DIP TRACE Tutorial

02/11/2021
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Introduction
Welcome to DipTrace Tutorial. This PDF document is where you start with our
PCB design software. It provides all the guides, step-by-step nstructions,
detailed descriptions of typical work ing principles, and all the insights and
essentials to succeed as an electronic
engineer in DipTrace. This tutorial will be a useful tool for both professionals
and beginners in the engineering field.
In the Part I, II, and III we will create a simple schematic and PCB, then
practice in creating new components and work ing with libraries in the Part IV,
and, finally, practice in using more advanced features in the Part V.
For a quick answer, please refer to the corresponding Help document ("Help \
<DipTrace module> Help" from the main menu).
Created for DipTrace version 4.2. November 2021.

Contents 3
Table of Contents
Foreword 0
Part I Creating a simple schematic 5

1 Establishing
...................................................................................................................................
schematic size and placing titles 5
2 Configuring
...................................................................................................................................
libraries 9
3 Designing
...................................................................................................................................
schematic 10
4 Converting
...................................................................................................................................
to PCB 26
Part II Designing a PCB 27

1 Preparing
...................................................................................................................................
to route 27
2 Autorouting
................................................................................................................................... 34
3 Working
...................................................................................................................................
with layers 38
4 Working
...................................................................................................................................
with vias 41
5 Net
...................................................................................................................................
classes 44
6 Manual
...................................................................................................................................
routing 47
7 Measuring
...................................................................................................................................
trace length 57
8 Selecting
...................................................................................................................................
objects by type/layer 58
9 Placing
...................................................................................................................................
text and graphics 61
10 Copper
...................................................................................................................................
pour 64
11 Locking
...................................................................................................................................
objects 73
12 Design
...................................................................................................................................
verification 74
13 Layout
...................................................................................................................................
information 78
14 Panelizing
................................................................................................................................... 79
15 Printing
................................................................................................................................... 81
Part III Generating files for manufacturing 83

1 DXF
................................................................................................................................... 83
2 Gerber
...................................................................................................................................
RS-274X 85
3 Gerber
...................................................................................................................................
X2 90
4 N/C
...................................................................................................................................
Drill file (Excellon) 91
5 ODB++
................................................................................................................................... 92
6 Order
...................................................................................................................................
PCB 93
Part IV Creating Component Libraries 95

1 Designing
...................................................................................................................................
a pattern library 95
Custom izing
..........................................................................................................................................................
Pattern Editor 96
Create/Save
..........................................................................................................................................................
library 97
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
a resistor (pattern) 98
Manually
......................................................................................................................................................... 98
Attaching
.........................................................................................................................................................
a 3D model 106
Automatically
.........................................................................................................................................................
(Pattern Generator) 107
Designing
..........................................................................................................................................................
BGA-144/13x13 110
Manually
......................................................................................................................................................... 110
4 DipTrace Tutorial
Designing
.........................................................................................................................................................
BGA Automatically 116
Designing
..........................................................................................................................................................
SOIC-28 pattern 119
2 Designing
...................................................................................................................................
a component library 122
Custom izing
..........................................................................................................................................................
Com ponent Editor 122
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
a resistor (com ponent) 124
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
a capacitor 126
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
VCC and GND sym bols 132
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
a m ulti-part com ponent 135
Using additional
..........................................................................................................................................................
fields 143
Designing..........................................................................................................................................................
PIC18F24K20 145
SPICE settings
.......................................................................................................................................................... 152
Library verification
.......................................................................................................................................................... 153
Placing parts
.......................................................................................................................................................... 155
Part V Other features and tools 159

1 Connecting
................................................................................................................................... 159
Buses and..........................................................................................................................................................
bus connectors 159
Net ports.......................................................................................................................................................... 165
Connecting
..........................................................................................................................................................
w ithout w ires 166
Connection
..........................................................................................................................................................
Manager in Schem atic and PCB Layout 170
2 Looking
...................................................................................................................................
up components 171
3 Reference
...................................................................................................................................
Designators 174
4 Placement
...................................................................................................................................
and autorouting 177
5 Layer
...................................................................................................................................
stack 185
6 High-speed
...................................................................................................................................
nets and differential signals 190
Length m..........................................................................................................................................................
atching 190
Signal delay
.......................................................................................................................................................... 195
Create a..........................................................................................................................................................
differential pair 196
Differential
..........................................................................................................................................................
pair routing/editing 199
Phase tuning
..........................................................................................................................................................
a differential pair 204
Differential
..........................................................................................................................................................
Pair Manager 208
Define paired
..........................................................................................................................................................
pads 209
7 Renew
...................................................................................................................................
layout by schematic 211
8 Back
...................................................................................................................................
annotate 212
9 Hierarchical
...................................................................................................................................
schematic 214
10 SPICE
...................................................................................................................................
simulation 224
11 Saving/loading
...................................................................................................................................
design rules 227
12 Electrical
...................................................................................................................................
Rule Check 228
13 Checking
...................................................................................................................................
net connectivity 230
14 Fanout
................................................................................................................................... 232
15 Bill
...................................................................................................................................
of Materials (BOM) 236
16 Importing/exporting
...................................................................................................................................
netlists 240
17 3D
...................................................................................................................................
preview and export 242
18 DipTrace
...................................................................................................................................
Links 246
Creating a simple schematic 5
1 Creating a simple schematic

In this part of the tutorial, you will learn how to create a simple schematic and generate a
PCB (Printed Circuit Board) using the DipTrace software.
Let's start from the schematic. Open DipTrace Schematic, go to "Start / All Programs /
DipTrace / Schematic" in the Windows OS or use DipTrace Launcher on MacOS.
Once started, you can adjust graphics mode (View/ Graphics Mode): Open GL, being the
most universal, is set by default; you can switch to Direct 3D mode, which is faster, but
more dependent on hardware/drivers/versions; try Windows GDI, if you are working on
older machine.
Black background is used by default as the most eye-friendly, but we will switch to a white
one as it's more acceptable for printing this tutorial. To change the color scheme or define
custom colors go to "View / Colors" main menu item. We'll select white background from
the Template drop-down list.
Component Editor and Pattern Editor use the color settings of Schematic Capture and
PCB Layout respectively.
Notice that relative sizes of program panels in the screenshots may differ from what you
see on the screen due to resolution limitations applied in this PDF tutorial.
Sometimes we will hide the Design Manager (which is on the right side of the screen) to
add more design space, but if you have high-resolution screen you don't have to do this.
Select "View / Toolbars / Design Manager" from the main menu to show/hide the Design
Manager panel or press Ctrl+2 default hotkeys.
Some schematic and PCB examples presented in this tutorial are designed exclusively
as a demonstration cases of the tools being used, they are not necessarily working
prototypes.
1.1 Establishing schematic size and placing titles

We'll start with establishing the size of the schematic sheet and placing the drawing
frame, go to "File/ Titles and Sheet Setup" from the main menu, and select ANSI A from
the Sheet Template drop-down box. Then go to the bottom of the dialog and check
Display Titles and Display Sheet items. Press OK.
6 DipTrace Tutorial
Notice that you can show/hide titles and sheet on the design area by selecting "View /
Display Titles" and "View / Display Sheet" from the main menu.
Now press the Minus Sign (-) hotkey to zoom out until you can see the drawing frame.
Plus and Minus signs (+) (-) hotkeys, the mouse wheel, and the scale box on the
Instruments toolbar allow for zooming on the schematic. Hover over the required area for
more precise zooming. Notice that you can hide the Design Manager panel on the right (
Ctrl+2 hotkeys) to get more space on the design area.
© 2021 Novarm Software

To enter text into the title field, simply hover over that field with the mouse (the field
highlights green), then left-click it to open the field properties pop-up dialog box, select or
type in the text (field content), define alignment (Left, Center or Right), and the font.
In our case type in "Astable Flip Flop" text, then press the Font button and set the font
size to 12. Then click OK to close the dialog box and apply changes.
8 DipTrace Tutorial
You can enter multi-line text into the title block fields. This text will be saved only for the
current project. If you need to create a custom title template with predefined texts, please
refer to Title Block Editor (more details in Schematic Help Title Block Editor topic).
To zoom on the title block, hover over it with the mouse, and press the Plus Sign (+) or

scroll the mouse wheel.
Let's practice with different zoom options for a while. Click on the button (Zoom
Window) and draw a rectangle on the design area where you want to zoom.
To return to previous scale and position, use button (Undo Scale). Press and hold
the right mouse button to pan on the design area.
Go to "File / Save As" from the main menu, type in the file name, and make sure that file is
in the directory that you need. Click Save.
1.2 Configuring libraries
DipTrace has a single cross-module library management system.

Libraries are organized to standard and custom library groups with
multi-level search filters ensuring that correct components can be
found quickly. The Place Component panel has all necessary tools to
place components and manage libraries. To adjust the panel width,
right-click on it and select preferred option or just hover over the panel
border and drag it.
Configuring library groups
Press (<Current Library Group>) there are

three default library groups:
Components (all standard libraries, sorted alphabetically by
component type and manufacturer);
User Components (add/delete libraries to/from this library group).
Empty by default;
Project Libraries (auto-generated library with all components of the
current circuit). It is empty if no schematic file is open.
Let's group all libraries that we will need for our project into a single
library group. Select User Components library group, then press the
and select Add Library to "User

Components". In the pop-up dialog box select Components library
group from the Add from Group list. The Components library group
contains all standard DipTrace component libraries. Select General
(non-IPC), Objects Symbols and Transistors NPN libraries, use Ctrl
key for multiple selection. Press OK when ready.
10 DipTrace Tutorial
Now the selected libraries have appeared in the User Components library group and we
are ready to start designing the schematic.
Add library from a separate file
To add a new library to the DipTrace library system, check Add from File checkbox in
the Add Library to <Library group> dialog box and select the file on your computer. You
can also use the Library Setup dialog box to get access to the comprehensive library
system settings ("User Components (<Current library group>) / Library Setup" on the
Place Component panel).
Notice that Library Setup panel allows for configuring both pattern and component library
groups, though pattern libraries are invisible in the Schematic.
More information in the DipTrace Help ("Help/ Schematic Help" from the main menu),
Working with Libraries section.
1.3 Designing schematic

In this section of the tutorial we will show the basic principles of working in the Schematic
module of DipTrace PCB Design Environment.
Please turn ON the grid (if it was turned OFF) with F11 hotkey. Change the grid size to 0.1
inch, you can select it from the drop-down list of grids on the Instruments toolbar, or press
the Ctrl + Plus Sign (+) hotkeys to increase, or Ctrl + Minus Sign (-) to decrease the grid
size.
Notice that you can add new sizes by selecting "View / Customize Grid" from the main
menu. Precision of grid and all values used in the project can be defined in View/
Precision dialog. Measurement units can be changed in the "View/ Units" main menu item
or with Shift+U shortcut. We will use only default keyboard shortcuts in this tutorial. Go to
"Tools/ HotKey Settings" to restore the defaults or change shortcuts.
Now let's start creating the circuit. Select Transistors NPN library from the User

Components library group on the Place Component panel.

Search component in libraries
Once the library is selected, scroll down the
component list to find 2N2221AL transistor or use the
search filters. Select "Objects/ Find Component"
from the main menu or press
button.
In the pop-up dialog box make sure that Transistors
NPN library is set as a search area, then type in
"2N2221AL" into the Name field, and press Apply
Filter. Now only components containing 2N2221AL
appear in the component list. The filters button now
shows that the filter is ON. All other components are
hidden.
Close the Search Filters dialog box.

Notice that you can expand the search results by entering a part of the component name
as well as filter components by RefDes, value, pattern, manufacturer, datasheet, or
additional fields, use the and buttons to add or delete the search filters.
Placing components
Click on the transistor in the list and move your mouse pointer to the design area. Left-
click once to place one transistor. Right-click to disable the component placement mode.
Drag and drop component if you need to move it to another location on the design area.
To select several objects, press and hold the Ctrl key, then left-click on each object that
you want to add to the selection or move the mouse to the upper-left corner of the group,
hold down the left mouse button and move cursor to the lower-right corner, then release
the mouse button to select all objects inside the rectangle (press Ctrl key to invert
selection). Now you can move all these objects at a time.
Sometimes it is necessary to change the reference designator of the component. Hover
over the component with the mouse pointer, right-click it, and select the top item (Q1)
from the submenu. In the pop-up dialog box type in a new RefDes if needed. We will keep
"Q1".
We need two transistors for the schematic, select 2N2221AL in the component list again,
and place it on the design area. If you have changed the reference designator you don’t
need to rename the second transistor, it happens automatically. If you want to rotate the
component before placing it on the design area, press Space or R default keyboard
shortcuts.
You can activate Snap to Grid option, if it's disabled (View/ Snap to Grid or Alt + F11), this
will align the newly placed components by the grid. Grid Snap status is displayed on the
status bar in the bottommost part of the screen.
When the search filter is active, you can see only certain (filtered) components of the

library. Press Filter ON button on the Place Component panel, then press Cancel Filter
in the pop-up dialog box to turn the filtering OFF. Now close the search filters dialog box.
Select General (non-IPC) library, find RES400 resistor, and place it on the design area. If
you prefer metric units, switch units with Shift+U combination or select the Units in View
submenu, however, we will keep inches as these are the most suitable units for the
current project.
Copy components
We need 4 resistors for this project. You can place them manually, like Q1 and Q2
transistors, but this time we select one resistor on the design area and copy it three
times. There are two ways to copy a component:
1. Once a component is selected, go to "Edit/ Copy" from the main menu or right-click on
the component, and select Copy from the submenu (Ctrl+C hotkeys), then select "Edit/
Paste" three times, or right-click on the design area, and select Paste (Ctrl+V hotkeys)
from the submenu.
2. Copy Matrix. This option is good for bulk copying. Select resistor, then go to "Edit/ Copy
Matrix" from the main menu (or press Ctrl+M hotkeys).
In the Matrix dialog box set the number of columns and rows ("2" columns and "2" rows
to get 4 resistors) and spacing (1 inch for columns and 0.4 inch for rows is good), click
OK. Now you can see four resistors on the design area:
Move resistors to a proper location, like in the picture below (use mouse or arrows on the
keyboard for orthogonal moving), and rotate components 90 degrees (use Space or R
shortcuts to rotate selected components). Another method to rotate an object is by using
the "Edit / Rotate" main menu item or right-clicking on the object and selecting Rotate
from the submenu.
Notice that you can pan design with the right mouse button or the mouse wheel: move
mouse arrow to the design area, hold down the right mouse button or the mouse wheel,
and pan.

