specify how many boards you want to build. You can select between
2 and 100 boards indifferent increments. The price-per-board and the lead time is impacted by the
quantity. You can freely experiment with this setting.

The Check If You Do Not Want This Displayed button can prevent this dialog from being displayed
when you use File/New. This can always be unchecked by invoking this dialog in Design/Board
Configuration.

Change Grid Dialog

The Change Grid Dialog is nearly universal in the system and can be invoked while doing other tasks such
as moving a component. The simplest way to invoke the Change Grid Dialog is to press the ‘G’ key on
your keyboard but you can also choose Edit/Grid from the menu bar.

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The New Grid field is where you specify the desired grid. You can specify independent X and Y axis grids
by separating the two with a comma. Specifying only one value implies that both the X and Y grid will be
the same.

Component Property Page

The Component Property Page is invoked whenever a component is selected and Properties is chosen
either by pressing Alt+Enter on your keyboard or RMB/Properties. It can also be invoked by selecting a
component in the Object Hierarchy tree and selecting RMB/Properties.

If you only have components in your

selection set then the only tabs that will
appear in the property pages are
components and pins. Otherwise other
object tabs may be present too.

If you only have one component selected

then all the fields in the Component
Property Page will be filled in with the
values from that component. If you have
more than one component selected then
the fields will be empty or in an
indeterminate state. Any field left empty or
indeterminate when the page is dismissed
will be unchanged in the selected
components.

The Reference Designator field (or

component name) is the name to assign to
the component. It will be forced to upper
case and it must be unique in the design. If
more than one component is selected then
this field will be disabled. Any change to
the reference designator here will also be
reflected in the companion schematic.

The Component Attributes button can be pressed to invoke the Attributes Dialog.

The X Location field is where the component is located in the X-axis of the design. It will default to the
current units but can be in the format of your choice. The X location is relative to the component’s local
origin.

The Y Location field is where the component is located in the Y-axis of the design. It will default to the
current units but can be in the format of your choice. The Y location is relative to the component’s local
origin.

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The Rotation field is the component rotation about its local origin. Rotations are counter-clockwise
unless you enter a negative number in which case they are clockwise but will be converted to the
appropriate positive rotation when this dialog is dismissed.

The Opposite button, when checked, signifies that the component is on the back side of the board. A
component on the back side is automatically mirrored.

The Part Name field may or may not be filled out depending on how the component was originally
loading into the design. If the component was referenced from a Library part as opposed to a Footprint
then the Part Name field will be the name of the device. This field can be used to substitute a part for
another in the Pats Libraries. Type in the name of another part from the Parts libraries and press Tab and
PCB123 will update the footprint, schematic and bom with the new part.

The Package Name field contains the name of the footprint this component uses and is not directly
editable but can be filled in by the Part Browser dialog. If you select a different footprint for this
component the new footprint must contain pins that will match up with the current nets used by this
component. I.E. it cannot change the netlist.

Create New Library Dialog

The Create New Library dialog can be invoked either from the Library Manager or when saving a footprint
in the Footprint Editor.

Why would you want to create a new library? Library management is a highly subjective topic leading to
many lively debates but here are some facts:

• You don’t want to save custom footprints into

any standard library that is supplied with the
software because they may possibly be
overwritten the next time you update to a
newer revision.
• There is no penalty in creating new libraries.
Part searching by default spans all libraries in
and under the Lib directory.
• By placing custom footprints for a particular
design into its own library, you most likely will
not have any naming conflicts with other parts
of the same name but different content. The
library will also have a small size that easily
copied from machine to machine.

The Library Name field is where you define the name of the library you are creating. It will
automatically be put into the Lib/Custom directory.

The Description field is where you can enter a brief description the library you are creating.

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ECO Report Dialog

The ECO report dialog is automatically displayed when you perform a Design/Compare Netlist and there
are differences between the netlist and the design.

The Print button can be used to generate a hardcopy of the change report.

Find Object Dialog

The Find Object dialog is invoked by pressing the ‘F’ key on your keyboard or by selecting Edit/Find from
the menu bar. It is used to locate a named object and center it on the screen. This same dialog will be
invoked by the Snap Object to Cursor command which instead of zooming to the object will actually
move the object to the cursor.

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The Name of Item to Find field is where you specify the named item or sub-item to find. Sub-items are
specified by separating the item and sub-item name with a period. For instance:

U1 will center the screen on the origin of component U1.

U1.3 will center the screen on pin ‘3’ of item U1.

Key Assignments Dialog

The Key Assignments Dialog can be invoked under Help/Key Assignments. By pointing at a key on the
pictorial keyboard or actually typing a key on your physical keyboard you will be presented with
information on what that key does by itself or when the Ctrl or Shift key is held in combination.

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Line Width Dialog

The Line Width dialog can be invoked from the File/Edit menu, from various context menus, or by
pressing the ‘W’ key. It is used to change the width of any line object being drawn. If you invoke this
dialog while routing, then the new width will apply to the segment from the last corner clicked and all
subsequent corners until you stop drawing or change the width again.

The Line Width field is where you specify the new width. It will default to the current units but can be in
the format of your choice.

Load Part Dialog (simple mode)

The Load Part dialog is invoked in many ways. It may be invoked while loading a netlist when a part type
cannot be found in the library. It will be invoked when you choose to add a part manually using the Add
Footprint Tool or edit the footprint properties of an existing component.

The Search drop list is where you enter the part search criteria. The drop list contains the last five
searches performed. The search criteria may contain the wildcards ‘*’ and ‘?’. The ‘*’ wildcard means
match anything after the criteria and the ‘?’ means match any character in that position. Example:
searching for DIP* will match DIP8, DIP14, etc. Searching for DIP?0 will match DIP10, DIP20, etc. By

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default all libraries are scanned for a Part Type, Footprint, or a description field that matches the search
criteria.

The Begins With and Contains radio buttons are used to expand or limit the scope of the search
criteria. When you have the Begins With radio button checked, only items whose name begins with the
search criteria are matched.

The Go button will initiate a search of the libraries. Any item matching the search criteria will be listed in
the Select list and the first item highlighted and displayed in the Preview Pane.

The Advanced Search button expands the dialog to include additional options found in the Advanced
Mode of this dialog.