Components' markings
The reference designators of Q1 and Q2 transistors have inappropriate locations, we
need their RefDes to be under the component symbols. To change the RefDes location,
select both transistors, right-click on one of them, and select Properties from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box open Part Markings tab, and select Bottom from the
Align drop-down for RefDes.
Let's display component names for these transistors too. To do that, in Name line select
Show from Show drop-down and Corner from Align drop-down. This will show the
names of selected components. Notice that reference designators are already displayed
as primary markings. Common means using common Schematic settings for all
components (defined in View/ Component Markings).
If you want to set precise position of a marking, select Position from the Align drop-down -
Position column will become active, press button to set X and Y coordinates and
rotation angle for the corresponding Markings.
Press OK.
You can show or hide pin numbers for the entire circuit by selecting "View / Pin Numbers /

Show" from the main menu, if they are not displayed yet. To change pin display settings
for the selected part, right-click it, and select Pin Numbers from the submenu.
However, if you're still not satisfied with location of RefDes, numbers, pin names or any
other markings, you can move them around visually with a special move tool. Select
"View/ Move Part Texts" from the main menu or press F10. For precise moving it's better
to disable Snap to Grid option (Alt +F11 hotkey). You can move and rotate part markings
like separate objects with R or "Space" shortcuts.
"View/ Part Markings" menu item allows the user to change common settings of part
markings. Common settings are applied to all schematic parts, except those with custom
properties.
Use Undo or Redo tools ( buttons) if you are not satisfied with the changes
you've made. The DipTrace saves up to 50 steps. Remember to save schematic into a
file. Select "File / Save" from the main menu or press the Save button on the Standard
toolbar. If the current schematic has never been saved, the Save As dialog box will pop
up to define the file name and location. If the file already exists, clicking the Save button or
pressing Ctrl+S hotkeys is enough. You can use the "File/ Save As" dialog box to save the
same file under a different name, for example, in order to backup it.
Create connections
Connect pin 1 of R1 resistor to pin 2 (base) of transistor Q1. You need to make sure that
you are in the default mode ( button is pressed). Hover with the mouse arrow over the
bottom pin of R1 resistor, and left-click it - Place Wire mode will be activated
automatically. Then move the mouse arrow down to the base pin of the Q1 transistor, and
left-click it to connect the wire and create the connection between R1 and Q1.
Now we need to mirror the Q2 transistor, this will make schematic easier to understand.
First, return to the default mode by right-clicking on a empty spot, then right-click on the
transistor, and select "Flip/ Horizontal" from the submenu.
Connect R4 to pin 2 (base) of Q2, R2 to pin 3 of Q1, and R3 to pin 3 of Q2, like in the
picture below. You can move components or wires to get straight lines, this is not
important for electrical connectivity, but necessary to make schematic well-organized and
easy to understand. If you don't like the automatic wire placement mode, you can turn it
OFF on the Place Wire panel of the Design Manager to your right-hand side. Set
Manual in the Route Mode section or just press the M hotkey. Place Wire panel is only
visible in the wire placement mode.

Now select CAP100RP from the General (non-IPC) library and place it twice to the design.
Flip C2 capacitor, select "Flip/ Horizontal" from the right-click submenu. C2 capacitor's
positive pin should be facing right.

We need to place two capacitors between the transistors Q1 and Q2 with respect to their
polarities.
You might need to move some components to give enough space for the capacitors and
connections.
Move resistors a bit upwards, and select Q2, R3, R4 and related wires in order to move
them to the right a little bit. Draw a selection box around these objects by holding down the
left mouse button.
Right-click to deselect all, if you are in the Default mode, or double right-click if you are in
another mode (first click to disable an active mode and the second click to deselect all).
Connect the positive pin of the C1 to pin 2 of the Q1: left-click the C1 positive pin and left-
click on the wire between the R1 and Q1, the small circle appears if wires are properly
connected.
Then connect C1 pin 2 and C2 pins like in the picture below.

Scroll down the components list of General (non-IPC) library on the Place Component
panel to find LED component, and place two of them onto the schematic. Then change
the reference designators to "LED1" and "LED2" (right-click on the component, and select
the first item from the submenu), rotate these parts with R hotkey or Space (pressed
three times). Probably, you'll need to move and rotate the RefDes with the Move Part
Texts tool (F10 shortcut). Then connect LEDs to transistors like in the picture below.
Place a battery symbol SOURCE_BATTERY2 component from the Objects Symbols,

change its RefDes if you need, and complete the circuit by connecting the remaining pins
(see the picture). Make sure that you see small black circles where two wires connect, if
not, then wires are not connected.
Notice that you can align components in rows or columns automatically respective to
each other, just select the components that you want to align, right-click on one of them,
select Align Objects from the submenu, and set up the alignment tool properly. However,
it's not needed for the current schematic.

If you want to move existing wire, hover over it with your mouse (the net should highlight
and the mouse cursor shows possible directions), then left-click on the wire and move it
while holding the left mouse button.
Notice that if you are in the Place Wire mode and you click on the existing wire, you start
creating a new wire, not editing an existing one. The Place Wire mode is enabled
automatically when you left-click on any component pin.
If some objects do not highlight when you hover over them with the mouse, right-click on
any free spot on the design area to switch to the Default mode. If you want to delete a
wire, right-click it to open the submenu, and select Delete Wire. To delete a wire
segment, select Delete Line from the same submenu. You can use the Undo to return
to the previous state of the circuit.
Now we will add resistance values "10kΩ" for all resistors on this schematic. Since "Ω" is
a Unicode character, it doesn't work in vector fonts, which are set by default in DipTrace.
We need to switch TrueType fonts for part markings in order to use the Unicode
characters. Go to "View / Part Markings". In the pop-up select True Type font. Since
TrueType characters look a bit different from Vector ones, you might need to adjust the
font size - press Font Settings button and and set 8 pt size.
Notice that there are various ways to enter special characters. We recommend to copy
symbols from the Character Map ("Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools /
Character Map" in Windows OS), and paste them in the DipTrace.
Now select all resistors, then right-click on one of them, and select Properties from the
submenu. In the Parameters tab type "47 kΩ" into the Value field. Now open Part
Markings tab. In Show column select Show from the drop-down for Value, click OK.

As you remember, we took the battery component from the Objects Symbols library. All
components in this library don't have patterns, they are just symbols (pattern preview field
on the Place Component panel says "No Pattern"). But in order to proceed to the PCB
layout stage, you should attach the related pattern to this symbol. If left blank, DipTrace
will not be able to show this component on the circuit board and an error dialog box will
pop up.
Hover over the battery symbol, right-click it, and select Attached Pattern from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box you can see the list of all components of the current
circuit in the left part of the dialog box, make sure "B1-SOURCE_BATTERY2" is selected
(you can see the battery symbol in the preview field).
Select Patterns library group from the Pattern Libraries drop-down list on the right. This
library group contains all standard DipTrace pattern libraries separately from the symbols.
Select Batteries library from the list and find PANASONIC_BR-1225_VCN pattern in the
pattern list at the bottom-right of the dialog box (use the search filters if you want). In most
cases, DipTrace automatically assigns pin-to-pad connections according to the pad
numbers, but this is not the case with this battery symbol.
Positive pad is usually square shaped and negative is round. Click on the corresponding
row in the Pin to Pad Table, and type in related pad number in the Pad Number column
(NEG pin should refer to Pad #2, POS pin – to Pad #1).
You can visually set pin to pad connections, just left-click on the pin in the symbol preview
field, and then on the corresponding pad in the pattern preview field.
Press OK when ready to close the Attach Pattern dialog box.

Notice that some symbols in the libraries are intentionally made without attached patterns
(for example, VCC, GND or other logical connectors, Net Ports).
Our schematic is now ready to become a PCB. Do not forget to save the schematic,
select "File / Save" from the main menu or click on the Save button or simply Ctrl+S.
You can print schematic or save it in BMP or JPG file. To print in PDF, you need to install
any of the free PDF printers widely available online, and select it in the printer selection
dialog box.
Select "File / Preview" from the main menu, in the pop-up dialog box customize the
preview, and press Print All to print all schematic sheets, or press Print Current Sheet
to print the selected sheet, press Save to create a BMP/JPG/PNG file with defined
resolution.
1.4 Converting to PCB

You can open DipTrace schematic files (*.dch) in PCB Layout module, but if you want to
save your time, select "File / Convert to PCB" or press Ctrl+B hotkeys directly in the
Schematic. In the pop-up dialog box you can use Schematic rules or load rules from any
other PCB layout file. When you press OK, the schematic will open in the PCB Layout.
In case of incorrect exit from the program or if you
somehow forgot to save the project, it is possible to
recover the latest schematic by selecting "File /
Recover Schematic" in the Schematic or "File /
Recover Board" in the PCB Layout module.
If you want to hide the Design Manager to get more space on the design area, press
Ctrl+2 hotkeys or uncheck "View /Toolbars / Design Manager" main menu item.

Designing a PCB 27
2 Designing a PCB
2.1 Preparing to route

The routing itself is one of the final stages of board design, but its quality greatly depends
on the preparation.
Right after converting to the PCB, the circuit looks chaotic. Press button on the
Placement toolbar or select "Placement / Arrange Components" from the main menu, all
components will be placed near the design center (blue line cross) and arranged
according to the placement settings.
You can use Auto-placement or Placement by list features after converting to PCB. These
are very convenient and useful tools which allow the user to get advantages of both
automatic and manual placement modes. We will place components automatically in Part
III 177 of this tutorial with more complex circuits.
Component markings
Make sure that reference designators are visible. Select "View / Component Markings"
from the main menu. In the pop-up you can set up display parameters for reference and
other designators of all components of the current project, except those with individual
settings, in the Silk Screen and/ or Assembly Layers. In Show column tick the parameters
you want to be shown; we'll select only RefDes. You can leave Auto alignment mode and
let DipTrace select the best alignment option for markings or select another mode
(Center, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Corner). Uncheck Rotate Markings with Component if
you want marking to maintain its position when a component is rotated.
For the PCB Layout we recommend vector font in most cases. Switch to TrueType,
because only TrueType fonts support Unicode and non-Latin characters.
To change the font parameters of the marking text, press Font Settings button. You can
choose any size, but don't make it too big (we'll set 5 pt).
To define custom component marking parameters for the selected components, right-
click on one of them, select Properties from the submenu, then select the Markings tab
in the pop-up dialog box. You'll be able to define, which Markings to show, how to align
them as well as their position, rotation angle and font size for both Silk Screen and
Assembly layers.
Remember that you can use the move tool – F10 or "View / Move Component Texts". This
option allows for moving and rotating (90 degree step) any text object on the board.
Manual placement
Now distribute the components manually, according to your preferences and design rules.
It is a good practice to keep power supply components in one area and functional blocks
in another. Apply appropriate layout rules and differential signaling for high frequency
circuits. Notice that we use 0.05 inch (1.27 mm) grid; you can change it using a drop-
down list on the Instruments toolbar. Select "View / Units / Inch" main menu item to
change the measurement units or press Shift+U. You can configure precision of all the
values used in the current project as well as set grid minimum size and precision. To do
that, open a dialogue-box by selecting Precision item in View submenu.

Designing a PCB 29
Create a layout similar to the one in the picture below, with resistors at the top and LEDs
at the bottom of the board. Drag and drop components to move them on the board. Press
Space or R default hotkeys to rotate selected components by 90 degrees. If you need to
rotate by a different angle, select components, then right-click on one of them, and
choose Define Angle or Free Rotate for precise and visual rotation respectively.
Aligning objects
This project is simple and guidelines that appear while
moving components will help you align them, but you can
also use the Align Objects tool to organize components in
rows and columns automatically. For example, select four
resistors (use the box selection or the Ctrl key to select
multiple objects at a time), then right-click on one of them,
and select Align Objects from the submenu. In the pop-up
dialog box, set Horizontal direction, check the Distribute
Equally and Spacing checkboxes and enter 0.55 inch in the
Spacing field. The Align By section of this dialog box does
not matter to us because we are aligning similar footprints.
Press Apply.
Press F12 to optimize visual appearance of the connection
lines on the screen (this does not change the net structure).
Changing the net structure

We're going to practice in changing the net structure on the board, adding and removing
connections. Blue thin lines between pads show logic connections, these lines are called
"ratlines".
Hover over any pad with the mouse, right-click it, and select Delete from Net, the pad will
disappear from the net. This pad is no longer connected with a blue line.
You can create a pad-to-pad connections visually. Select "Objects / Place Ratline" from
main menu or press button on the objects toolbar. Then hover the mouse pointer
over unconnected pad, left-click it, and move your mouse to any other pad (connected or
unconnected), and left-click it. A new wire or a new net (in case if both pads were
unconnected), represented as a thin blue line (ratline) will appear. To delete an existing
connection, just select Delete Net from the right-click submenu on the pad.
If you would like to add a pad to some net without creating a connection visually on the
design area, hover over the pad with the mouse, right-click it, and select Add to Net, then
select net from the list of all nets of the project or point it with the mouse cursor on the
design area.
However, the most convenient way to add, delete or rename nets, as well as add or delete
pads to/from the nets is the Connection Manager. Select "Route / Connection Manager"
from the main menu to launch it. Connection manager is easy to use.

Designing a PCB 31
Select a net from the Net drop-down list and you will see all
pads of the net in the table; you can easily delete any one of
them. If you want to connect some pad to the net, select a
component and its pad, using the drop-down menus at the
bottom of the dialog box, and press Add button.
If you have changed the net structure, please press Undo
until previous design is restored. Close the Connection
Manager. By the way, if you lose design or schematic
because of incorrect exit from the program, use "File /
Recover Board" in the PCB Layout and "File / Recover
Schematic" in the Schematic to recover the latest project
version.
To protect the net structure from accidental change, select
"Route / Lock Net Structure" in the main menu.
Board outline
We haven’t determined the board outline yet. If you launch the autorouter, it will create an
appropriate rectangle board automatically, but in real life electronic designer usually has
certain board requirements well before starting the project. You can create a relatively
simple board polygon directly in the DipTrace or import it from the DXF file (if its shape is
complex).
Select "Objects / Place Board Outline" or press button on the Routing toolbar, then
place the board outline by left clicking the key points on the design area. Right-click in the
final point of the polygon, and select Enter from the submenu or press Enter on the
keyboard. For this design we require a simple rectangle board about 2.5 x 2.5 inches, see
the picture below (notice that the origin point is hidden with F1 hotkey).
If necessary, you can create arcs in the board outline by selecting Arc from the right-click
submenu while drawing the polygon. You can also select the most convenient Arc Mode
(Start-Center-Angle; Start-End-Radius; Start-End-Middle Point) to build the arc from the
submenu.
You can insert new points (right-click/ Insert Point) into the completed board outline
polygon or move each point/ entire polygon on the design area. Point coordinates appear
as a hint when the cursor hovers over it.
Another way to draw a board outline is to place a shape or a series of shapes (lines,
polylines, arcs) so that they form a continuous contour in the Board Cutout layer (it
should be selected from a drop-down on the Drawing toolbar), then right-click on the
shape and select Convert to Board Outline.
There is one more way to create a board polygon that does not involve drawing it on the
design area. Select "Objects / Board Points" from the main menu.
In this dialog box you can Add, Insert and Delete key points.
Coordinates are shown and can be edited in absolute or
incremental mode.
If you check the Arc checkbox for some point, that point will
become a middle point of an arc and the neighboring points
will become the arc's first and end points.
For rectangular boards, check Create Rectangular Board
box and simply define the first point (base), width and
height of the board.
It is also possible to make circular and rectangular boards with rounded corners
automatically.
Press OK to apply changes or Cancel to close the dialog box.
You can use "Objects / Delete Board" from the main menu, if you want to delete the
outline polygon.

Designing a PCB 33
Origin point
Correct board origin is important, because it is the reference point and beginning of the
coordinates for the circuit board. Bottom-left corner of the board outline is the best place.
If you strictly followed the instructions given before in this tutorial, then you should see two
blue lines crossing exactly there. However, in the case you do not see the origin point or it
is not in the bottom-left corner of the board, select "View / Origin" from the main menu or
press F1 hotkey to show it. If the position is wrong, go to "View / Define Origin / By Mouse
Pointer" from the main menu or press button on the Instruments toolbar, and left-
click on the design area (DipTrace helps to target on the key points).
Now all coordinates in the PCB Layout will be displayed and edited relatively to the origin
but you can change the origin's position at any moment.
Notice that coordinates of components on the board are calculated by pattern's origin
point. It is defined in the Pattern Editor. To show or hide an origin of the selected
component/s or to change its display mode, right-click on one of them, and select
Pattern Origin from the submenu.
Board cutout
DipTrace allows the designer to create board cutout polygons. You can create a cutout of
any shape but in our case, we will make a simple rectangle cutout between LEDs and
transistors just to show you how to do this.
Select Board Cutout layer in the drop-down list on
the drawing toolbar, then choose the rectangle
drawing tool, and draw a rectangle cutout on the
board on the design area. Pan, zoom and change the
grid size for precise drawing. Board cutout is now
ready.
There is another way to create cutouts. Just draw a shape on any layer of the board or
import it from the DXF file, then right-click on the shape, and select Properties from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box, select Board Cutout from the Type drop-down list,
and press OK.
Notice that board cutout does not visually differ from the board outline, you should be
careful not to place a cutout instead of an outline.
Route Keepout
Route keepout is an area on the board not intended for any copper. Autorouter does not
draw traces there, and the program will report errors, if you draw them manually in the
keepout area. Board cutout shape does not have a clearance parameter like the board
outline.
The route keepout around the board cutout will do the
job. This allows for the clearance between the copper
and the cutout. Since we plan to have copper traces only
on the bottom layer, switch to Bottom layer with 2
hotkey, then select Route Keepout layer in the drop-
down list on the Drawing toolbar, and select the
Rectangle tool. Draw a rectangle which is a bit bigger
than the cutout, like in the picture on the left. Change the
grid size to 0.025 in for comfortable drawing. Then
switch back to the top layer (press 1 hotkey).
2.2 Autorouting
Now it is time to route the printed circuit board. DipTrace has a high-quality shape-based
autorouter and the Grid Router suitable for simple PCBs and single-layer boards with
jumper wires. Our project can be routed on a single layer (usually it is the bottom one).

Designing a PCB 35
Single-layer boards usually have longer traces, but give many other benefits for
prototyping. Longer traces do not affect the project this simple.
Select "Route / Current Autorouter" from the main menu, and choose Shape Router, it's
the best option for complex and simple designs (unless you need jumper wires). Go to
"Route / Autorouter Setup" from the main menu to set up the autorouter.
Notice that autorouter settings depend on selected router (different panels for different
autorouters).
In the Shape Router Setup dialog box (which is selected now) go to the Settings tab,
check Use Priority Layer Directions box, select Top in the list of layers, and set Off in
the Direction: drop-down list below. This means that autorouter will not create any
traces on the Top layer. Press OK to apply changes.
If you want to route a board with jumper wires you need to select the Grid Router, and
check Allow Jumper Wires box in the Autorouter Setup dialog box. In our case, we don
't need that.
Select "Route / Route Setup" from the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box, you can
change the trace width and clearance between traces for default net class and the
diameter of vias for default via style. Route Setup dialog box is the quickest way to
change these parameters, but more complex projects would require using several net
classes and via styles. You can press All Classes... and All Styles... buttons to access
the respective dialogs. We will discuss Net Classes 44 and Via Styles 41 later in this
tutorial.
If you are new to DipTrace, we strongly recommend you to use the settings like in the
picture above for this tutorial project, it will help to avoid any misunderstandings and errors
later. Press OK to close this dialog box and apply changes, then set the grid size back to
0.05 inch.
Now it's time to route the circuit board. Select "Route / Run Autorouter" from the main
menu. You'll get something like in the picture below. Your layout doesn't have to be exactly
like the one shown, so don't be confused if you are new to PCB design and some traces
don't coincide with the picture.
Notice that the color of the traces depends on the layer color. We will change it in the next
topic of this tutorial.

Designing a PCB 37
Automatic DRC
DipTrace has several verification options on different levels of PCB design. For example,
Design Rule Check (DRC). It verifies object sizes, length/phase parameters of high-
speed nets, and clearances between different objects according to user-defined rules.
The DRC results are shown in the error-report list. Violations are marked with red and
magenta circles directly on the design area. Design Rule Check in DipTrace operates in
regular (offline) and Real-Time modes. If Real-Time DRC is active, you've probably
noticed some red circles while moving components and creating traces. But it should be
OFF by default, therefore we will discuss verification procedures later.
Regular or Offline DRC (Design Rule Check) runs automatically after autorouting. This
project is very simple and you shouldn't get any errors, if there are some, make
corrections and relaunch the DRC by selecting "Verification / Check Design Rules" from
the main menu or press button on the instruments toolbar. To change design rules,
select "Verification / Design Rules" from the main menu. To hide error circles on the
design area, select "Verification / Hide Errors". To disable automatic DRC after
autorouting, uncheck the corresponding checkbox in the "Route / Current Autorouter"
main menu item.
Select "File / Save" from the main menu, in the pop-up dialog box define the folder, type in
the name of the file and press Save.
Notice that now you can skip all topics till the Printing 81 , because your PCB is actually
ready for output, but if you want to learn some basic useful features of the DipTrace PCB
Layout, we don't recommend to skip those.
2.3 Working with layers

The traces are in lower contrast, because they are on the Bottom layer of the board, while
the Top layer is active. We can see those traces because the Contrast layer display
mode and 50% opacity between the layers are default settings.
Look at the Layers tab on the Design Manager
(press Ctrl+2 hotkeys if the Design Manager panel
is hidden).
First of all, you can organize the layers to your
convenience here by selecting the priority layers
and arranging their order in the list. Press
button and tick the layers you want to be displayed
in the Priority column. Use arrow buttons in the
Order column to move the layers up and down
the list. We are going to leave all the Layers
displayed.
If you want to switch to another layer, double click it in the list or press the corresponding
hotkey, or you can also use T and B keys for top and bottom layers respectively. Active
layer can also be changed in the list box near the DRC control buttons.
We double click the Bottom layer in the list to activate it. Make sure you click on the layer
name (text) in the list, not on the blue check mark or elsewhere. Click on the colored
rectangle right next to the Bottom layer and select a color in the pop-up dialog box. Press
OK to set the bottom layer color. You can change colors of other layers, if you like.
All layers are divided into two basic types: Signal layers and Non-Signal layers. DipTrace
user can easily add, delete, and edit both. Our project is a simple circuit board with two

Designing a PCB 39
signal layers: Top and Bottom. But as you can see in the list, there are much more of
them. Assembly, Silk, Paste, Mask, etc. are non-signal layers. DipTrace creates them
automatically on both sides of the board (and gives corresponding names to each of them
depending on their side of the circuit board - Top Silk, Bottom Paste etc.). Each layer
carries a special type of information.
Top/Bottom Silk are silkscreen layers, all texts and graphical information are automatically
added there. Top/Bottom Mask and Paste layers contain information about solder mask
and solder paste application zones. Some non-signal layers are necessary for correct
board manufacturing, others provide additional functionality, for example, when drilling
PCBs at home. More information about each layer in the Gerber Output 85 topic of this
tutorial.
Signal layers
Traces and copper pours can be created only on signal layers. There are two types of
signal layers: Signal and Plane. Signal layers usually contain traces and sometimes
copper pours, while Plane layers are inner (inside the board), they contain one or several
copper pours. Autorouter can create traces only on signal layers.
If you want to add, edit, create or delete a layer, go to
"Route / Layer Setup" or press button on the Layers

tab on the Design Manager. In the Signal / Plane tab of
the pop-up dialog box, you can specify the name, type,
color etc. of each signal or plane layer. Notice that you can't
change some parameters for certain layers.
We will add a new plane layer called "Tutorial Layer" just to show you how it works. Press
Add button in the Layers dialog box, then enter the layer name, select type and color.
Press OK to create a new layer, now it appears in the list. Plane layers can be connected
to one of the nets, usually Ground or Power, in our case it is unconnected. You can also
define a single size for all pad rings on the layer. All pads on inner layers are always round
.
Press the Close button to close the Layers dialog box, as you can see the Tutorial Layer
is already on the layers panel, between Top and Bottom layers.
Right-click on any layer in the list to open a submenu for quick editing of the list and
layers. Click on the color rectangle to quickly change the color of the corresponding layer.
Insert Another plane layer and Call it Tutorial Layer 2.

Designing a PCB 41
Non-Signal layers
Customizable non-signal layers are used for various
engineering purposes. They improve speed and total
convenience of electronic design in DipTrace. If you
need to create a non-signal layer, select the Non-
Signal tab in the Layers dialog box ("Route / Layer
Setup" from the main menu), then press the Add
button, enter layer name, select color and layer side:
None, Top or Bottom. None means that layer will not
be locked to some specific side of the board.
We do not need any custom non-signal layers.
Close this dialog box.
There are some quick-access buttons on the
Layers tab of the Design Manager:
– Add Layer;
– Layer Setup;
– layer display mode;
– contrast level setup.

Remember to use 1,2,3, ... hotkeys to quickly change an active signal/ plane layer.
Notice that in DipTrace you see the bottom layer of the circuit board like if it was
transparent. Pick "View / Mirror" from the main menu to mirror entire circuit board. Now
you see how the bottom layer actually looks like. However, this is not necessary, because
Gerber Export automatically creates the correct copper layout on the bottom layer.
Delete non-signal layer if you have created one, we don't need it for this project. But do not
delete custom plane layers. Save the design.
2.4 Working with vias

DipTrace supports through and blind/buried vias (if divided by physical properties). Vias
are also divided by two logical types that don't depend on their physical properties:
Trace Vias (regular vias), which are technically parts of the traces and appear
automatically when you move trace segment to another layer;
Static Vias (similar to pads), which are placed manually, they have much more variable
properties than trace vias.
All vias in DipTrace, disregarding their logical type, are organized to Via Styles.
We don't need a lot of different via styles for the current project, but we will add some in
order to teach you the basic principles of working with vias.
Let's create two additional via styles: one with blind/buried vias of the same size as the
Default via style (0.039 inch-diameter and 0.02-inch hole), and the other via style for
through vias of bigger diameter. Go to "Route / Via styles" and check if Default via style
has aforementioned parameters. Change them if you need. Then press Add button to add
a new via style. It will appear under the Default one. Left-click it, and type in the name,
change via type to Blind/Buried, and specify the layers involved (top and bottom layer of
the via). In our case, we make blind vias from Top layer to Tutorial Layer. Specify via
properties like in the picture below. Blind vias are impossible on printed circuit boards with
only two layers, that is why we did not delete tutorial layers from the previous topic of this
tutorial.
Now add one more through via style called "Tutorial ViaStyle2", and enter 0.065 inch outer
and 0.03 inch hole diameters. Press OK.
Trace vias
Now unroute one of the nets (we will route it manually). We have chosen the net that
connects resistors' pads with the battery.
Switch to the Bottom layer, then right-click on the net that you want to unroute, and select
Unroute Net from the submenu.
Go to "Route / Manual Routing / Add Trace" from the main menu or press the Tilde Sign
(~) hotkey. Left-click on the first pad (R1:2), to start routing a trace and draw it to some
point between the R1 and R2. Use V hotkey and select Tutorial ViaStyle2 from the pop-
up menu to apply it to the vias that will be created when changing layers. Auto means that
DipTrace will use a via style that takes less space on the board, but in our case, we select
the style with bigger vias (Tutorial Via Style2). Let's check Via Preview option on the
Routing panel (alternatively, E button can be used). You can see that a circle, meeting
the parameters of the selected via style, has appeared at the tip of the trace. Now left-click
to set a trace segment between the pads, then right-click, and select "Segment Layer /
Top" from the drop-down submenu (if you're routing on the bottom layer and vice versa).

Designing a PCB 43
Trace via will appear automatically. Disable via preview with E hotkey and continue routing
on the opposite side of the board to another pad, and then left-click it. Create one more
segment between the R2 and R3 components. Notice that trace color is defined by the
layer color. Do not route the entire net all the way to the battery.
Static vias
You can use button to place a new static via on the design area or you make one
directly from a trace via - just right-click on it, and select Convert Via to Static. Then
specify which vias to convert: Current via, Selected segments etc. Static vias behave
almost like pads.
If you change the parameters of some via style, all vias of that style, even those on the
design area, will change automatically.
We can change style, type, diameter of the static via and apply new settings to the current
or selected vias or nets in the Via Properties dialog box. Right-click on one or several vias
(or nets with static or trace vias), and select Via Properties from the submenu, make
some changes, and press OK. If there is no via style with the parameters you've entered,
DipTrace will ask if you want to create a new via style.
You can convert static vias back to trace vias, right-click on the static via, and select
Convert to Trace Via from the submenu, and select, which vias to convert. If you've
placed a static via directly on the design area, you can not convert it to trace via.
Delete all vias, unroute the net again and route the trace on a single layer, but do not use
the Undo tool, because this will delete custom via styles.
2.5 Net classes

All nets in DipTrace are organized to Net classes. Net classes allow the user to apply
numerous parameters to any net with one click. Net classes work with manual and
automatic routing (Autorouters). Specify net class parameters before routing nets.
We are going to practice in working with net classes using the same project, therefore,
we need to completely unroute it first. Go to "Route / Unroute All" from the main menu.
Then select "Route / Net Classes" from the main menu to open the Net Classes dialog
box. You can see that only Default net class is available and all nets belong to this class.
Press Add button and a new net class appears in the list of all net classes, right under the
Default. Left-click it, and type in the name.
In the Class Properties tab, specify trace parameters and clearance value. In our case,
we will make traces of a new net class significantly larger (0.03 in) with 0.05 clearance.
Notice that asterisk symbol (*) in the input field means that it is a default value.
If you uncheck All Layers, the list under this checkbox becomes active, allowing different
trace parameters on different layers of the board. We don't need this now.
Uncheck Use All Styles checkbox in the Via Styles section, and choose, which via styles
you want to use with this net class. Just press << and >> buttons to add or delete via
styles to/from the list of the active ones. The button allows the user to preview

Designing a PCB 45
parameters of each via style. We have allowed only custom via styles for this net class
(see the picture below).
New net class exists, but it does not have any sense if no nets belong to it. So we're going
to add nets. In the lower-right of the Net Classes dialog box, you can see the list of all
project nets and the name of the current net class of each net in the brackets. In our case,
it is Default net class. Select one or several nets with Ctrl key, and press the
button to add them to the net class (Class Nets list right above).
As you can see, the Tutorial NetClass contains one net (Net 7 in our case) with .03 inch
trace width.
The Clearance Details button allows you to set different clearances depending on the
type of the objects. Press Class to Class... to specify clearance between the nets of
different net classes. Class to class clearance is used by DRC and has priority over
regular net class clearances. Make sure Use Clearance in DRC item is unchecked, and
press OK to close the Net Classes dialog box and save changes.
Autorouting with net classes
Now you have two different net classes, one net belongs to Tutorial Net Class and the
rest – to Default. It's time to route the board with autorouter, select "Route / Run
Autorouter" from the main menu or press Ctrl+F9 hotkeys and you'll get something like in
the picture below. As you can see, the traces on the PCB have different width, because
they belong to different net classes with different parameters.
Now unroute the board again ("Route / Unroute All"), open the Net Classes dialog box and
reassign Net 7 from Tutorial NetClass to Default class (use the button). Press
OK, then launch autorouter again and you'll get the circuit board with all traces of the
same width. Tutorial NetClass still exists, but it doesn't do anything because no nets
belong to it.
Manual routing with net classes
Select the Bottom layer, and left-click on one of the nets (for example, Net 6 between the
resistors and the battery), you'll see the Net Properties panel on the Design Manager on
the right. In the Net Class drop-down list select Tutorial Net Class. Then right-click on the
same net and select Unroute Net from the submenu. Now press the Tilde Sign (~)
hotkey to activate manual routing mode, left-click on the first pad (R1:2), and create a
trace to another pad (R2:2) left-click it to create a trace segment. You'll notice that the
trace is much wider because it belongs to another net class.
Notice that DipTrace allows for changing the net class of the routed net, but in order to
apply changes, the net has to be unrouted and routed again.