The Select list contains all the items that match the search criteria. The name, the number of pins in the
part, and the computed X and Y pitch (spacing between pins) will be displayed for each matching item.
The computed pitch will be shown in inches if the pitch happens to divide evenly into .005” otherwise it
will be shown in millimeters.

The Preview pane shows a graphical view of the currently selected item.

The text of the Insert Selection button may change based on the context of how this dialog was
invoked but its action is to dismiss the dialog use the currently selected item.

Load Part Dialog (advanced mode)

The Advanced Mode of the Load Part dialog is the same as the Simple Mode except for the following
additional items described below:

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 • The Library Tree shows the hierarchical structure of the Lib directory and all subdirectories. You
may check and uncheck individual libraries or folders to include or exclude them from the search.
You may also click on an individual library to list the entire contents of that library in the Select
list.

• The Footprints Used list will be filled in if you have selected a Part Type in the Select list as
opposed to a Footprint. Some libraries contain Part Types such as 74LS00 and those Part Types
may list multiple footprints that can be used.

• The Footprint Details section lists various properties of the currently selected footprint.

Load Selection Dialog

The Load Selection Dialog can be invoked either by choosing Edit/Load Selection from the menu bar or
by RBM with nothing selected and choosing Load Selection from the context menu.

This dialog will allow you to merge and existing template or a previously saved selection into your design.

The Item list contains all the named templates/selections you have. When you click on one it will be
previewed in the Preview Pane. The previewed item will be merged into your design when select Ok.

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Manage Library Dialog

The Manage Library dialog packs a big punch in a small area. It can be used to create and delete
libraries, copy, move, and delete library contents, and even create a web
web-based
based visual catalog of library
contents.

The dialog is broken into

four areas with simplest
being the Preview pane
that simply displays the
selected part type or
footprint. The other three
sections each contain a list
and a toolbar to perform
various operations on the
lists.

The Libraries list contains

all the individual library
files in the Lib directory and
subdirectories. If you have
not selected any libraries
then the only toolbar
option available will be the
Create New Library button
. You may select
multiple libraries by holding
down the Shift or Ctrl keys
while clicking on library
items. When one or more
libraries are selected all the
library tools will be
available. They are as
follows:

Import NLF Items

into selected libraries. This
command will prompt you
for the name of a PCB123 N Neutral
eutral Library Format file that may contain part types and footprints
to add to the selected libraries.

Create a new library. This command will create a new library in the Custom subdirectory using
the Create New Library Dialog
Dialog.

Delete selected libraries. This command will delete the selected libraries from your disk. Use with
caution.

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 List contents of selected libraries. This command will generate a columnar list of all items in the
selected libraries as shown below.

Generate HTML catalog of selected libraries. This command generates an HTML table with
statistics and images of all the items in the selected libraries as show below.

The Part Types list contains all of the part types found in all the selected libraries. The Part Type Tools
will be disabled until you select one or more part types. You may select multiple part types by holding
down the Shift or Ctrl keys while clicking on part type items. The Part Type Tools are as follows:

Delete Selected Part Types. This command removes the selected part types from their respected
libraries. This is not an undoable operation and you will be prompted for confirmation.

Cut Selected Part Types. This command removes the selected part types from their respected
libraries and places them in the paste buffer. You can then select a different set of libraries and
paste the part types into them, effectively moving them from one library to another.

Copy Selected Part Types. This command copies the selected part types from their respected
libraries and places them in the paste buffer. You can then select a different set of libraries and
paste the part types into them, effectively copying them from one library to another.

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 Paste Part Types. This command will only be available if you have previously cut or copied part
types. If part types with the same name already exist in the library you are pasting into, you will
be prompted to overwrite them.

The Footprints list contains all of the footprints found in all the selected libraries. The Footprint Tools
will be disabled until you select one or more footprints from the list. You may select multiple footprints by
holding down the Shift or Ctrl keys while clicking on footprint items. The Footprint Tools are as follows:

Delete Selected Footprints. This command removes the selected footprints from their respected
libraries. This is not an undoable operation and you will be prompted for confirmation.

Cut Selected Footprints. This command removes the selected footprints from their respected
libraries and places them in the paste buffer. You can then select a different set of libraries and
paste the footprints into them, effectively moving them from one library to another.

Copy Selected Footprints. This command copies the selected footprints from their respected
libraries and places them in the paste buffer. You can then select a different set of libraries and
paste the footprints into them, effectively copying them from one library to another.

Paste Footprints. This command will only be available if you have previously cut or copied
footprints. If footprints with the same name already exist in the library you are pasting into, you
will be prompted to overwrite them.

Merge Nets Dialog

The Merge Nets Dialog is only invoked when you are in the Connection Tool and you attempt to add a
connection between two different nets. Because the two nets must become one, this dialog is provided as
a convenience to resolve the final net name.

The two Merge into ‘Netxxx’ radio buttons let you choose to
use one of the existing nets. ‘Netxxx’ is actually a placeholder.
The real net names will appear in its place.

The Use New Net Name radio button, when checked, will
allow you to enter a completely different net name for the
resulting net. The net name you enter must not already exist
in the design.

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Net Property Page

The Net Property Page is invoked whenever

a net or track/connection is selected and
Properties is chosen either by pressing
Alt+Enter on your keyboard or
RMB/Properties. It can also be invoked by
selecting a net in the Object Hierarchy tree
and selecting RMB/Properties.

If you only have nets or tracks/connections

in your selection set then the only tabs that
will appear in the property pages are Nets
and Tracks. Otherwise other object tabs
may be present too.

If you only have one net selected then all

the fields in the Net Property Page will be
filled in with the values from that net. If
you have more than one net selected then
the fields will be empty or in an
indeterminate state. Any field left empty or
indeterminate when the page is dismissed
will be unchanged in the selected nets.

The Net Name field is name to assign to

the net. It will be forced to upper case and
it must be unique in the design. If more than one net is selected then this field will be disabled.

The Width field is the default width for tracks in this net. You cannot change existing track widths by
changing this field. You must use the Track Property Page for that. The width will be clamped to a range
whose maximum must not exceed ½ inch. The minimum width will typically be .007” unless the board is
configured to use 2.5oz copper in which case the minimum width will be .012”.

The Spacing field is where you can enter the minimum required spacing for this net or nets. It is
typically .007” unless the board is configured to use 2.5oz copper in which case the minimum spacing will
be .012”. Any physical object that does not belong to this net must meet or exceed this spacing or a DRC
error will be issued.