Designing a PCB 47
We don't need that trace width diversity on the board. Please Undo (Ctrl+Z) several
times or manually delete all custom net classes, via styles, and inner layers to get the
layout right after autorouting.
Save the project ("File / Save" from the main menu).
2.6 Manual routing

Simple projects like ours can be routed automatically, but for complex boards, manual
routing is a must. Actually, the entire board can be routed manually, but because of low
speed of manual routing a combination of the two methods is usually the best choice for
complex projects. This allows the designer not only to get a working prototype, but also to
accomplish the project in reasonable terms. Critical nets are routed manually and the rest
– with autorouter.
Our simple board is already good enough, but we're not done with practicing yet.
Moreover, sometimes you may need to correct traces after the autorouter.
Manual routing panel
Manual routing offers more options, but the probability of committing an error is much
higher. Fortunately, DipTrace has features that verify the board in real time and enable the
user to see errors before making them or disable trace routing with violations of design
rules. To benefit from those features, press Route Manual button and tick Show
Errors and/ or Follow Rules options on the Routing panel, that appears on the left. With
Show Errors option enabled, all routing errors will be highlighted with red circles in real
time, when a trace is being routed or edited. If Follow Rules option is activated, DipTrace
does not allow any violations of pre-set design rules when routing existing nets.
Now right-click on one of the nets, and select Unroute Net from the submenu. We have
selected Net 6, but you can choose another one. The "Unroute Net" command from the
net submenu applies to all selected nets.
Left-click on any pad, belonging to the unrouted net and intentionally rout a trace over
other traces. You can see that red circles appear to signal errors; since Follow rules
option is activated the trace segment drawn with design rule violations has converted into
a dotted line and the software does not allow to place it.
The rules defined in DRC are applied. DRC will be discussed in more detail later 74 .
Now right-click and select Cancel from the submenu or press Esc key to eliminate the
trace we tried to route.
It's time to practice more in manual routing. Note that in the Routing Mode list (on the
Routing panel) you can specify the group of trace segments that you are going to need for
routing, therefore, you will be able to select the current segment not from the list of all
segments, but from the list of segments of one mode. To do this, you should customize
My Routing Mode.
Select All Segments routing mode, then left-click in the Current segment field and
select 3-point Arc. Left-click on one of the pads of the unrouted net, then left-click on the
second pad and move the mouse to adjust the radius of the arc and fix it with a left click.

Designing a PCB 49
Our project is very simple, but when working on a more complex one you may find it quite
handy to fix only one part of polyline and rounded line segments when routing a trace.
Enable Fix Single line option on the Routing panel or use D hotkey, if you want the
software to place only the first part of the segment and leave the second one in the routing
mode. You can change Route mode to 90/45 Lines to check out this option.
Do not try to change the net class of the existing net on the Routing panel, net class
should be defined in the Net Properties or Net Classes dialog boxes before routing.
Notice that you cannot change net class of the existing net on the Routing Panel. This
change will be ignored and applied only to a newly created net. Don't forget that net exists
irrelative of whether it is routed or not.
We have only one net class to avoid confusion and concentrate on the subject.
DipTrace allows changing the layer of the trace being routed. Undo the arc segment or
right-click on it and select Unroute Segment from the submenu, you can also select the
segment and hit Del hotkey. Set 90/45 Lines routing mode, left-click on the first pad
(R1:2) and draw a trace to some point between the first and the second (R2:2) pad, left-
click to anchor it. Now activate Via Preview by pressing E hotkey. Use V key to change
Style of the trace via that will be placed automatically when routing layer is changed.
Press 1 to change the layer and E to disable Via Preview. Connect the trace to the R2:2
pad.

Designing a PCB 51
On the Routing panel, you can choose, which nets to highlight. If you highlight only the
current net – no other nets will glow, even if you touch them with a new trace.
You can undo by pressing the U hotkey while routing. Notice that there are hotkeys that
will make manual routing really easy and quick.
F - enable/ disable Follow Rules option,
M – switch between routing modes,
S – change current segment,
D – fix only the first angle-forming segment of polylines and rounded lines,
W – set trace width,
T – switch to Top layer,
B – switch to Bottom layer,
L – change segment layer,
J – switch to jumper wire or back (if you are in Bottom layer, jumper will be placed to Top
and vice versa),
V – toggle between via styles,
E – preview trace via before placement,
A – angle step,
H – highlight net,
P – pause routing; once the routing is paused, you can edit the layout and then resume
routing by hitting P key again,
1 – 0 in the top of keyboard – switching between layers (up to 9).
Go to "Tools / Hotkey Settings" from the main menu to view and change the hotkeys.
Refer to the PCB Layout Help document ("Help / PCB Layout Help") for more details about
custom keyboard shortcuts and manual routing.
Now please Undo (Ctrl+Z) several times or change the layout to the state after
autorouting (no net classes, via styles, new layers etc.).
Editing modes
You already know how to create traces ("Route / Manual Routing / Add Trace" from the
main menu or pressing button; left-click on the first pad to start routing, and another
click on the next pad to create a trace). Always make sure that a correct layer (Bottom in
our case) is selected.
Editing traces is a bit different. Press button or simply left-click on the trace and drag
it to another location and drop it. The Edit Traces mode allows the user to move traces,
respecting 45- or 90-degree angles. This is very convenient for almost any design, but
sometimes you might need traces editing tool with more capabilities. Go to "Route /
Manual Routing / Free Edit Trace" from the main menu or press button on the Route
toolbar. Now you can edit traces without any restrictions.
Don't forget to set the grid size (with the drop-down on the Standard toolbar
or Ctrl+Plus Sign and Ctrl+ Minus Sign hotkeys). To configure the list of available grids,
select "View / Customize Grid" from the main menu. F11 hotkey hides or shows the grid
on the design area. You can adjust grid precision and set minimum grid size value in a
dialogue, which pops-up when selecting "View/ Precision" item from the main menu.
Remember, if you don't know which tool you are working with, right-click a couple times on
a empty spot on the design area and DipTrace will return to the Default mode.
Nodes
Any routed net is divided to traces (often called "tracks"). Trace is a copper track between
two pads of the net. Trace (track) consists of segments. A segment is a route between
two nodes. Node is a point on the route, which divides a trace into segments (red dot or a
small square in the picture below). The designer can move existing nodes, add new ones
or delete them. This gives more flexibility while editing traces. Left-click on a trace
segment, and press N hotkey to add a new node in the selected place, then left-click it
and drag to some point outside the board outline (Free Edit Mode in the picture below).

Designing a PCB 53
Undo free editing and right-click on the design area to return to default mode. If you don't
need some node anymore, you can delete it – right-click on the node, and select Delete
Node from the submenu. In the same submenu, you can change the name, color, width,
and the layer of the net, trace or segment etc.
Change layer
DipTrace allows moving an existing net (trace or trace segment) to another layer - right-
click on a trace segment of some net, and select "Segment Layer / Top" or use the
Segment Layer drop-down list in the Net Properties panel on the Design Manager.
Trace vias appear automatically. You can choose several segments of the same or
different nets with Ctrl or Shift buttons and change their properties at a time.
Note that you can use Tab hotkey to toggle between the selection of a segment, a trace or
the entire net.

Designing a PCB 55
Now return that segment back to the Bottom layer, and select the bottom layer.
Teardrops
DipTrace allows creating teardrops, which are basically drop-shaped features at the
junction of vias, pads and traces.The main purpose of teardrops is to enhance structural
integrity in presence of thermal or mechanical stresses during fabrication as well as to
enlarge manufacturing tolerances.
In PCB Layout you can define teardrop parameters as a function of the pad/ via or trace
size and apply them to the selected object/-s.
Let's see, how to use this feature. Right-click on Net 6 on the design area or in the list of
nets on the Design Manager panel and select Teardrops from the submenu. In the pop-
up dialog tick Through-Hole Pads and Vias and set Length to 50% and Connection to
90% of pad size. We are not going to set teardrop parameters for SMD pads and trace to
trace junctions because they are not any in our project. In the Apply to drop-down select
Current Net.
You can see that junctions between the traces and all through-hole pads, belonging to the
Net 6, are now shaped like a drop.
Note that you can also add teardrops to individual pads or vias - just use a similar dialog,
launched from the right-click submenu of the respective objects, to set their parameters.

Designing a PCB 57
Undo teardrops.
2.7 Measuring trace length

DipTrace allows for easy and convenient trace measuring. The current project is simple,
therefore we don't need to use this tool, but if you design high-speed circuits with
differential pair signaling, trace length becomes very important. This tool is often used with
trace length matching tools 190 , which we will review later.
Notice that hint of each trace can be configured to display its length: select Add Object
Details in the View/ Display Hint submenu.
Please select several traces (you can use box selection or Ctrl button). Right-click on one
of selected traces, and choose Show Trace Length from the submenu.
You will see the small boxes with trace length values near all pads of the selected nets,
they are also highlighted when hovering over the trace with a mouse cursor. Values are in
the current measurement units (inches in our case), they change in real-time when you
edit the trace.
Notice that DipTrace can calculate a phase shift considering layer stackup 185 (via height)
and the length of bonding wires inside a component (determined by the Signal Delay 195 ).
By default, DipTrace does not consider these values for trace length calculation. If you
want to consider them, go to "High Speed / Length Matching" from the main menu, then
press button, and check Enable Layer Stackup and Enable Pad Delay in the
Length and Phase Measurement Settings dialog box.
Now please hide the trace length boxes, using the net submenu (uncheck the same item)
or Undo tool.
2.8 Selecting objects by type/layer

Sometimes it is necessary to select all objects on one layer or exclusively components,
nets, vias etc. With the current layout, it is very easy to do with the mouse and Ctrl key,
but what if the layout is very complex?
Select "Edit / Edit Selection" from the main menu.

Designing a PCB 59
Check Components item, and click OK – all components are selected now.
Let's make it a bit harder and model a real-life situation, when we need to select only
unconnected vias in the predefined area of the board.
First of all, deselect components with a right-click on an empty spot. Then place several
static vias and connect only some of them to nets randomly, while leaving a couple of
vias unconnected. Use "Objects / Place Static Via" from the main menu or button to
place vias and "Objects / Place Ratline" or button – to create connections visually.
Left-click on the via, and then left-click on the pad to add via to the pad's net.
Now define selection area using the box selection. This box represents an area where we
plan to select unconnected vias so we will not include all vias of the layout to this
selection. Notice that we are on the Bottom layer, where we have all the traces.
All objects in the box are selected. We need to extract only non-connected vias from the
selection. Open "Edit / Edit Selection" dialog box, choose Action: Keep Selected, check
only Vias checkbox (other boxes should be unchecked), and then select Not Connected
from the Vias drop-down list. Click OK and only unconnected vias becomes selected.
The next step could be connecting those vias to some net, all at a time. In real life, this
feature can be used to connect ground net to plane/copper pours. Right-click on one of
selected vias (it should be highlighted in red), select "Add to Net / Selected Vias" from the
submenu, and specify the net in the pop-up dialog box.

Designing a PCB 61
Choose some net from the list, and click OK. All vias will be connected. Remove all static
vias from the board and return the circuit board to the previous state (select all vias and
press Del key) or Undo.
2.9 Placing text and graphics

With DipTrace you can add texts, shapes, and logos in BMP, DXF, or JPEG formats
directly on the board and export them to Gerber.
First, you have to select the layer where you're going to place graphics, usually, it's a
silkscreen layer (Top Silk in our case). PCB Layout allows the user to change layers with
two drop-down lists on the Instruments toolbar and in the Layers tab on the Design
Manager panel. Double click Top Silk in the Layers tab of the Design Manager panel or
select it from a drop-down.
Note that a drop-down list on the Drawing toolbar allows you to select any non-signal or
Signal / Plane layer for placing graphics. If you have selected Signal / Plane layer, all
shapes, texts and logos will appear on current signal/plane layer, which is specified with
the drop-down list on the Route toolbar.
Let's make the board polygon a little bit bigger to place additional text at the top. Drag and
drop upper-left and upper-right vertices of the board outline a little bit upwards. Make sure
you click on the vertex point, not on the outline. DipTrace makes visual editing very easy
with appropriate grid size.

Designing a PCB 63
You can move the board outline. Left-click on the line (not the vertex), then drag and drop
it.
Remember that if you can not highlight and edit certain objects, probably, you are not in
the default mode. Therefore, right-click on a free area to cancel the current mode. Objects
located on inactive layers of the board can’t be edited unless you are in the Contrast Edit
layer display mode (View/ Layer Display/ Contrast Edit).
Press button, left-click where you would like to place text, type it in, and press Enter
to move to the next line. Right-click on a free spot to return to default mode.
Use the mouse or arrow keys to move the text object on the design area. When a text
object is selected, font settings, font type (Vector, TrueType), and text layer can be
changed in the Text Properties tab on the Design Manager, or with the right-click
submenu. Use vector font, because it is directly exported to Gerber. For Unicode and
Non-English characters select TrueType fonts, however, these export to Gerber as small
lines (created by a special recognition algorithm).
Some PCB manufacturers do not accept TrueType text objects in copper layers.
The text object is on the silk layer, it inherits the layer's color. If you need to change the
text color, move the text object to the Top Assy layer and then change Top Assy color.
You can change all the parameters of the text object any time. Right-click it, and select
Properties from the submenu.
In the pop-up dialog box you can edit the text and its display parameters as well as
rotation angle, location and coordinates of the anchor point. Select text object Type from
the drop-down and move the object to another layer or define different properties (for
example, create a route keepout used for autorouting, etc.). In our case, we just leave that
text on the Top Silk layer.
Note that Invert Text option allows to place text as void in silk screen or copper pour.
You can add shapes to assembly, mask, paste, signal, route keepout and board outline
and cutout layers. The properties of the placed shapes can be defined via Shape
Properties dialog box.
2.10 Copper pour

Copper Pour is used as a low-impedance conductor for Power and Ground nets. Pours
are usually located on inner layers of the board, but they can be placed on top and bottom
sides as well.
Place copper pour
Select the Bottom layer, then go to "Objects / Place Copper Pour" from the main menu or
press button on the Elements toolbar. Now you can draw a copper pour polygon
borderline by defining its key points on the design area, then right-click on the last point of
the polygon, and select Enter from the submenu to finish drawing. We need a copper
pour that covers the entire bottom layer of the board. You can draw a precise polygon
manually or create a random shape (for example, like in the picture below) and use the
Depending on Board feature (Place Copper Pour dialog/ Border tab), which will pour the
entire layer automatically, regardless of the initial shape. Place Copper Pour dialog box
pops up when you select Enter from the submenu upon placing a copper pour border.

Designing a PCB 65
You can change the grid size up and down to your convenience at any point of copper
pour placing/ editing.
This dialog box has three tabs: Pouring, Connectivity, and Border.
Pouring tab allows you to specify different non-solid fills for the copper pour, clearance
width, line width, line spacing, island removal options, pour priority, and current state
(poured or unpoured). You can also apply net clearances as copper pour clearances by
checking the corresponding item. DipTrace has shape-based copper pour system.
Connectivity tab – here you can connect copper pour to the net, select thermals and
change their settings. DipTrace supports separate thermals for SMD pads. The Hide Net
Ratlines regime can automatically show ratlines only for unconnected traces or other if
specified.
Border tab allows you to define the border points and build the copper outline
automatically.
Check Depending on Board checkbox and keep all other settings like in the picture
above. The Snap to Board checkbox means that copper pour will resize depending on
the board outline. Click OK to place a copper pour.
Board outline clearance specified in the copper pour settings is not applied to board
cutouts. Always use route keepout to allow for a certain clearance between the copper
pour and cutout, like we did before.
Copper pour can be in two states: Poured and Unpoured. The second state is often used
for editing because only the copper pour border is visible in the Unpoured state. To
change the copper pour state right-click on the copper outline (not on the copper
pour body), select State from the submenu, and choose the item you need.
As you can see, we have a copper pour, but it is not connecting any net. Now we will
practice and connect two different nets using two copper pours on the Bottom layer.
Copper pour priority option will help us to achieve our goal.
Connect copper pour
Unroute one of the nets (for example, Net 6, which connects resistors to the battery),
right-click on the trace, and select Unroute Net from the submenu. Remember the net
name ("Net 6"). Right-click on the copper pour border, and select Properties from the
submenu. Go to the Connectivity tab, and select Connect to Net: Net 6, then select
appropriate thermals (for example, 4 spoke), and press OK to update the copper pour.
Notice that you should click directly on the copper pour border (not on the copper body or
the board outline) in order to open copper pour properties dialog box.

Designing a PCB 67
You can see that connection lines (ratlines) are hidden now and the net (Net 6) is
connected to the copper pour with thermals of selected type (4-spoke thermals).
Now we will place the second copper pour. Select another net that we will connect with a
copper pour (for example, Net 2 that connects R3:1, C1:2, and Q2:3 ) and unroute it, then
right-click on the edge of existing copper pour, and open the Copper Pour Properties
dialog box. Select Current State: Unpoured, but do not close this dialog yet.
Pour priority
Now it's time to change the pour priority for the existing copper polygon. Specify: Pour
priority: 1 in the Pouring tab.
You can enter any value, depending on how many copper pours you plan to have on this
layer. A lower value means higher priority, therefore copper pour with Pour Priority: 0 will
have higher priority than Pour Priority: 1.
Notice that two different-net copper pours with the same priority level will intersect. Real-
time Design Rule Check will show numerous errors in this case.
Press OK to apply new settings. Notice that in unpoured state ratlines are displayed
automatically. Make sure Net 2 is unrouted, then select copper pour placement tool
("Objects / Place Copper Pour"), and draw the second polygon that covers pads of the
Net 2, like in the picture below. You can change the grid size for convenience.
In the pop-up dialog box connect the second copper pour to Net 2, and specify the thermal
type (4 Spoke should be fine). Press OK to close the dialog box and create a copper pour
polygon.
Now select Net 6 copper pour, which is unpoured now. Right-click on its border, and

Designing a PCB 69
select "State / Poured" from the submenu. You will see that two copper pours connecting
two different nets are independent and Net 6 copper changed according to the Net 2
polygon which has higher priority level.
Thermals
Some pads require custom thermal connections that will be different from the copper
pour's thermals. Right-click on a pad (when the pad is highlighted), and select Thermal
Settings from the submenu, then check Use Custom Settings checkbox, and select a
new thermal connection.
Some pads can become unconnected after placing a copper pour, because of selected
thermal type and the layout structure (net connectivity check will report this), so selecting
separate thermal settings for pads will help you to fix those issues.
After changing thermal settings click OK to close the dialog box, then right-click on the
copper pour border, and choose Update from the submenu to see these changes
applied.
Select "Objects / Update All Copper Pours" from the main menu to update all copper
pours at a time.
We'll try different thermals for pads to show you how it works.

Designing a PCB 71
In the picture above, you can see that one pad has 4-Spoke 45-degrees thermal, another
one is connected directly, and the third pad has 2-spoke 90-degrees thermal connection.
When the copper pours are used as Ground and Power planes,
SMD vias usually connect to them by fanouts. You can create
fanouts manually with the Fanout 232 feature or automatically by
Shape Router.
We have decided to remove all unconnected parts of both copper

pours. Go to the Properties of each copper pour and check
Unconnected item in the Island Removal section of the Pouring
tab. Press OK.
Let's see how to make a text etched in the copper pour. Switch to the Top layer, where we
placed a text earlier. Right-click on the text object and open Properties dialog. In The
pop-up select Type - Signal, Layer - Bottom and tick Invert Text box. Click OK.
Now we'll have to switch to the Bottom layer and update the copper pour for the changes
to take effect.You can see that the text has been placed as void in the copper and it's
flipped (you can disable Flip Text Automatically option in the View menu for the text to be
displayed without flipping on the Bottom Layer).

Designing a PCB 73
Undo the changes until the text is back in the Top Silk layer or just change the settings in
the Text Properties dialog. Save the project.
2.11 Locking objects

Sometimes while making changes to the schematic or PCB, you need to lock some
objects so you don't change them accidentally. Let's see how to do this in the DipTrace.
Switch to the Top layer, select several objects, right-click on one of them, and click Lock
Selected from the submenu.
Notice that locked objects have their selection rectangles in lower contrast (in our case
the color is similar to the copper pour, so we've made only current layer visible (with the
drop-down list on the Layers panel). "Locked" text appears in the hint of the locked
objects, you are unable to move, resize or edit them without unlocking first.
Now please unlock all objects, select all with Ctrl+A, and unlock ("Edit / Unlock Selected"
from the main menu or Ctrl+Alt+L keyboard combination).
You can lock all the components after placing them on the top or bottom side of the board.
Select "Edit / Lock Components / Top or Bottom" to lock the components on the
respective layer (to unlock - just select the same item to disable it). Using this mode you
can do the routing without worrying about changing something accidentally.
Return to the contrast layer display mode using the drop-down on the Layers tab (Design
Manager).
2.12 Design verification

DipTrace has several verification procedures united in the Verification main menu item.
We recommend using all three of them: DRC, Net Connectivity Check, and Compare
PCB to Schematic.
DRC (Design Rules Check)
This feature is one of the most important verifications. It allows the user to check
clearances between objects, control allowable object sizes, and differential pair
parameters according to the set of design rules.
DRC works in regular (offline) and real-time modes. Real-time DRC checks all user's
actions on the go. For example, when you move some component or create a new trace
too close to another object, Real-time DRC shows red circles, which means that the
clearance between these objects (trace, pad, copper pour) is smaller than the specified
target value.
If the Real-time DRC function is not activated, you will not see errors until you start DRC
manually in the regular mode by selecting "Verification / Check Design Rules" from the

Designing a PCB 75
main menu or by pressing F9 hotkey. Error list or "No Errors Found" message will pop up.
Most likely the current PCB has no errors because it is very simple.
Now select "Verification / Design Rules" to set up design constraints. There are four tabs
in the pop-up dialog box: Clearances, Sizes, Real-time DRC, and Options.
Clearances. Specify object-to-object clearances. Uncheck All Layers item, select a layer
from the list below, and define object-to-object clearances to be applied on a particular
PCB layer.
Notice that clearance settings are NOT applied to nets with custom net class clearance (i.
e. when Use Clearance in DRC option in Net Classes dialog box is checked) or Class-to-
Class settings.
Check Same Net Clearance checkbox, and enter respective values, if you want to check
the clearances between certain objects of the same net.
Sizes. Specify minimum and maximum allowed sizes for different elements on different
layers.
Real-time DRC. Customize real-time DRC. You can turn it ON/OFF for specific actions,
for example, manual routing, creating / editing, and moving objects. If you uncheck
Enable Real-time DRC item, real-time verification will be turned OFF. However, enabling
Show Errors option on the Routing panel will activate design rule check during manual
routing, even if Enable Real-time DRC is unchecked - errors will be shown with red
circles. Also, activated Follow Rules option will control that all design rules are followed
and will not allow routing trace segments, if some violations are detected.
If you uncheck all secondary items in the corresponding tab, and leave only Enable Real-
Time DRC item active, you will see errors right after completing a certain action, not while
performing it. For example, if Moving objects item is checked, you will see errors before
moving component to a new location, if this option is unchecked – you will see errors right
after moving it, still no need to launch DRC separately. If Enable Real-Time DRC is
unchecked, you will not see any errors (unless you enable Show Errors option for manual
routing), till you start DRC manually.
Options. Set up other options.
For this tutorial example, please turn OFF the size verification and Real-time DRC by
unchecking the corresponding items. Make sure that Check clearances and Show a list
of errors... checkboxes are checked. Keep settings like in the picture above (these
values are quite small, but still within technical capabilities of most PCB houses).
Open the Options tab and make sure that Class-to-Class Rules, Length Matching,
Copper Pours, or whatever objects you want to be verified are checked. Now let's try to
see how DRC works in a regular mode. Even if the real-time DRC was ON during the
design process, we recommend verifying project with regular-mode DRC at least once
before exporting to Gerbers, just to make sure that everything is fine. Press OK to apply
changes and close the dialog box.
Our project does not have errors, therefore we will create them intentionally. Select
Bottom layer ("B" hotkey), switch OFF the grid (F11 hotkey), and move some trace until it
touches the copper pour or another trace. Go to "Verification / Check Design Rules" or
just press F9 hotkey to launch DRC. The list of errors will pop up automatically.

Designing a PCB 77
Errors can be sorted by layers. You can see the description of each error including the
current value and the target value. Left click on the error in the list and DipTrace will show
where to change the target constraint in the Rule Details section. Press Localize to see
selected error on the design area and fix it. Red circle means a clearance error, magenta
circle – size error.
Move the trace back to its original location without closing the error-report dialog, and then
press Run DRC button. This time everything is OK and No Errors Found message
appears.
Net connectivity check
This verification allows the user to check if all nets are properly connected. For such
simple design this feature is not necessary, but if you have a larger board with many
layers, pins, copper pours, and shapes, net connectivity verification becomes really
useful. It checks the entire design and displays the list of broken and merged nets. Please
select "Verification / Check Net Connectivity" from the main menu, and click OK in the
pop-up dialog box. Most probably, your design will not have connectivity errors and you will
see the No Errors message. More information about Net connectivity check 230 .
Comparing to Schematic
This procedure allows you to check if PCB corresponds to the source Schematic file.
Verification shows the net structure errors and unknown components. Select
"Verification / Compare to Schematic" from the main menu then choose source
Schematic file, and press OK. If your net structure was not changed and has no errors,
you will see the "No Errors Found" message, otherwise, the list of errors will pop up.
Net connectivity check and Comparing to Schematic features work fast and provide an
easy-to-understand user interface with reliable functionality.
2.13 Layout information

What about counting the number of pins or the board area? Select "File / Layout
Information" from the main menu in the PCB Layout module.
Here you can preview the number of different objects, layers, board and hole sizes.
Press button in the Holes section to open the Hole Sizes dialog box. Press Show
on Board button to highlight holes by size directly on the design area.
Close the dialog box, and save the layout.

Designing a PCB 79
2.14 Panelizing
With DipTrace you can panelize similar or different boards on a single layout.
Panelize project
If you need several copies of the same PCB, select "Tools / Panelizing" from the main
menu or press button on the Standard toolbar.
We will make 12 copies of this circuit board, 3 columns and 4 rows. Since our board is of
a regular shape and does not have any parts overlapping the edge, we will use V-Scoring
to facilitate the panel break-off. “Board to Board Spacing" will be zero (however, always
check the requirements of your manufacturer).Tick Add Edge Rail checkbox and enter
0.2 in for each side to add a frame along the perimeter of the panel and make sure it’s
suitable for industrial assembly. Click OK.
We can see only boxes with "#" text on the design area, but you can check the final layout
in the Print Preview dialog box ("File / Preview" from the main menu), while printing or
exporting to manufacturing formats.
It is possible to exclude some objects from panelizing (for example, holes or shapes). To
exclude any object from panelization, right-click it, and check Do Not Panelize. This item
is available only if Panelizing is active.

Designing a PCB 81
Notice that panelizing works only if PCB has a board outline.

For more details about panelization for Tab-Routing panels as well as V-Scoring and Tab-
Routing combined, please consult PCB Layout Help.
Now open the Panelizing dialog box and change the number of columns and rows to "1"
to remove copies and let us practice with panelizing different boards on a single layout.
Panelize different projects
Check "Edit / Keep RefDes while Pasting" item from the main menu, then select all
objects (Ctrl+A) of your layout, and press Ctrl+C to copy them, then right-click on an
empty spot on the design area (this will be an upper-left corner of the second board), and
select Paste from the submenu.
We got the second copy of our PCB (but it can be a different PCB, if you want).
Reference designators will not change.
Notice that you need to create a common board outline and board cutouts; additionally,
non-signal layers may be required for correct manufacturing. More information at our
YouTube channel.
If Keep RefDes while Pasting item is checked, pin limitation of your DipTrace edition
(Free, Lite, Standard, Extended) does not apply, so you can easily panelize several 300
pin layouts even with DipTrace Freeware.
2.15 Printing
We recommend using the Print Preview dialog box to print PCBs, select "File / Preview"
from the main menu or press button on the Standard toolbar. Notice that we did not
describe creating titles in the Designing a PCB section of this tutorial. If you want to
display titles, select "File / Titles and Sheet" from the main menu, and select ANSI A in
the Sheet Template drop-down list, then check Display Titles, and close the dialog box
before opening the Print Preview dialog box.
More detailed information about Titles and Sheets as well as creating and editing titles
with the Title Block Editor in the DipTrace Help ("Help / PCB Layout Help" from the main
menu).
Use Print Scale drop-down list or Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons to change the scale of the
layout on the sheet and press button to move design on the sheet.
In the upper-left, you can select current Signal/Plane layer and layer display mode. If you
want to get a mirrored PCB or text, check Mirror or Flip Text checkboxes (the Flip Text
box is disabled if "View / Flip Text Automatically" main menu option is ON).
Press Print button to print the layout. Press Save if you want to save an image to BMP or
JPEG file. The small button with colors to the left from the "Zoom Out" tool allows the user
to define print colors ("View / Colors.../ Print Colors" from the main menu).
Notice that only layers with default color depend on the color scheme.
For printing all in black and white without changing layer colors, check Print in Black only
box.
For hobbyist's attention. Be aware that laser printers often introduce some degree of
dimensional distortion due to heat expansion of the paper. It depends on your laser printer
and the quality of the paper used. For most people, it's not important. However, one way
to cope with this issue is to preheat paper by running it through the printer, without printing

Designing a PCB 83
on it (for example, you can print just a dot in the corner). For ink-jet printers, this is not an
issue since ink-jet technology does not heat paper. Laser printers do not always visibly
distort images but you have to be ready that this can happen. You can use the
Calibration feature in the Print Preview dialog box to minimize heat distortions.
There are two methods of prototyping a PCB at home: using a TT (Toner Transfer) or UV
exposure. TT is definitely a method for a laser printer, and UV exposure is better with ink-
jet printers.
Close the Print Preview dialog box and Undo several times to remove the second PCB
and return the board without panelization. Then save the layout.
3 Generating files for manufacturing
3.1 DXF
DXF output allows for exporting data to many CAD / CAM programs which support DXF
import (AutoCAD and others).
DXF export
To export the circuit board to DXF format, select "File / Export / DXF" from the main
menu, select layer from the list of all layers, and check/uncheck the corresponding boxes
to show/hide different objects on this layer (text, pictures, vias, etc.). Set up the offset
(distance between zero and the bottom-left corner of the board: design origin or custom
value), mask and paste layers if needed. You can save each layer into a separate DXF
file, but in order to export entire board into a single multi-layer DXF, press Select All
button.
Notice that "Edge_Top" and "Edge_Bottom" are not selected. Technically these are not
the physical layers of your circuit board. They are exported only if you are going to
manufacture the board using milling method.
Press Export button, specify the name of the file, location, and save the circuit board into
a DXF file.
All layers of the board will be exported into a single DXF file. You can open it with AutoCAD
or another program that reads AutoCAD DXF.
Export for milling (DXF and G-Code)

Milling method is convenient and cheap for non-complex boards.
Notice that copper pours (unlike thermals) are not considered when exporting edges for
milling.
Select "File/ Export/ DXF" to open the DXF Export dialog box, then select Edge_Bottom
layer, because all traces of our PCB are on the Bottom layer (if you have traces in the top
layer, select Edge_top), check Mirror checkbox to mirror the design (for the bottom
layer). This will allow us to see the actual bottom side of the board. You can leave default
values if you're not familiar with specific milling settings or define the Edge Width
parameter. Center line of the milling will be calculated as a half of the Edge Width value.
Milling depth depends on the edge width and the instrument angle.
Press Export button, and save the DXF file.

Generating files for manufacturing 85
The edge exported from the DipTrace is a set of polylines with defined width. DipTrace
checks design before export and if object-to-object clearances are less than the edge
width, DipTrace shows a warning message and enables the designer to correct errors.
Notice that CAD programs usually show polylines with sharp angles, but when you mill the
board or simulate milling with a CAM program, everything will look rounded because of the
instrument radius.
CNC drilling machines work with G-Code files. Convert your edge from the DXF format to
G-Code, using ACE converter, FlatCAM (both are free) or another software.
Please Undo several times to return the copper pour if you deleted one.
3.2 Gerber RS-274X

DipTrace allows the user to export a circuit board to Gerber format, accepted by almost
all PCB manufacturers around the world.
Select "File / Export / Gerber..." from the main menu. In the Export Gerber dialog box
select a layer from the list (multiple selection - Ctrl or Shift) and use the corresponding
check boxes in the Objects section to specify, which objects will be exported to Gerber.
Press the Preview button to preview the selected layer. Unlike DXF, all layers should be
exported to Gerber format separately, one layer per file. The image below shows the
bottom layer of our PCB in the Gerber preview dialog box. You can zoom in and out.
Press Close button to close the preview dialog box.