The Via Size field is where you specify the default via size for any vias belonging to this net. It is
typically defaulted to the smallest size allowed for the given board configuration. You should only change
this for special circumstances such as you feel that a via in this net may carry a large current.

The Drill Size field is where you specify the default via drill size for any vias belonging to this net. It is
typically defaulted to the smallest size allowed for the given board configuration. You should only change
this for special circumstances such as you feel that a via in this net may carry a large current.

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The Net Color button can be used to select the color of the ratsnest for the selected net or nets. This
does not affect the color of routes, only the unrouted connections. This can be useful during the
placement of components. Critical nets can be set to a different color for easy identification of the net’s
topology.

The Routing Priority slider is only used by the autorouter. You typically do not need to set this except
for unusual circumstances where you feel this net might need the most direct routing and therefore
should be routed early in the process. To set the priority low really means that everything else is a high
priority except this net.

The Assigned to Plane Layers check list will only be available if you have set up plane layers in the
Board Configuration. If you have, you can signify that this net is to be assigned to one or more of the
plane layers. When a net is assigned to a plane layer then any drill in the net will constitute a plane “hit”
and will be tied to that plane layer through a thermal relief.

The Do Not Optimize checkbox, when checked, will honor the current connection topology or
connection ordering. The default is off which results in a dynamic shortest-length connection ordering
base on the relative locations of all the pins in the net.

Package Print Dialog

The Package Print Dialog in invoked when you are in the Footprint Editor and choose Print from the File
Menu. It is used to print a hardcopy of the currently active footprint.

The X-Shift and Y-Shift fields are used to specify an offset for the
footprint. The page origin is the lower-left of the page so positive X
shifts are to the right and positive Y shifts are up.

The Rotation drop list allows you choose an orthogonal rotation for
the footprint when it is printed.

The Scale field is used to specify a scale factor for the footprint when
it is printed. It is a scalar value and not a ratio. 2.0 is double scale,
0.5 is half scale.

The Mirror checkbox, when checked, will flip the footprint image as though you were looking at it from
the back.

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Pin Property Page

The Pin Property Page is invoked whenever

a component or pin is selected and
Properties is chosen either by pressing
Alt+Enter on your keyboard or
RMB/Properties. It can also be invoked by
selecting a component or pin in the Object
Hierarchy tree and selecting
RMB/Properties.

If you only have components and pins in

your selection set then the only tabs that
will appear in the property pages are
components and pins. Otherwise other
object tabs may be present too.

If you only have one pin selected or one

single-pin component then all the fields in
the Pin Property Page will be filled in with
the values from that pin. If you have more
than one pin selected then the fields will be
empty or in an indeterminate state. Any
field left empty or indeterminate when the
page is dismissed will be unchanged in the
selected pins.

The Pin Property Page is the only mechanism for drilling down into a component without editing that
component in the Footprint Editor.

The Pin Name field is where you label this pin. If you have multiple pins selected this field will be
disabled. Pins can be unlabelled and net connected but they will not appear in any netlists or reports.
Pins that belong to components must be unique unless unnamed. Pin names will be forced to use upper
case.

The Net Name drop list is where you can assign or reassign a net to this pin. If this property page was
invoked from the Footprint Editor then this field will be disabled.

The Round Pad Shape button sets the shape of this pin to round. Only the pad width needs to be
filled in.

The Rectangular Pad Shape button sets the shape of this pin to a square or rectangle. Both the
pad width and height need to be filled in.

The Oblong Pad Shape button sets the shape of this pin to a rectangle with rounded ends. Both the
pad width and height need to be filled in and if they are the same value then the result will effectively be
a circle.

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The Pad Width field is used to specify the width of rectangular and oblong pads and the diameter of
round pads.

The Pad Height field is only enabled for rectangular and oblong pads. It specifies their height. It must
not be zero.

The Hole Size is used to specify the finished (final) hole size for a pin. Zero is valid, indicating a surface
mounted pin. The available hole sizes changes between plated and non-plated holes. The Pad Size must
be larger than the hole size plus a minimum annular ring that will change depending on the copper
height of the board and the diameter of the hole. The typical minimum annular ring is 0.008”.

The Slot Length sets the length of a slot. Plated slots must have a pad annular ring and the guidelines
are the same as those set for holes.

The Non-Plated checkbox, when checked signifies that the hole will not be plated and therefore not
conduct electricity. They are typically used for mounting and tooling holes.

The Thermal check box determines how a through-hole pin or surface mount pad will connect to a plane
or filled polygon. Checked the pin will connect with a thermal relief. Un-checked the pin will connect
directly to a filled polygon with copper flooding all the way to the pads edges.

The Tented check box determines if a pin or surface mount pad is covered by solder mask or not. With
the box checked a pin/pad will be covered by mask. Un-checked the pin/pad will have a solder mask
opening.

The Slot check box activates the slot length field and allows you to create slots in your pcb deisgns.

The Pin Location X and Y fields are used to position the pin. The coordinate system used depends on
the ownership of the pin. If the pin belongs to a component then the location will be relative to the
component’s origin. If the pin is a free-standing board-level pin then the location will be relative to the
board origin.

The Pin Rotation field and spin control are used to specify the pin rotation in the pin’s own local
coordinate system. Pin rotations are counter-clockwise unless you enter a negative number in which case
they are clockwise but will be converted to the appropriate positive rotation when this dialog is dismissed.

Polygon Property Page

The Polygon Property Page is invoked whenever a polygon is selected and Properties is chosen either by
pressing Alt+Enter on your keyboard or RMB/Properties.

If you only have polygons in your selection then the only tab that will appear in the property pages are
polygons. Otherwise, other object tabs may be present too.

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 If you only have one polygon selected then
all the fields in the Poly Property Page will be
filled in with the values from that polygon. If
you have more than one polygon selected
then the fields will be empty or in an
indeterminate state. Any field left empty or
indeterminate when the page is dismissed
will be unchanged in the selected polygons.

The Name field is simply a way to label the

polygon. There are no restrictions on
polygon names and in fact they are not
required.

The Layer drop list is where the polygon’s

layer is specified. This field will be disabled if
the polygon is the board outline as the board
outline is assumed to be on all layers.