Press Export All and DipTrace will offer you several options to generate output files: zip
archive with Gerber files only, zip archive with Gerber files and NC Drill (remember that
PCB houses need Gerber and N/C Drill files 91 to manufacture your PCB) or files for
each layer separately. Once you export those, you can send them out for manufacturing.
Gerber layers
1. Top Assembly – this is assembly layer, it includes all shapes/texts placed on the Top
Assembly as well as objects defined in the "View / Add to Assembly" main menu item.
Assembly layer in this project includes the board outline because it is selected in the
"View / Add to Assembly" main menu item, but you can select another object or hide the
board outline on this layer.
2. Top Silk – includes pattern shapes, texts and all other shapes and texts placed in the
Top Silk layer. Do not change these settings, and press Preview. Notice that if you use
the TrueType fonts, some parts of the text can be invisible (depends on the font and size).
3. Top Mask – this is a solder mask layer. It is generated automatically, based on pads,
custom pad settings, and common Solder Mask Swell parameter, defined in the Export
Gerber dialog box. This layer also includes shapes placed in the solder mask layer. We
should uncheck the Vias box (exclude vias from the export) because vias are usually
covered with the solder mask. To change custom solder mask settings for pads, right-
click on the pad, and select Mask / Paste Settings from the submenu.
4. Top Paste – this layer is used for SMD pads only, so we can check Paste Mask for
SMT Pads only.
5. Signal layers (Top, Bottom, etc.) – these are copper layers. Please check the Vias
checkbox for all of them and preview each one to make sure that layers are correct.
Notice that Pad/Via Holes item in the Objects section should be checked only if you plan
to drill holes manually (not using a PCB house). If Pad/Via Holes check box is checked,
two Gerber layers will be created inside one Gerber file: Positive Drawing and Hole
Clearing. The second layer is used to remove artifacts over the drill holes. Manufacturers
prefer Gerber files without pad/via holes.
6. Bottom Paste, Mask, Silk and Assembly layers are just like their analogs from the top
side. By default all text objects in Bottom layers are flipped – "View / Flip Text
Automatically" option from the main menu.
7. Board Outline layer includes the outline of the board or panel, if the board is
panelized.
8. V-Scoring - contains V-scoring pattern, if this type of panelization is used for the
design.
9. Board layer includes the board as a filled polygon.
10. Top/Bottom Dimensions – layers created specially for dimensions. These layers are
blank in our case because the current project does not have any dimensions on the
design area. Top / Bottom Dimensions can help some manufacturers to avoid mistakes in
sizes.
Notice that NOT all layers are necessary for successful board manufacturing. It depends
on your project and additional features that you order.
Other settings
The Offset parameter in DXF, Gerber, N/C drill, and Pick and Place export dialog boxes is
the distance between the zero and the bottom-left corner of the board. You can use a
custom value or design origin (check the corresponding item or enter values in the Offset
section of the Gerber export dialog box).
Press Files button in the upper-right corner of the Export Gerber dialog box, define
filename and extension for each Gerber layer, and include or exclude certain layer/s from
exporting when you press the Export All button. Select a layer in the list, and type in a
new name and extension. Layer name and project name tags are supported. You can
also adjust how to export NC Drill files in Export All Options section; those settings will be
applied if you chose to export both Gerber and NC Drill files together in one archive. We
will not change anything, keep the <layer> tag – all files will be named as layers. Press
OK.
Drill Symbols (Legend)

Some PCB houses require Drill Symbols. DipTrace allows you to export them as a
separate Gerber file. Check the Drill Symbols checkbox in the Export Gerber dialog
box, then press Set Symbols button. In the pop-up dialog box, you need to manually
assign each hole with the symbol from the list in the right side or press the Auto button to
assign all symbols automatically. Close this dialog box.

Now check the Add Comments checkbox, and press Preview. You will see the drill
symbols and a table with hole parameters.
Close the preview panel, and press Export to save Drill Symbols in the file. Drill symbols
will be exported in a separate file just like any other Gerber layer. If apertures are not
defined, DipTrace will ask you to set them automatically.
Uncheck the Drill Symbols checkbox when done, otherwise, you will get a blank file/
preview while exporting silk, assy, signal layers, etc.
DipTrace allows the user to export any texts, fonts, and Unicode symbols (even Chinese
hieroglyphs) as well as images (company logo, etc.) to Gerber format. All those objects
are vectorized.
We recommend checking Gerber files with third-party viewer, before sending them for
manufacturing. The best option is to use the same software (or a free viewer) as your
board manufacturer, because some programs may read Gerber files a bit differently from
the official RS-274X specification.
We tried to take into account specifics of different manufacturing software in DipTrace
Gerber export feature, but verifying files is a very good practice.
If you don't know what software your manufacturer uses, we recommend Pentalogix
Viewmate, it has strict RS-274X conformity.
3.3 Gerber X2
Gerber X2 is the latest evolution of the Gerber format and DipTrace was one of the first
electronic CAD systems with Gerber X2 support. If your PCB manufacturer accepts
Gerber X2 files, you can completely enjoy the benefits that format gives to an engineer.
Gerber X2 stores information about PCB stackup order, a function of each layer, PCB
attributes and pad functionality.
Select "File / Export / Gerber X2" from the main menu in the PCB Layout. Since Gerber X2
is compatible with Gerber RS-274X 85 , the dialog boxes are identical and exporting
procedures do not differ from the ones described in the Gerber Output 85 topic of this
tutorial.

However, Gerber X2 saves comprehensive drill layout in the Gerber-formatted file (not just
Drill Symbols, like Gerber RS-274X). To export drills, check Drills checkbox, select all
copper layers (they should be selected by default) to export through holes, then press
Export All button and select one of the options - Zip Archive: Gerber X2 or All Files
Separately - to export all holes of the project automatically into the corresponding Gerber
file/s. Each type of the hole goes into a separate Gerber Drill file. Note, however, that most
manufacturers still require drills in the N/C Excellon format. You can export both Gerber
X2 and NC Drill files simultaneously - press Export All button and select the respective
option.
Check with your PCB house if it accepts Gerber X2.
3.4 N/C Drill file (Excellon)

If you order board manufacturing at a PCB house, you need to provide Gerber and N/C
Drill files. Select "File / Export /N/C Drill" from the main menu, then press the Auto
button to define the tools. Press Files button, if you want to configure default names of NC
Drill files. Hit Export All button to save all necessary files automatically. Use the Preview
button to visually check the layout.
If you want to export just the holes of a certain type separately from the other, select the
layer pair of the via style, and press Export.
Remember that you can also export both Gerber and NC Drill files in one click in the
Gerber export dialog.
Notice that for through holes all layers should be selected, for Blind/Buried vias – only top
and bottom layers involved in the via style.
3.5 ODB++
DipTrace allows the user to export circuit boards into ODB++ format for manufacturing.
Select "File / Export / ODB++" from the main menu in the PCB Layout. In the pop-up
dialog box you can check or uncheck certain PCB layers for exporting, change default
solder mask swell and paste mask parameters with respective fields and checkboxes,
edit the offset values. The export mode can be defined by choosing between CAM350 and
Mentor Graphics ODB++. For Mentor Graphics option, ODB++ 8.1 version is available.
Default settings usually work for most cases so do not change them unless it's really
needed.

If As Compressed file item is checked, DipTrace will zip all ODB++ files into a single file
for sending out to the board manufacturer. Press Export and specify a folder, where
you'd like to save the output files. You can preview ODB++ files with a free Mentor
Graphics ODB++ Viewer.
3.6 Order PCB

For those who doesn't want to look for a PCB house to manufacture a circuit board,
DipTrace allows for a simple ordering tool with Bay Area Circuits, our partner PCB
manufacturer in California. No need to export Gerber or N/C Drill files, enter a few details
and manufactured board will be delivered to your place. Go to "File / Order PCB" from the
main menu in DipTrace PCB Layout, review the board parameters, specify quantity,
manufacturing time, shipping address, name, phone, email, and some additional details.
The price will be calculated automatically.
Press Place Order button to open the order page in your web browser, review the total
cost, including shipping. Online payment is done via PayPal.
DRC checks your PCB automatically. If there are errors, we recommend to carefully
review and fix them. Please do not allow for any ambiguity, especially related to Solder
Mask and Solder Paste settings. Describe it in the Comments section, or contact Bay
Area Circuits to clarify any of the questions that you think may arise.
Email: [email protected]
855-811-1975 FREE (toll free)
510-933-9000 (local)
510-933-9001 (fax)
Corporate Headquarters
44358 Old Warm Springs Blvd
Fremont, CA 94538
Congratulations! You have finished designing a simple project with DipTrace.
Please, save your schematic and PCB files if you want.
P.S. Do not forget to uncheck the Use Priority Layer Directions check box in the
Autorouter Setup dialog box if you plan to route 2+ layer boards.

Creating Component Libraries 95
4 Creating Component Libraries

In this part of the tutorial we will show how to create component and pattern libraries. In
most cases you can find appropriate pattern in DipTrace standard libraries and attach it to
a new component, but for demonstration purposes we will create a new pattern from
scratch.
Important:
In this tutorial we often refer to components as patterns or footprints (if talking about the
PCB Layout), while in the Schematic components are often called symbols, component
symbols, or schematic symbols, all these mean the same physical electronic
component.
A regular component in DipTrace consists of a schematic symbol, a pattern drawing and,
possibly, a 3D model. All three represent the same entity, but on different stages of the
design: schematic capture, PCB Layout, and 3D visualization/export respectively.
Components and attached patterns are saved together in the files with *.eli extension.
Components are always stored in libraries. If if you need to create just a single
component, you have to create a separate library for it or ad it to an existing user library.
DipTrace also allows access to patterns separately from the components. Patterns are
also stored in libraries. Pattern libraries are saved with *.lib extension. No surprise, these
files are only accessible in the PCB Layout and Pattern Editor.
*.wrl, *.3ds, *.iges, and *.step files store 3D models. Patterns and schematic symbols can
exist as separate stand-alone parts, but correct component always have all of them
properly connected.
Different schematic symbols can have the same pattern (footprint) attached to each of
them and vice versa, for example the same resistor can be in through-hole and SMD
packages.
DipTrace has two separate programs Component Editor and Pattern Editor for designing
components. Component Editor is used to manage components – draw schematic
symbol and connect them with pattern drawings (footprints). However, pattern drawing is
not editable in the Component Editor, Pattern Editor should be used instead.
Read Working with libraries topic in the Component and Pattern Editor Help documents
for more details.
4.1 Designing a pattern library

Open DipTrace Pattern Editor, i.e. go to "Start / All Programs / DipTrace / Pattern Editor"
on Windows machine or use DipTrace Launcher on MacOS.
If you create a new component it is always better to start with drawing a PCB footprint
(pattern), which you can assign to a certain schematic symbol in the Component Editor. If
you know that the pattern is already available in the standard pattern libraries, you can
proceed directly to the Component Editor to draw the schematic symbol, attach that
existing pattern, and save complete component in the component library (*.eli file).
However, we will start from the footprint design just to show you, how to do that and give
you a full perspective of the design process.
There are two ways to create patterns - manually and automatically (using Pattern
Generator). We will go through both methods of creation of patterns for a through-hole

and a surface-mount device.
4.1.1 Customizing Pattern Editor

First of all, we need to show a center point and X, Y-axes, select "View / Display Origin"
from the main menu or press F1 hotkey (if it is not displayed yet). Notice that you can
change the origin at any time while designing a pattern ("View / Define Origin / ..." from the
main menu or press button on the Instruments toolbar). Origin is a zero point of the
pattern when you place, rotate, or change pattern's position by coordinates in the PCB
Layout.
You can configure the precision level by defining the number of decimal places (up to ten)
for all the values used in the project by units and set the minimum grid size and grid
precision for the current units, using Precision of Values dialogue-box (View /
Precision…).
Please note that high precision rates are used only at designing stage. When the project
is saved into a file, precision up to 0.001 mil is applied.
Pattern Properties panel in the upper-left of the design area allows the engineer to design
patterns by types or templates, define pattern attributes, attach 3D model, and change
default pad settings. The panel can be hidden, minimized or moved during pattern design.
To minimize the panel, click the arrow button in its upper-left corner. To expand the panel,
left-click on its border and drag it.To hide/show this panel select "View / Toolbars / Pattern
Properties" from the main menu.
Use the Plus Sign (+) and Minus Sign (-) hotkeys or the mouse wheel for zooming in and
out in the Component and Pattern Editors or change scale in the scale box on the
Instruments toolbar. Go to "View / Pad Numbers /..." to show/hide the pad numbers.

You can also choose to display a standard or detailed hint (with pad/hole dimensions) for
the objects on the design area (View / Display Hint).
Notice that hint is also shown in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
4.1.2 Create/Save library

Create a library
Press / New Library on the Library Manager panel on the left

side of the screen. In the pop-up dialog box enter the library name, hint, and select the
library group. You can't save a library outside any of the library groups. We recommend
creating new libraries in the User Patterns library group offered by default. Other
Libraries group is also meant for custom user libraries, so you can choose it as well.
Press OK.
A name of your library will appear on the Library Manager panel, User Libraries library
group becomes selected automatically. Now save the newly created library in a separate
file.
Save library
Once a library has been created you need to
save it in the file. Select "Library / Save"
from the main menu. We recommend
saving user libraries in the "Documents/
DipTrace/My Libraries" folder for Windows,
which is offered by default, however, you
can select another location (Mac users
should save custom libraries in another
location because you can accidentally lose
the "My Libraries" folder when uninstalling
the software).
DipTrace does not allow saving user libraries in the folder with standard libraries.
Type in the file name (not shown in DipTrace), and press Save.
Now we have "My Library (Patterns)" pattern library saved on your computer. Notice that
file has *.lib extension, meaning that this is a pattern library.
4.1.3 Designing a resistor (pattern)

We will design the first pattern of our library, it is going to be a resistor with 400 mils lead
spacing. First, let's see, how to create it manually and then move on to the automatic
generation of the pattern.
4.1.3.1 Manually
To start, we'll have to name the pattern and fill in the basic description fields. Type "RES
400" into the Name field, "R" – into the RefDes field and "47kΩ" – into the Value field on
the Pattern Properties panel. In DipTrace Pattern and Component Editors, you need to
define just a basic RefDes (not a number index). For example, when you place several
resistors: R1, R2, R3, etc., the designators will be assigned automatically. Use Windows
Special Characters Map to find and copy/paste special symbols for Ohms, Farads etc.
For this pattern, we have used the Free style, but it is faster to use Lines instead. You'll
see how to use this option in one of the subsequent topics.
Placing pads
Please make sure that 0.05-inch grid is selected (change measurement units in the "View
/ Units" main menu item or with Shift+U hotkeys) then minimize the Pattern Properties
panel. For convenience, you can activate Snap to Grid option in View menu. Select the
Place Pad tool ( button on the Objects toolbar) and left-click on the design area to
place two pads like in the picture below. Right-click to exit placement mode.
Note: for through-hole pads Pattern Editor applies color settings defined in PCB (View/
Colors), that's why they are colored black in our case instead of blue.