The Net drop list is where you can specify a net that this polygon belongs to. This field will be disabled
for Board Outlines. If you assign a net to a copper pour then anything inside the copper pour region that
does not belong to the same net will be cleared away from the copper pour. If you assign a net to a
polyline then anything too close or touching the polyline that does not belong to the same net will be
flagged with a DRC marker.

The Width field is where you specify the line width of a polyline. It is disabled for all other types of
board outlines.

Print Artwork Dialog

The Print Artwork Dialog is invoked from the File/Print Artwork

menu item and is used to generate detailed prints that match how
the boards will be built. See Print Artwork for more details.

The Select Layers checklist allows you to check which layers will
be combined together for the print. The layer colors will be the
same as on the screen. You must have at least one layer checked
for the print to happen.

The Fit to Page checkbox, when checked, will print the entire
design on one sheet of paper (or one logical page). This is mainly used for quick visual checks as the
scaling will be arbitrary. When this item is checked, the Scale field will be disabled.

The Scale field is used to specify a true physical scale of your choosing for the print. The scale can range
from one tenth (0.1) to ten times (10.0). If the design does not fit on one page at the scale you choose
then the print will span multiple pages that you will have to assemble as one print.

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The Mirror checkbox, when checked, will produce a print that is mirrored (backwards) as though you
flipped the design around and were looking at the back of the board.

The Print in Full Color choice will print using the current object color settings. Print artwork will ignore
the invisible object settings and always prints the collection of objects for the selected layers in the same
way that the boards will be built.

The Print in Grayscale choice will print in gray values based on a standard RGB to luminosity
conversion.

The Print in Black and White choice converts every printed object to black in the print.

Report Dialog

The Board Statistics or Report Dialog

is invoked by pressing the Statistics
Report button in the Project Pane.
This dialog gives you a summary
report of various board metrics for the
currently active design.

The Board Area, always given in

square inches, is the rectangular area
of the board outline and not the true
board outlineal area. It is basically
what you are being charged for.

Routing Layers is the number of

layers you have specified for routing.
The number of routing layers plus the
number of plane layers are the total
layers for the design.

Plane Layers is the number of layers

you have dedicated to continuous
vss/vdd planes. The number of
routing layers plus the number of
planes layers are the total layers for
the design.

Number of Components is the

count of parts on the board with reference designators.

Component Pins is the total count of pins inside all components. This includes unnamed pins.

Other Pins is the count of board-level pins (not associated with components) you have added to the
design.

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Pins Per Sq/Inch is the average number of pins (both component and board-level pin) per square inch
of board area. A number greater than 30 indicates a very dense board.

Number of Nets is the count of different networks in the design.

Number of Connections is the total number of all point-to-point paths in all nets that have to be
routed.

Unrouted Connections is the total number of all point-to-point paths that remain to be routed or
connected to a plane. This field will be red until all connections are completed.

Number of Vias is the total number of vias used by all the routing on the design.

Total Track Length, always given in inches, is the linear length of all routing in the design. This does
not consider any plane layers, only routes you added. It also does not optimize any route sharing that
may have been done – two or more routes from the same net that may have been drawn on top of each
other.

Length to be Routed, always given in inches, is the theoretical minimal Euclidian length of etch needed
to complete routing. Multiplying this number by 1.4 probably gives you a more accurate true distance
needed.

Total Number of Holes is the grand total of all drilled component pins, board-level pins, and vias in the
design.

Number of Drill Sizes is total count of all the different drill sizes used in the design.

Save Footprint Dialog

The Save Package Dialog is invoked from the Footprint Editor by selecting File/Save As, selecting
File/Save on an unnamed footprint, or automatically if you close a modified footprint.

You can only save a footprint into a single

library. If, for some reason you need to save
the footprint into multiple libraries then you
can save multiple times or just use the
Library Manager to clone the footprint.

The Footprint Name Field is where you

supply the name of the footprint as it will
appear in the library you save to. There are
very few restrictions on footprint names
except that the name must not contain the
vertical bar character ‘|’ and must not begin
with an ampersand ‘&’. It may contain spaces
but this is generally a bad idea because it can
wreak havoc with report formatting,
especially if that report is going to be processed by later tools.

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The Select Library drop list is where you choose what library you want to save the footprint into.
Custom\Custom.slb will be the default library to save to. It is highly recommended that you always save
into this library of some other custom library that you created. If you save into one of the standard
distribution libraries then you run the risk of it being overwritten during some future software update.

The New… button allows you to create a new library before you save the footprint. The newly created
library will be selected by default.

The Description field is where you can supply a searchable description of the footprint. It can be a
readable string or a list of keywords. There are not restrictions.

Save Template Dialog

The Save Template Dialog can be invoked from the

File menu or by RMB while you have objects selected
and then choosing Save Selection from the context
menu.

The Save template/Save Selection facility aids in

design reuse.

The Description string gets inserted into the template and is displayed by the Load Template dialog.
The load/save template mechanism doesn’t use the standard filename- based approach because it can
become difficult to come up with descriptive filenames for templates. The supplied description is cooked
into a filename that is stored in the Templates subdirectory.

Select Color Popup

The Select Color Popup is more like a menu than a dialog and is usually invoked by left clicking on a color
widget but in the case of the Layers Display Pane by right clicking on a color square as left clicking in a
square toggles visibility.

There is a fixed palette of color swatches in the upper left area, a 1-dimensional grayscale gradient below
them, and below that is a 2-dimensional color gradient. As you move the cursor over the various areas
the sample swatch will change color. Clicking the left mouse button will select that color.

There is a Visible/Invisible button that toggles the current visibility.

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Text Property Page (Layout)

The Text Property Page is invoked whenever text is selected and Properties is chosen either by pressing
Alt+Enter on your keyboard or RMB/Properties.

If you only have text in your selection then

the only tab that will appear in the property
pages is Text. Otherwise other object tabs
may be present too.

If you only have one piece of text selected

then all the fields in the Text Property Page
will be filled in with the values from that
text. If you have more than one piece of
text selected then the fields will be empty
or in an indeterminate state. Any field left
empty or indeterminate when the page is
dismissed will be unchanged in the selected
text.

The String field is where you specify the

actual text string to be rendered. There is
not limit to the string length but it will all
be on one line. You can use any characters
and they will be maintained in the database
but the only character symbols currently
rendered are the ANSI character set (ASCII
codes 20-127).