Let's place a dimension line, this will make editing more simple and visual. Select
"Objects / Place Dimension / Horizontal" from the main menu or Place Dimension /
Horizontal tool on the Objects toolbar, left-click in the center of the first pad, then in the
center of the second pad, move the mouse pointer a bit upwards, and click one more time
to place a dimension line. The key points of the object are highlighted when you hover over
them with your mouse. Dimension pointer is attached to the key point, it recounts
parameters automatically, when you move or resize objects.
Right-click on the dimension line, and select Properties from the submenu if you want to
change Layer, Units, Arrow Size etc. Drag and drop the dimension line like a regular
object if needed.
Move the pads so that the spacing between them is 0.4 inches.
Layers
On the right side of the screen, there is a layer list. All signal and non-signal layers of the
pattern are displayed here. The panel facilitates layer management: you can show/hide a
layer on the design area by clicking on the corresponding blue check mark, change layer
color (a left-click on the color rectangle) and quickly select the layer for object placement.
Let's short list the layers, press button. In the pop-up, select Top Dimensions, Top
Silk, Top Comp Outline, Top Mask, Top Paste, Top, Bottom layers in the Priority column.
You can change the position of the layers in the list by using arrow buttons in the Order
column, but we'll leave the order of layers as it is. Click OK to close the dialog. Pres
Show Priority Layers Only to display only previously selected layers in the list.

Pad properties
Pads can have default or custom properties. Default are
applied to all pads of the pattern, custom – only to
selected pad/s. To change default pad settings, select
"Pattern / Standard Pad Properties" from the main
menu or press Standard Pad Properties button on
the Pattern Properties panel. In the pop-up dialog box,
you can change the pad shape: Ellipse, Obround,
Rectangle, D-Shape or Polygon (click Points for
polygonal pad customization). Corner Radius can be
defined for Rectangle pads. You can make round or
obround holes and change the hole diameter (for
Through pads only).
Pad templates allow the user to quickly apply selected parameters in different dialog
boxes of the Pattern Editor and PCB Layout.
Change pad Type to Surface, shape to Rectangle, width to 0.08, height to 0.059, and
corner radius - 20%, then click OK to apply changes. You can also change the
measurement units (mil is 1/1000 inches).
Notice that you can select the side for the surface pads, i.e. place them on the bottom
side of the PCB. Select pad(s), right-click on one of them, and select Change Side from
the submenu. Select the current side for placing new pads and shapes on the Objects
toolbar (drop-down box with the "Top" text) or on the Layers panel.
We need the first pad to have custom pad properties. Right-click on the first pad, and
select Properties from the submenu (if the pad is not highlighted while hovering over it,
you're not in the default mode – right-click on any free spot or press on the Objects
toolbar). In the pop-up Pad <Number> dialog box, select the Type / Dimensions tab, and
uncheck Use Pattern's Standard Pad Properties box to enable pad’s custom settings.
Polygon pads
Let's create a hexagonal-shaped pad. The fastest way to achieve that would be selecting
an appropriate (Polygon1) template, but let's practice a bit. Do not assign any template,
change type to Through-Hole, shape to Polygon, width and height to 0.09 inch and pad
hole diameter to 0.04 inch, then press Points to open the Polygon Points dialog box.
Here you can create regular or custom polygon shapes that are not available in the
templates drop-down list.
Select: Regular, 8 Sides, and specify 0.045-inch Radius. Edit custom shapes with the
table below or visually in the preview field (drag and drop the polygon's points).
Press OK to apply the polygon shape.

You can change pad coordinates and angle in the Number / Position tab of this dialog
box, but do not do that. Press OK. Changes will apply to all selected pads.

There is also another way to create polygon pads, select the Polygon tool on the Drawing
toolbar and draw a shape directly on the design area. Make sure that the shape is on the
signal layer (select Signal from the drop-down list on the Drawing toolbar or on the Layers
Panel prior to drawing or change shape layer in the shape properties dialog box after
placement – right-click on the shape and select Properties from the submenu). When the
shape on the signal layer is ready, right-click it, and select Convert to pad from the
submenu. This options is visible only for Polygon drawing tool.
Please define the following properties for the pads:
the first pad – 0.09x0.09, Through-Hole, Rectangle, hole – Round, diameter – 0.04;
the second pad – 0.09x0.09, Through-Hole, Obround, hole – Round, diameter – 0.04.
Now let's place a silkscreen for this resistor. Click Rectangle button on the Drawing
panel, make sure Top Silk layer is selected. Place a rectangle by clicking in two key
points on the design area. Note that DipTrace displays size parameters while placing a
shape.
Now disable the rectangle placement mode (right-click on the free spot or press
button).
Silk shape looks a bit small for this pattern. There are several ways to change it: 1) right-
click on the shape, select Properties, and enter new Width and Height values in the pop-
up dialog box; 2) drag-and-drop shape's key points (to use this option disable Snap to Grid
option in the View menu to be able to place shape between the grid points or change the
grid size). We will use the last method. Let's change the grid size to 0.025 inch with
Ctrl+Minus Sign hotkeys or with the grid box on the Instruments toolbar, then hover over
rectangle's key points, and resize the shape (the mouse cursor shows possible
directions).

Center the pattern by selecting "Edit / Center Pattern" from the main menu or Ctrl+Alt+C.
To show pad numbers, select "View/ Pad Numbers/ Show".
The resistor is ready.
Try to rotate and mirror the first pattern of your library, select "Edit / Rotate Pattern" to
rotate and "Edit / Vertical Flip", "Edit / Horizontal Flip" to mirror it.
Press Save on the Standard toolbar. We will attach 3D model for this resistor in the next
topic of this tutorial.
4.1.3.2 Attaching a 3D model
There are three options for attaching a 3D model in DipTrace: you can use a STEP file
with a 3D model of your component; apply a model from Pattern Generator (works for
patters created with this tool); or create a model by component outline (this option works
best for surface-mount devices since a 3D shape with defined parameters is created to
mimic an SMD).
We are going to use the first option now.
Please make sure that you have downloaded and installed free 3D Models package from
the DipTrace official website, which contains more than 10 000 3D models for various
components.
When a component footprint (pattern) is ready, we can attach a 3D Model. Press
button on the Pattern Properties panel. In the pop-up dialog box press All
Models button and the list of all available 3D models will pop up, 3D models are sorted by
libraries. We will probably find an appropriate resistor model in the _General library.
Scroll it down to find the res-10.16_5.1x2.5.step model, left-click it, and it will appear over
the footprint. Sometimes you might need to map a 3D model respective to the footprint
(see below).
Mapping a 3D model
DipTrace automatically places a 3D model to fit the pattern's drawing, however,
sometimes you may need to adjust 3D model location or the scale. Just enter appropriate
values into the corresponding fields on the 3D Model Properties section (shift, rotation
angle, and scale for each axis). In our case, we see that we need to rotate the resistor 90
degrees and shift it up a bit. Specify 90-degree Z Angle and 0.03 inch Z Shift. You can
rotate a 3D model by three axes, zoom in / out, and pan 3D Model preview with the mouse
(left, right and wheel clicks). You can also use side and isometric view buttons for quick

change of 3D display perspective or rotate the model by three axis with the wheels at the
bottom of the window.
Press OK to attach a 3D model, and then save the pattern library. More details about
DipTrace 3D Module 242 later in this tutorial and in the DipTrace Help ("Help / Pattern
Editor Help" from the main menu).
4.1.3.3 Automatically (Pattern Generator)
There's one more way to create a pattern. And now we'll

explore how to make a footprint automatically. But before we
start, let's add a new Pattern project to our library. Make sure
My Library (Patterns) in User Patterns ( or Other Libraries)
group is selected. Go to Pattern menu and select Add New to
"My Library (Patterns)" library.
Next, we have to launch Pattern Generator.To do that select
IPC-7351 from the Style drop-down on Pattern Properties
panel. Once selected, IPC-7315 Pattern Generator button
appears right below. Click it to start the Generator.
In Pattern Generator we'll make a footprint for HVR37 resistor with copper termination
wire, using this datasheet.
First, select Through Hole device type. Next, choose Axial from the Family list on the left
side of the dialog.
Now move on to the central part of the Pattern Generator window. Here we'll have to enter
all the key parameters. In the SubFamily drop-down select Resistor. Set measuring units
in the bottommost part of the window to mm.
Now open the datasheet on page 2 for dimensions. Check Package View images to find
the required parameters.
The first cell - Pitch - is colored green, meaning that this value is optional. We are going
to leave it empty and let DipTrace calculate the value.
Fill in the remaining Required cells colored red: Amax - 4 mm (this value is not available in
the datasheet, so we will assume that A = E = resistor diameter), bmin - 0.67 mm, bmax
- 0.73 mm, D max - 12 mm, Emax - 4 mm.
Basically, those values are enough to generate a footprint with all other parameters set by
default.
For more details on customization of parameters for component generation, please see
Pattern Editor Help manual.
Press Recalculate button and DipTrace will calculate Pattern Dimensions (see the right-
hand area of the Generator) based on IPC-7351 Standard, however, you can always
change the calculated values for the ones recommended by the manufacturer.
The software has also generated a Standard Pattern Name, you can edit it or opt for using
a Unique Pattern Name. Let's choose the latter option. Type-in HVR37 and make sure to
choose a Manufacturer from the list, in our case it's Vishay. Note that Use Unique Pattern
Name option requires specifying a manufacturer, otherwise the pattern will not be
generated.

Press Recalculate button again and then OK - and DipTrace will generate the pattern.
4.1.4 Designing BGA-144/13x13

4.1.4.1 Manually
Press , then select Add New Pattern to My Library (Patterns)

Library on the Library Manager panel. This will add an empty pattern to the library. The
pattern is selected. We will create BGA-144/13x13 (x0.8_10x10) pattern using available
pattern types and automatic pad numeration. Maximize the Pattern Properties panel and
type in the pattern's name.
Press , if you want to add Name Description and Unique Name for your pattern.
Change units to mm, press Shift+U hotkeys. Change the Grid size to 0.635 mm.
Go to "Pattern / Standard Pad Properties" from the main menu and set: Type: Surface,
Shape: Ellipse, Width: 0.45 mm, Height: 0.45 mm. Press OK to apply changes to
default pad properties. On the Pattern Properties panel set: Style: Matrix, Columns: 13,
Rows: 13, X Pad Spacing: 0.8 mm, Y Pad Spacing: 0.8 mm. 13x13 pad matrix and pad
spacing dimensions appear on the design area.

Click button on the Pattern Properties panel to prevent accidental changes.

Minimize the Pattern Properties panel. Pan design area if necessary with the right
mouse button or zoom with the mouse wheel. For the BGA-144/13x13 pattern, we should
delete 5x5 rectangle of pads in the center, like in the picture below. Select these pads
using the box selection (move mouse to the upper-left corner, hold down the left mouse
button, move to the bottom-right and release the button), then press Delete key on the
keyboard to delete selected pads.
Select "View / Pad Numbers / Show" from the main menu to display pad numbers. Notice
that our matrix has 1 – 169 numbers with some missing numbers in the center. This is
not right. BGA pads should be A1, A2, A3 etc. Select all pads (Ctrl+A or a box selection),
right-click on one of the pads, and choose Pad Array Numbers from the submenu. In the
pop-up dialog box, select Type: BGA Matrix, keep other settings, and press OK button.
Now pad numeration is correct.

Notice that for Contour type of numeration the first pad will be the one you right-clicked
on. This allows the user to numerate contour pads (QUAD patterns) starting from the
upper-left, center or any other pad of the pattern.
Now draw a silkscreen for the pattern (like in the picture below), using the tools on the
Drawing toolbar. Change grid size with Ctrl+Plus Sign, Ctrl+Minus Sign or turn it OFF/ON
with F11 hotkey. You can move objects by dragging and dropping them.
BGA pattern is ready. You can attach a 3D model now.

Attaching 3D Model from file
In the situations, where there is no exact model in the standard 3D model libraries, you
can use similar ones because usually we don't need 100% precision for a 3D model.
DipTrace allows the user to attach any 3D models in *.3ds, *.wrl, *.step, and *.iges
formats to any footprint. You can download models from the component manufacturers'
websites or create them in any 3D CAD.
Press button on the Pattern Properties panel.

If you have an appropriate model on your computer click button, select 3D model file
on your computer, and press Open. You can also enter 3D model's disk address, and
press Load Model button – a 3D model will appear in the preview area. Change 3D
Model Properties in case the model does not correspond exactly to the footprint.
For example, we have decided to take the bga-144_12x12x1.27_17x17.step 3D model
from the BGA library in the standard 3D model package and scale it down a bit to fit the
footprint (see the picture below).
Try to enter different values into various fields and you will understand how to adjust
model location. Press OK. Notice that button glows green when the pattern
has a 3D model attached.
Save the pattern library (Ctrl+S or Save button on the standard toolbar).
Creating 3D Model by component outline
Another option is to create a 3D model by component outline. This is a particularly handy
option, especially for SMD components. To place the outline, go to Objects/ Precize
Shape Placement. In the pop-up set the following parameters: Shape Type - Rectangle;
Layer - Top Outline; Anchor Point - Center; Height and Width - 11 mm and click Place
.

Once the outline is placed, press 3D Model button on Component Properties panel. In
the pop-up, select By Component Outline option in the drop-down list at the top of the
window, and set Model Height 1 mm. DipTrace will place a 3D shape, following the
outline of the footprint. Click OK.
4.1.4.2 Designing BGA Automatically
Now we are going to use Pattern Generator to create a BGA footprint automatically.
Let's create a pattern for a 16-Channel, Current-Input Analog-to-Digital Converter, using
this datasheet.
First, we have to add a new Pattern to our library. Make sure My Library (Patterns) in User
Patterns group is selected. Go to Pattern menu and select Add New to "My Library
(Patterns)" library.
Next, launch Pattern Generator - select IPC-7351 from the Style drop-down on Pattern
Properties panel. Once selected, IPC-7315 Pattern Generator button appears right below.
Click it to start the Generator.
Select the Family: Surface Mount/ BGA. Press Clear button if the cells in the Drawing
Data tab are filled with example values. Here we'll have to enter all the key parameters of
the device. Set measuring units in the bottommost part of the window to mm.
Now open the datasheet on page 27 for dimensions.

Check Package View images to find the necessary parameters.

Fill in the Required cells colored red:
Pin Count: D - 8, E - 8.
Pitch: 0.8 mm.
Pin Numbering: A1-B1-C1... in Row.
Terminal Type: Collapsing Ball.
Amax - 1.45 mm.
There's no the required bnom value, so let's enter bmin - 0.41 mm and bmax - 0.51 mm
and let DipTrace calculate the value.
D/E min - 7.9 mm, D/E max - 8.1 mm.
Those values are enough to generate a footprint with all other parameters set by default.
Press Recalculate and the OK button.
For more details on customization of parameters for component generation, please see
Pattern Editor Help manual.

DipTrace has also generated a 3D model of the device. You can check it by clicking 3D
Model button on Pattern Properties panel.
4.1.5 Designing SOIC-28 pattern

Now that you are familiar with all the basics, we can practice creating a component
manually according to a datasheet. It's gonna be the simple Microchip PIC18F24K20
component with SOIC-28 pattern.
When you start creating a component from a scratch, and you don't have an appropriate
pattern, always start from the pattern creation and then proceed to component's symbol.
We start from making a pattern. Add a new pattern to the library ("Pattern / Add New
Pattern To "My Library (Patterns)" Library" from the main menu), then enter the name –
"SOIC-28" and RefDes – "IC".
Select Style: Lines on the Pattern Properties panel, and set Number of Pads: 28. In
our case pads are way too small for this pattern.
We should define correct pad spacing, line spacing, and pad settings. You can find SOIC-
28 (7.50 mm) footprint dimensions on the Microchip package specifications PDF at the
Microchip's website (page 197 in the latest revision at the moment of writing this tutorial)
or you can take the SOIC-28 pattern from standard DipTrace libraries as an example.
Define default pad settings (press Standard Pad Properties button to open the dialog
box): Type: Surface, Shape: Rectangle, Width: 0.6 mm, Height: 2 mm. Press OK.
Then specify Pad Spacing: 1.27 mm and Line Spacing: 9.4 mm on the Pattern
Properties panel.