The Layer drop list is where the text’s

layer is specified.

The Text Height field is where you specify the letter height. Letter height is in physical units and logical
units like point size. The text height is basically the cell height: not all letters are of uniform height such
as the difference between ‘e’ and ‘E’.

The Line Width field is where you specify the thickness of the individual strokes that make up a
character. A good rule of thumb is the line width should be about 1/10th of the text height. If the line
width is too thick as compared to the text height then the text may blur together and become
unreadable.

The X and Y Location fields are used to position the text. The origin of the text is always the lower-left
of the first character in the string. The coordinate system used depends on the ownership of the text. If
the text belongs to a component then the location will be relative to the component’s origin. If the text is
a free-standing board-level piece of text then the location will be relative to the board origin.

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The Text Rotation field and spin control are used to specify the text rotation in the text’s own local
coordinate system. Text rotations are counter-clockwise unless you enter a negative number in which
case they are clockwise but will be converted to the appropriate positive rotation when this dialog is
dismissed.

The Mirrored checkbox, when checked specifies the text string is mirrored. Text placed on the bottom of
the board should be mirrored so as to be right-reading when the board is turned around.

Track Property Page

The Track Property Page is invoked whenever a track or connection is selected and Properties is chosen
either by pressing Alt+Enter on your keyboard or RMB/Properties. It can also be invoked by selecting a
track in the Object Hierarchy tree and selecting RMB/Properties.

If you only have tracks or connections in your selection set then the only tabs that will appear in the
property pages are Nets and Tracks. Otherwise other
object tabs may be present too.

If you only have one track selected then all the fields in
the Track Property Page will be filled in with the values
from that track. If you have more than one track
selected then the fields will be empty or in an
indeterminate state. Any field left empty or
indeterminate when the page is dismissed will be
unchanged in the selected tracks.

The Routed Width field is basically the width

assigned to the first corner of the track. Other corners
may have different widths but they must be done
graphically while routing. There currently is no dialog
for editing corner-by-corner information for tracks. The
width will be clamped to a range whose maximum
must not exceed ½ inch. The minimum width will
typically be .007” unless the board is configured to use
2.5oz copper in which case the minimum width will be
.013”.

All other fields in the page are for information only and cannot be edited.

Update Components Dialog

The Update Components Dialog will be automatically

invoked when you modify a component in the footprint
editor and then dismiss the Footprint Editor window.
Besides asking you to save the footprint into a library,
you will also be given the opportunity to immediately

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update any affected components with this dialog. This will only be true if you initiated the footprint editor
by modifying an existing component.

The Update Component xxx radio button should be checked if you only want to update just the
component you selected to initiate the footprint editor.

The Update All Instances of Footprint xxx radio button should be checked if you have multiple
components that use the footprint you just changed and you want to apply the changes to all
components that use the footprint. The update only applies to the currently active design that you used
initiate the footprint edit. It will not span designs.

The Do Not Update radio button should be checked if you do not actually want the footprint changes to
update any components.

User Preferences General Page

The User Preferences Dialog is invoked from the View/User Preferences menu item. The General Tab
contains a somewhat miscellaneous collection
of global settings. When this dialog is invoked
all the settings are obtained from the currently
active design. You can load a new set of
preferences from disk, save the existing
settings to disk, reset them factory defaults, or
save the settings as the new defaults.

The Units radio buttons set the system-wide

default units for display and for input.
Changing the units does not affect the
database at all. There is no internal conversion
because the internal representation is
independent of the external units display.

The X and Y Grid fields specify the current

snap and dot grid for the system. They can be
changed independently. See also the Change
Grid Dialog.

The Grid Color swatch is used to set the color of the display grid. See the Color Popup for more details.

The Dot Grid and Line Grid radio buttons allow you to choose between displaying the grid as a matrix
of dots or lines. Dots provide less clutter but lines afford better alignment guides.

The Full-Screen Cursor checkbox allows you to turn on and off the full-screen crosshairs that track the
mouse.

The Default Drawing Line Width field is used to set the default widths of lines and freestyle routing.
It does not affect the width of a new route whose net has already had a net width supplied.

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The Default Text Height field is used to specify the default height of newly added text. If, in the course
of adding new text, you change the height from the default, then that new value will override the default
value for the remainder of the session.

The Default Text Line Width field is used to specify the default line width of newly added text. If, in
the course of adding new text, you change the line width from the default, then that new value will
override the default value for the remainder of the session.

The Rotation Increment field is used to specify the default rotation increment for objects that can be
rotated. The default is 90 degrees.

The Snap Lines to 45 Degrees checkbox is checked on by default. When snap is on, new lines will
snap to 45-degree increments from the last corner drawn. When snap is off, lines will simply snap to the
cursor grid regardless of the line slope. Line snap can always be temporarily overridden by holding down
the Ctrl key while drawing.

User Preferences Display Page

The User Preferences Dialog is invoked from

the View/User Preferences menu item. The
Display Tab contains a somewhat
miscellaneous collection of global settings
related to drawing styles and object colors.
When this dialog is invoked all the settings are
obtained from the currently active design. You
can load a new set of preferences from disk,
save the existing settings to disk, reset them
factory defaults, or save the settings as the
new defaults.

The Blend Layers checkbox controls how

overlapping colors from different layers are
combined on the screen. When checked, two
or more different overlapping colors are
combined to make a third color providing a
see-through quality for the display. When this is not checked the colors are not blended, creating an
overlay effect where one layer will obscure another where they overlap. The benefit of having blend on is
basically more information on the screen, which can also be a drawback on very busy boards with many
layers. The default is on.

The Draw Wireframe checkbox controls the level of detail at which objects are drawn. When Draw
Wireframe is checked all objects are drawn hollow, and at single pixel width. When not checked (the
default) all objects are draw filled and at true width. The benefits of drawing with Wireframe turned on
are greatly reduced screen clutter and to check very small objects who are obscured by other objects.

The Draw Hi-contrast checkbox allows you to highlight the currently active layer in one color and
everything else in a different color. As you change layers only the current layer is in the hi-contrast color,

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all other layers are in the lo-contrast color. If you set the Lo-Contrast color to invisible then only the
current layer is drawn.

The Show Drills checkbox controls the display of drill holes inside pads. When checked (the default),
the true finished drill size is ‘drilled’ out of pads and vias. When it is off, then only the pad or via is shown
without any drill. Turning drills on has the additional advantage of making pin name and net name
display less cluttered as they are shown inside the drill-hole. This checkbox does not affect non-plated
holes as they are always displayed.

The Draw Positive Planes checkbox controls the polarity in which plane layers are drawn. When this is
checked (the default), the interior of the board outline is drawn in the layer color while non-copper areas,
such as pads that are not tied to the plane, are drawn in black. If you have a complex plane involving
multiple nets that have to be split then it can be easier to draw and visualize the splits by checking this
button off and displaying the plane as a negative.

The Draw Positive Soldermask checkbox controls the polarity in which the soldermask layers are
drawn. When this is checked the interior of the board outline is drawn in the soldermask layer color while
non-mask areas, such as pads are drawn in black. If you have a complex soldermask that involves
custom unmasking of board outlineal areas then it can be easier to draw and visualize checking this
button off (the default) and displaying the soldermask as a negative.

The Draw Hollow Copper checkbox controls how the interior of solid copper and copper pour is
displayed. When this is not checked (the default) copper items are solid filled and copper pour items
display the cutouts. On boards with large copper areas or copper areas that overlap on different layers it
can be advantageous to turn on hollow copper to speed up screen drawing and prevent flicker.

The Draw Textured Copper checkbox allows for the display of textured copper to be turned on and
off. Textured copper can provide visual separation on congested copper regions.

With texturing on With texturing off

The Background Color swatch is used to set the background color for the display. By default it is black.

The Hi-Contrast Color swatch specifies the color to draw the current layer while in Hi-Contrast mode.

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The Lo-Contrast Color swatch is used to specify the color to draw all objects not on the current layer
while in Hi-Contrast mode.

The Ratsnest Color swatch specifies the color to draw ratsnest lines (connections yet to be made).

The Pin Names Color swatch is used to specify the color to draw pin names in. It can be invisible.

The Net Names Color swatch is used to specify the color to draw net names in. It can be invisible. Net
names only appear inside of pads and vias and then only if they fit.

The Object Colors swatches are not really a global setting but rather provide an easy way to set the
color of a class of objects regardless of what layer they are on.

User Preferences Layer Colors Page

The User Preferences Dialog is invoked from the View/User Preferences menu item. The Layer Colors Tab
contains per-layer color settings. When this dialog is invoked all the settings are obtained from the
currently active design. You can load a new set of preferences from disk, save the existing settings to
disk, reset them factory defaults, or save the settings as the new defaults.

All the Layer Color swatches control the color of all objects on their respective layers. Setting the color
of a layer sets the color of all object types for that layer.

219

User Preferences Routing and Spacing Rules Page

The User Preferences Dialog is invoked from the View/User Preferences menu item. The Routing and
Spacing Rules Tab contains settings for the autorouter and for design rule checking. When this dialog is
invoked all the settings are obtained from the currently active design. You can load a new set of
preferences from disk, save the existing settings to disk, reset them factory defaults, or save the settings
as the new defaults.

The Global Minimum Spacing – All Layers field allows you to set the minimum spacing for all layers
at once.

The Per-Layer Minimum Spacing fields allow you specify the minimum spacing on a per-layer basis.
On high volume boards you may want to increase the spacing on the outer, solderable layers while
employing less restrictive spacing on the inner layers for additional routing channels.

The Routing Grid field controls the granularity by which the autorouter attempts to find paths. The finer
the routing grid the denser the routing will be at the expense of time and possibly area. The area
restriction will most likely be removed in a future release.

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The Via Bias drop list controls how liberally the autorouter will use vias while searching for paths. The
possible values are:

• Use Freely – The autorouter will meander very little on a layer, enforcing a very strict
horizontal/vertical layer direction. This is useful if the design has plenty of room for vias but poor
‘flow’ the layout where an excessive amount of meandering may block too many channels.
• Neutral – This is the default for the autorouter. It does a reasonable job of reducing via count
while maintaining decent layer directionality.
• Avoid Using – The autorouter will attempt to meander around objects rather than move to a
different layer with a via. This can prove fruitful when there is minimal room for vias.
• No Vias – The autorouter will not attempt to use vias at all. It will basically attempt to route the
board as a series of single-sided boards.

The Autorouter Layer Bias drop lists allow you to set up layer preferences or even restrict the router
from using some layers altogether. The possible values are:

• Favored – The autorouter will attempt to use this layer (and others with the same setting)
before any other layer.
• Neutral – This is the default. The autorouter neither prefers nor avoids this layer.
• Avoid – The autorouter will only use this layer if it absolutely necessary to complete a path.
• Do Not Use – The autorouter will not attempt to use this layer at all. This does not prevent a via
from passing through this layer. You can route a single layer board by setting all layers except
one to this value and instructing the router not to use vias.

The Autorouter Layer Direction drop lists control the preferred layer direction for each layer. The
possible values are:

• Horizontal – The autorouter will route on this layer in a horizontal direction.

• Any – The autorouter will meander in any direction on this layer.
• Vertical – The autorouter will route on this layer in a vertical direction.

Zoom To Coordinate Dialog

The Zoom to Coordinates dialog is invoked by pressing the ‘X’ key in the Design or Edit Footprint view. It
is used to center the viewport on a specific coordinate.

221

The Enter Coordinate field is initially defaulted to the current gridded cursor location at the time of
invocation. Enter the X and Y coordinates you desire in the format of your choice. The coordinates can be
separated by spaces or commas.

222

Shortcuts
In a number of locations throughout PCB123 – especially where specifying pin or landing pad names –
users can use some shortcut notations to speed up and simplify the process of adding pin names.

A Bar (line) can be placed over pin names and net names by appending two consecutive hyphens (--) to
the end of the name.

Sequences of pin names, pin numbers, and net names can be generated using shorthand notation. All
shorthand within a base name appears inside square brackets [], and will expand using the following
rules:

• [NAME1, NAME2, NAME3, …] – Disjoint list. A list of names separated by commas will expand
once for each name when placing consecutive objects. Example:

INTENS_[RED,GREEN,BLUE] - expands for the next 3 items as:

INTENS_RED
INTENS_GREEN
INTENS_BLUE

• [#:#(:#)] – Numeric Range. Two numbers separated by a colon (;) denote an inclusive
sequential range. If a third number is supplied, then it is the increment, or step, to be used when
generating the sequence. Example:

ADDR[3:0] - expands for the next 4 items as:

ADDR3
ADDR2
ADDR1
ADDR0

[0:100:10]_DEC - expands to:

0_DEC
10_DEC
20_DEC

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Key Assignments
The Key Assignments Dialog can be invoked under Help/Key Assignments. By pointing at a key on the
pictorial keyboard or actually typing a key on your physical keyboard you will be presented with
information on what that key does by itself or when the Ctrl or Shift key is held in combination.

224

PCB123 Keyboard shortcuts.
Layout View, single keystroke:

'1' Top Layer

'2' Bottom Layer
'3' Layer Inner1
'4' Layer Inner2
'5' Layer Inner3
'6' Layer Inner4
'C' Clear DRCs
'D' Run
DRCs
'E' Run DRCs
'F' Find
'G' Set Grid
'L' Set Layer
'M' Measure
'N' Next Error
'O' Mirror Footprint (Moves footprint to opposite side of
board
'P' Properties
'R' Rotate
'V' Fanout Via
'W' Width
'X' Move To XY
'Z' Next Layer
'-' Half Grid
'Delete' Delete
'+' Twice Grid
'Insert' Zoom Actual Size
'Home' Zoom All
'Page Up' Zoom In
'Page Down' Zoom Out
'End' Refresh
'Tab' Detach Cursor
'Space' Accept Continue
'Enter' Accept Done

Layout View, single keystroke with SHIFT pressed:

'1' Layer SS Top

'2' Layer SS Bot
'A' Select All
'B' Blend
'C' Textured Copper
'D' Show Drills
'E' Edit Panel
'F' Select Footprints

225

'G' Select Polygons
'H' Hollow Copper
'L' Grid Lines
'N' Select None
'P' Select Pins
'R' Select Routes
'S' Positive Soldermask
'T' Select Text
'W' Wire Frame
'+' Twice Grid

Layout View, single keystroke plus CONTROL:

'1' Layer SM Top

'2' Layer SM Bot

Layout View, single keystroke plus CONTROL-SHIFT:

'F' Full Screen Cursor

'N' First Error
'P' Positive Planes

Schematic views, single key pressed:

'F' Find
'G' Grid
'R' Rotate
'H' Mirror X
'V' Mirror Y
'P' Properties
ADD Twice Grid
SUBTRACT Half Grid
INSERT Zoom Actual
HOME Zoom All
PRIOR Zoom In
NEXT Zoom Out
END Zoom Redraw
DELETE Edit Delete
F11 Schematic Nets

Schematic views, single key plus SHIFT pressed:

'E' Edit Panel

Package view, single key pressed:

'1' Layer Top

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'2' Layer Bot
'3' Layer Inner1
'4' Layer Planes
'G' Grid
'L' Layers
'M' Measure
'N' Net
'P' Properties
'R' Rotate
'W' Width
'X' Move To XY
'Z' Next Layer
ADD Twice Grid
SUBTRACT Half Grid
TAB Detach Cursor
DELETE Edit Delete
BACK Erase Screen
HOME Zoom All
PRIOR Zoom In
NEXT Zoom Out
END Zoom Redraw
SPACE Accept Continue
RETURN Accept Done

Package view, single key pressed with SHIFT:

'1' Layer SS Top

'3' Layer Dimensions
'B' Blend
'D' Show Drills
'H' Hollow Copper
'L' Grid Lines
'M' Measure
'S' Positive Soldermask
'W' Wire Frame

Package view, single key pressed plus CONTROL-SHIFT:

'F' Full Screen Cursor

'P' Positive Planes

227

Accelerated Designs’ Ultralib
Parts Definitions
The following is reprinted with permission from Accelerated Designs inc.:

Library Standards

The following represents a compilation of the standards we use in creating our libraries. There is certainly more
specifications than what we have chosen to include on the web, so if you would like more detail, please feel free
to contact us. Remember that most of our components are made with automated tools and exported to many
systems, so there may be some variations not covered in this document.

Footprint Patterns: (Construction Standard)

Where possible our parts are consistent with the IPC-7351 standard. We deviate from this standard in our naming
conventions, our use of English units of measure. Also areas not covered (like symbols and attributes, silkscreen
information etc.) by the standard are either based on other industry standards or are documented in this
document.

Units of Measure:

All footprints and symbols are built in English units (Mils) unless otherwise specified. Metric units are input when
appropriate (such as the pitch of metric pin spacings) but all dimensions are shown in Mils rounded to two decimal
places. Actual locations are stored internal to our tool to 8 decimal place accuracy.

Entites and Attributes:

Each component has a RefDes attribute on the silkscreen layer of the pattern. In applicable tools there is also a
RefDes2 attribute or second RefDes attribute on the Top Assembly layer. Where possible a Maximum and Minimum
height attribute has been added to each footprint. Each footprint has dimensions on a separate layer to identify
key features of the footprint. Each footprint has both a silkscreen layer which clearly identifies the part and any
orientation. Also there is an Assembly layer containing data representing the exact size of the part. Each
footprint contains a placement boundary if this information is available in the targeted CAD tool and it contains
test probe boundaries that change size based on the z axis or height of the footprint. Data is contained for each
footprint in our internal database to provide a 3d DXF formatted footprint if desired.

Component Naming Conventions:

Where possible industry standard naming is used. Where possible the naming referred to in the IPC-7351A is used,
with the exception that sizes are in Mils rather than MM. An example might be CC1206 for a chip capacitor that is
120 mils by 60 mils. If such is not obvious then a two or three letter designator is assigned (or the standard
designator used on PCB silkscreens) such as RES, CAP, FUS, etc. Following this designation would be a pin count or
width x spacing designation, Examples: Xtal4_300x300 (overall size of part) or CAP200x400 or RES100x400 (width of
part x Pin spacing). The following suffixes are also used:

228

 A= Axial P= Polarized, Press fit

B= Friction Lock or Ribbon R= Right Angle

D= SMT RA= Radial

E= Bottom Entry REV=Revised

F= Female S= Short, Shielded

H= Shrouded SH= Shrouded

J= JackPost

K= Keyed T= Additional Silk Information, Staggered

L= Long or Large U= Upright

LE= Latched Ejectors W= Stop

M= Male or Military Z= Mount Holes

MM=Millimeter

N= Non Plated or Non Polarized

Connectors being special are arranged with a prefix (generally "CON"), then a pin count, then a designation of how
many pins in the columns x the rows, and finally a selection of designators to help delineate between the different
available connectors. Examples: CON10_2x5 would be a header style part with 2 columns and 5 rows. If it had a -
UFKH suffix then it would be an upright connector, female numbering, some sort of keying and would have a
shroud of some sort. Additionally, since there are so many connectors that are very similar, we might follow with
a style name such as -CLM indicating a particular manufacturers style of part. This would help us in delineating
between two manufacturers with very similar offering, but still different footprints.

Library Construction:

The majority of the patterns in the library are built using the Ultra Librarian product to assist in consistency and in
reliability.

Where appropriate components are based on the IPC-SM-7351 standard. Exceptions would include thru hole
components as well as parts built to a specific standard and so labeled. Where possible components have been
built using the 3-tiered complexity level of:

• Least Material Condition

• Nominal material condition
• Maximum material condition

All components follow the Padstack Naming Convention. Where appropriate components contain local fiducials
specific libraries for more details on specific included features. Padstack Naming Conventions.

Where appropriate components contain local fiducials.

Naming of padstacks start with a shape designator as follows:

229

 R=Rectangular

• O=Oval

• E=Elliptical

• D=Diamond

• RD=Rounded Diamond

• C=Circular

• P=Polygonal

Shape designator are followed by an "x" with the size in mils and then a y dimension with the size in mils. Example:
RX40Y30 indicating a rectangular pad with a 40 mil x and a 30 mil y side.

Size is followed by a drill size. SMT pads are designated as "D0." Others as "D" followed by the drill size in mils. So
the above example would expand to "RX40Y30D20".

If this padstack is a blind via or buried via it is indicated by a suffix number.

If the padstack is modified from a standard or existing padstack it is designated with a suffix number.

Placement Points:

Each pattern has a pick and place point for assembly installed. It is placed on the pin one of the pattern for thru-
hole components and the centroid of the component for SMT patterns.

Each SMT component contains a glue dot as its centroid (where applicable).

Each component contains a placement point for referencing its pickup point in the CAD Tool. This point will
reference the 0,0 location of the component for the CAD Tool.

Each component contains a rectangle of drawn lines or a filled polygon (depending on the CAD tool) that
designates the total size of the component.

Each component contains a rectangle defining its nominal size for use with the height attribute.

Attributes:

Each component has a RefDes attribute on the silkscreen layer of the pattern.

In applicable tools there is also a RefDes2 attribute on the Top Assembly layer.

All RefDes Attributes are centered in the middle of the part with a Center-Center justification.

A 50 mil height attribute has been assigned to each component.

Component Naming Conventions:

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If for some reason there are two components with the same name, a numeral is added at the end to delineate
them.

Silkscreen Data:

Each pattern contains a silkscreen of the component on the top silkscreen layer. It avoids crossing pads where
possible, but depends on a silkscreen removal routine to completely remove silkscreen from pads. Assembly
information is included on the top assembly layer. It is intended to have a more complete description of the
component available than would be available on the silkscreen layer. Assembly information reflects the true size
of the part.

• Silkscreen and assembly draw widths are 6 mils wide.

• All text is 50 mil high with a 5 mil stroke width.
• Pin one is identified on all polarized components.

Vendor Neutral Format from Accelerated Designs Inc.:

All of the libraries for the various CAD tools are generated from a single database. The data is stored in a vendor
neutral format. This means that it stores all the relevant data from all the various CAD tools that we support.

Data can be imported from the various CAD tools and converted to the vendor neutral format. When the vendor
neutral data is exported, it is converted to the format of the CAD tool of choice.

Both the importing and exporting of data is done with Ultra Librarian, a product developed by of Accelerated
Design Incorporated. All of the libraries sold were created by Accelerated Design Incorporated.

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Known Issues
Fixed in v5.0.3: Schematic symbol does not update after editing

The original version of the edited symbol is stored with the board file. If you close your design and start a
new layout you could add the modified part and you would see the updated symbol. If you are too far
along in the current schematic to start over, you can use the updated symbol by creating a new entry in
the taxonomy with a unique name. Then remove the original symbol from your schematic and replace it
with the updated version.

You could also get around this issue by modifying the schematic symbol then save it with a new name.
Now you can pair the new symbol with the existing taxonomy entry. Then remove the original symbol
from your schematic and replace it with the updated version.

This same behavior exists if you modify a symbol’s properties after it has already been added to your
schematic. Changes to a part’s properties while on the schematic will not show up in the BOM. You will
need to use the method described above to update or create a new part in the taxonomy. Then remove
the existing symbol on your schematic and replace it with the updated symbol to see your changes in the
BOM.

Fixed in v5.0.3: Netlist files with spaces in part type names

When you import a netlist into PCB123 the program is currently sorting the list of parts by part type and
doesn't handle the spaces in your part type names.

Example: Your part type names are listed as follows: HEADER 1, HEADER 16, HEADER 3, HEADER 4,
HEADER 8, HEADER 9.

The netlist import tool stops reading at the space and combines all of these in a part type HEADER.

If the part types in your net list are saved as HEADER_1, HEADER_16, HEADER_3, HEADER_4,
HEADER_8, HEADER_9 PCB123 would see them as unique parts and list them separately in the table.

If you run into this issue and you select a part for the header in the example above you may have just
assigned a footprint that doesn't match the number of pins listed in your netlist. You will then get a
“component xxxx does not have a pin named yyyy” error message.

To overcome this issue you can manually edit your netlist to remove any spaces then import the netlist
again.

The plan for the next release is sort the table using a combination of Part Type and Package to identify
the unique parts in the netlist.

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Ultra Library part issues

We have found parts in the Ultra Library that have incorrect footprint associations, incorrectly labeled
footprints, or footprints that match the component pads not the recommended land pattern. Please be
sure to check every part that you place on your design to ensure that it matches the part that you will
purchased and place on your pcb. We are working to correct these issues so please report any incorrect
footprints or symbols that you see in the PCB123 libraries.

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