Pad numbers are correct, we don't need to renumber them. Lock pattern properties to
avoid accidental changes. Draw a silkscreen (like in the picture below), using line/polyline
and arc tools found on the Drawing toolbar (turn ON/OFF the grid, change grid size, and
hide Pattern Properties panel if you need).
Datasheet requires the pattern to be rotated 90 degrees – select "Edit / Rotate Pattern"
from the main menu or Ctrl+Alt+R. Attach soic-28_300mil.step 3D model from the
_General 3D Models category.
We will attach this pattern to PIC18F24K20 component, which we will create in the
Component Editor 145 later in this tutorial.
Remember that you can easily create the same pattern and 3D model using Pattern
Generator.
Save this library and close the Pattern Editor.
4.2 Designing a component library

Open DipTrace Component Editor, i.e. go to "Start / All Programs / DipTrace / Component
Editor" in Windows or use DipTrace Launcher on MacOS.
Component Editor allows the user to create / edit and manage components and libraries
in DipTrace. Component Editor allows attaching component's pattern to the symbol, but it
doesn't allow pattern editing – use the Pattern Editor 95 .
4.2.1 Customizing Component Editor

Customizing Component Editor is almost the same as customizing the Pattern Editor.
Select "View / Display Origin" from the main menu to show a zero point and X, Y axes (or
press F1) if you can't see the origin point. Component Properties panel in the upper-left
side of the design area can be minimized or hidden using the buttons on the panel and in
the main menu.
On the Component Properties panel, you can define the symbol style (4 styles available):
Free (without any specific properties), 2 sides, IC-2 sides, IC-4 sides. The only difference
between "2 sides" and "IC-2 sides" is a rectangle shape (IC Symbol) for the last one.
The fields that might look unfamiliar are the Part Type field and the Part field. The part
type can be Normal, Power and GND or Net Port. A component can contain only one
Power and GND part (if you prefer to hide all power nets of your schematic, then all power
pins should be in this part). Net Port is a single-part component, we use net ports to
connect wires logically. Net ports are usually applied to Ground or Power nets and
schematics with flexible structure (we will design such component later).
The Part field indicates the current part of a multi-part component.

If you need to define pin settings before creating a component, select "Objects / Pin
Placement Setup" from the main menu. We will not change these parameters now, but
notice that length and X, Y spacing should be divisible by the grid step to create all key
points on the grid. We recommend using 0.1-inch grid.
4.2.2 Designing a resistor (component)

Like in the Pattern Editor, first, we need to create a new library because DipTrace won't let
you add new components to the standard libraries.
Create library
Press , then select New Library, in the pop-up dialog box enter the
library name, hint, and select the library group. We recommend saving this library in the
User Components library group, offered by default. Press OK.
We will design a resistor using the Free style and visual pin placement. Define component
name, RefDes, and value "47kΩ", use the corresponding fields on the Component
Properties panel. Save the Library on your computer.
After specifying these attributes, please minimize the panel, using the arrow in its upper-
left corner.

Place pins
Select the Place Pin tool on the Objects toolbar ( button), then move the mouse
cursor to the design area, and place two pins with left clicks. Rotate one pin 180 degrees,
(select it, and press R twice), make sure that pins are placed by the 0.1-inch grid. Now
change the grid to 0.05 inch, select the Rectangle tool, and place graphics for the
resistor. DipTrace will show the dimensions of the shape while you are placing it.
Notice that you can move pin(s) using the drag-and-drop method. If you want to move or
rotate several pins, select them first.
You can use the Align Objects tool for automatically placing several objects in a row or
column. Select objects on the design area, then select Align Objects from the submenu
to set up alignment direction and spacing.
Attach pattern
The symbol of the resistor is ready, but the component is not ready yet. We should attach
a pattern to this symbol, otherwise, we will not be able to generate the circuit board from
the schematic with this resistor. Select "Component / Attached Pattern" from the main
menu or press Pattern on the Component Properties panel. We need to connect this
symbol drawing with a pattern drawing created before in the Pattern Editor. Select User
Patterns or Other Libraries group (where you saved your pattern library (see
"Designing Resistor (pattern)" 98 topic of this tutorial). There should be only one library in
that group (My Library (Patterns)). Select it, and select RES 400 pattern that we've
created earlier.
Notice that DipTrace automatically creates pin-to-pad connections by numbers. You can
review and reassign them if necessary. Connections should be like in the picture below.
To create or redefine pin-to-pad connections, hover over the pin, left-click it, then move
the mouse to the corresponding pad, and left-click it to connect them. To delete a
connection, right-click on the pin or pad, and select Disconnect pin from pad item from
the submenu. When you move the cursor over one of connected pins/pads, both are
highlighted. If a component is more complex, use the Pin to Pad table (select pin and
type in the corresponding pad number into the Number field below).
Pin numbers (therefore component's pin to pad connections) can be changed with the
Pin Manager (select "Component /Pin Manager" from the main menu) or in the Pin
Properties dialog box.
If the current pattern is wrong, you can undo to the previous one or delete it by pressing
the corresponding buttons (Previous Pattern, New Pattern). Change pattern side with the
corresponding drop-down list.
All components of the library are in the left part of the dialog box, this allows the user to
attach patterns to several components at a time. However, we don't need this now. Our
Library has only one component.
Everything looks good. Press OK to close the Attached Pattern dialog box. The resistor is
ready and contains both schematic part and PCB pattern with 3D Model.
Save the component library. Press the Save button on the Standard toolbar, select
location (except the folder with standard libraries), enter a file name, and press Save.
Notice that this is the file with *.eli extension, this means that this is component library file.
4.2.3 Designing a capacitor

Select "Component / Add New to "My Library" from the main menu to add a new

component to the library.

We will design capacitor using the 2 sides component style (Style box on the Component
Properties panel); type in the component's name "CAP", RefDes – "C", Value – "2µF" .
Change component width and pin spacing to 0.1 inch, left and right pins to "1".
Now please minimize the Component Properties panel, change the grid size to 0.0125
inch, and draw the capacitor's graphics, using three lines and one arc (it's convenient to
use Start-End-Radius mode, Counter-Clockwise for placing an arc in this case).
Show pin names for the component symbol, select pins (or select all using Ctrl+A
hotkeys), right-click on one of them, and choose Pin Properties from the submenu. In
the Pin Properties dialog box, check the Show Name box, and press OK.

Now you can see the pin names but they are in wrong places (probably overlaying each
other) and you need to move them. Select "View / Move Text Tool" from the main menu or
press F10, then hover over the pin names, and drag them to new locations one-by-one,
then right-click to return to the Default mode.
Notice that you can use such method to move pin names, numbers and part attributes in
Schematic.
You can show inversion line in the pin name, just hover over the pin with your mouse,
right-click, and select Pin Name from the submenu, type in "normal ~invert" text, and
press OK, then move the pin name using the move tool (F10 hotkey). The Tilde Symbol
(~) in the pin name starts and ends the inversion, so using it you can define the inversion
for separate parts (signals) in the pin names.
You probably don’t need to see the pin names for simple passive components like
capacitors.
Select "Component / Pin Manager" from the main menu to open the Pin Manager dialog
box and change "normal ~invert" pin name back to "1". Now hide pin names for both pins:
select pin row in the table, and uncheck Show Name box at the bottom of the dialog box.
Close the Pin Manager.
Notice that you can change pin numbers (i.e. related pads), coordinates, length, type, and
electric type of pins in the Pin Manager dialog box.

In the Component Editor you can set individual show/hide pin numbers settings for current
component ("Component / Pin Numbers" from the main menu) and common program
settings (the same as in the Schematic) in "View / Pin Numbers / Show" from the main
menu.
Let's show capacitor's pin numbers. If you need to move pin numbers, use the move tool (
F10).
The next step is attaching a pattern to the capacitor. Open Component Properties panel
and press Pattern button. We did not create a pattern drawing for this component
because we will take an appropriate pattern from the standard DipTrace libraries. Select
the Patterns library group, then select Cap Electrolytic Radial library below, and
CAPPRD500W60D1050H1450 from the list of patterns. You can use the search filters.
Pin-to-pad connections assigned automatically are good.
Press OK. The capacitor is ready. Save the changes.
4.2.4 Designing VCC and GND symbols

In this part, we will practice in creating net ports by designing VCC and GND symbols.
VCC
Press , then select Add New Component to "My Library", type

in "VCC" in the Name field on the Component Properties panel, and select Net Port in
the Part Type drop-down list.

Minimize the Component Properties panel, then press the Place Pin button on the
Objects toolbar and place a single pin, rotate it vertically (select it, and press R hotkey).
Select the line tool on the Drawing toolbar and draw a line like in the picture below.
Hide the pin number if it is visible, select "Component / Pin Numbers / Hide" from the main
menu. Pin number for the single-pin component looks kind of weird. VCC symbol is ready.
GND
Now add one more component (Ctrl+Ins hotkeys), and create a GND symbol the same
way like the VCC symbol.
Select "Edit / Center Symbol" or press Ctrl+Alt+C for GND because in our case its origin
is not in the center, so you have to center it to make component's origin hidden by default
in the Schematic. Use 0.012-inch grid to draw a GND symbol's graphics.

Notice that net ports do not need patterns. This special type of components is used only
in Schematic to connect wires without visual connections, net ports do not exist on the
circuit board.
Save the library file.
4.2.5 Designing a multi-part component

Despite being represented as a single physical package on the circuit board, some
electronic components has multi-part schematic symbols. Building a multi-part schematic
symbol involves a bit different technique.
Creating a symbol
We will design a simple multi-part component with four "And-Not" symbols, a power part,
and attach DIP-14 pattern, which is available in the standard libraries.
Add a new component to the library, i.e. select "Component / Add New To "My Library"
Library" from the main menu. Enter the name and Reference Designator.
Creating parts
DipTrace allows for creating multi-part components using separate or similar parts. The
only difference between these is that similar parts share the same layout of pins and
symbol drawing, except the pin numbers (i.e. related pads). We will proceed with similar
parts, which, by the way, can be grouped later in the Schematic.
Each part of the multi-part component can be Normal, Power and Ground, or Net Port.
Power parts and power nets can be hidden in the schematic capture. Only one power part
per component is used.
We will design a component with 4 similar AndNot gates (parts) and one power part that
has a different layout (created separately from the similar parts). Select "Component /
Create Similar Parts" from the main menu, type "4" in the pop-up dialog box, and press
OK to apply. Tabs with the part names have appeared in the bottom-left of the design
area (like sheets in the Schematic).
Similar parts are created based on the currently selected part. They share the same
name and layout of pins.

Now you can see the following 4 parts: Part 1 (1), Part 1 (2), Part 1 (3), and Part 1 (4). All
similar parts have the same part name. Change it to "AN" in the Part field on the
Component Properties panel.
The power part for the component is missing. Power part has a symbol different from the
logic gates, this is why we will create it as a separate part (not in the "AN" group of similar
parts). Select "Component / Add New Part" from the main menu to add a single part to the
component, select new part tab (Part 1) in the bottom-left of the design area, and rename
it to "PWR".
Notice that new part is a separate part and does not belong to "AN" group.
Start designing a component with the power part. On the Component Properties panel
specify Style: IC - 2 sides, Width: 0.3 inch, Height: 0.25 in, Left Pins: 2, Right Pins: 0,
then select Power and Gnd from the Part Type drop-down list. Make general component
pin numbers visible ("View / Pin Numbers / Show" from the main menu), if they are
hidden.
Press the Pin Manager button on the Component Properties panel, and change pin
names to "VCC" and "GND", pin numbers to "14" and "7", electric type to Power, the
Show Name box should be checked for both pins. Notice that you can change Type,
Show Name and Length parameters for multiple pins at the same time.
Pin Manager dialog box itself and the width of the rows are resizable. These settings are
saved when you close the program.

Now press OK to close the Pin Manager dialog box. Then minimize the Component
Properties panel and see the first ready part of the component.
Design the other parts of the multi-part component: select one of the AN parts, maximize
the Component Properties panel, and define the following parameters: Style: IC-2
sides, Width: 0.2 in, Height: 0.25 in, Left Pins: 2, Right pins: 1. Now minimize the
Component Properties panel again.
Select the text tool on the drawing toolbar ( button), hover over the symbol, left-click,
and type "&" character, then right-click to place the text and return to the default mode
(see the picture below). Move the text if you need.
Right pin of a typical "And - Not" (Not And) part should be inverted or "Dot" type. Right-click
on the third pin, select Pin Properties from the submenu, in the pop-up dialog box
specify Type: Dot. Click OK to apply changes and close the dialog box.
Notice that you don’t need to draw another AN parts of the component if they were created
as a group of similar parts, they will inherit the layout of the first part of the "AN" group.

Select AN (3) or AN (4) part just to make sure that parts are the same. All parts in the
group are absolutely identical, but require pin renumbering.
Pin Manager
Select "Component / Pin Manager" from the main menu. In the Pin Manager dialog box
select part (using the drop-down list in the upper-right), define pin numbers, then select
next part and so on, until you define pin numbers for all AN parts. Use the Down arrow
button or Enter to quickly switch to the next pin when you're typing in the Number or Name
fields.
Don't forget that pin #7 is used in the GND part, therefore you should skip it while
renumbering pins of the functional parts, going from pin #6 straight to the pin #8.
Please set correct Electric type (2 input pins and one output pin) for one of the parts and
the other parts will inherit this automatically. Click OK.
The next step is attaching a related pattern to the multi-part component. Press the
Pattern button on the Component Properties panel. In the Attached pattern dialog box
select the Patterns library group (library group with all standard pattern libraries), then
select DIP Pitch 2.54mm library and DIP793W45P254L1955H393Q14 pattern in there
(use filters if you like).
Notice that you don’t need to specify pin-to-pad connections, they have been assigned
automatically and should be correct, because we've specified correct pin numbers in the
Pin Manager (this is why pin number array was not straight).
Select different parts (drop-down list below the preview field) and visually check
connections to ensure that they are all right. Press OK to attach pattern and close this
dialog box.

Multi-part component is ready. Save the library file.
4.2.6 Using additional fields

Name, RefDes, Value, Manufacturer, and Datasheet are default component fields in the
DipTrace, usually, these are what most users will ever need, but sometimes additional
description or other information is necessary. In this case, you can use additional fields.
Select "Component / Default Additional Fields" from the main menu. This dialog box
allows you to specify default additional fields and their values. For example, we need to
have the link for one more datasheet online: type in "Datasheet #2" into the Name box,
specify Type: Link, enter the web address, and click Add button. Now this additional field
will apply only to all new components that you will create. If you want to add this
additional field to all existing and future components in this library, then press the Add to
All button.
Now all components in this library will have this additional field with the datasheet link.
Close Default Additional Fields dialog box. Select , then select

Add New Component to "My Library" or press Ctrl+Ins. Click Additional fields button
to see the list of all additional fields for a new component.

It has the added Datasheet field.

Now make sure that Untitled component is selected on the Library Manager panel, right-
click it, and select Delete Components or simply press Ctrl+Del to delete it. You can
also select several components and delete them at a time.
You can assign custom additional fields to the component, just press the Additional
Fields button on the Component Properties panel and practice a bit.
Additional fields in Schematic
Right-click on the component with links to the datasheets on the design area in DipTrace
Schematic, and select Links from the right-click submenu, the web browser will pop up
automatically. You can assign additional fields as component markings for all or only for
selected components in the DipTrace Schematic.
4.2.7 Designing PIC18F24K20

In this part of the Tutorial we will create a PIC18F24K20 component according to the
datasheet and attach SOIC-28 pattern that was created before 119 .
Go to the Microchip website and search "PIC18F24K20", then select "Datasheets" on the
left. Or use the direct link (however we don't guarantee that it works at the moment you
read this tutorial). Go to "Pin Diagrams", the first diagram is what we need.
Switch to the DipTrace Component Editor and add a new component (Ctrl+Insert), type in
the name "PIC18F24K20", then specify Style: IC - 2 sides, Left Pins: 14, Right Pins: 14,
RefDes and manufacturer.
DipTrace allows the user to enter pin names manually or import them from external
BSDM file ("Library / Import / Add BSDL Pinlist" from the main menu). We will do this
manually. Press the Pin Manager button on the Component Properties panel and enter
pin names from the pin diagram in the datasheet found online. Notice that you can resize
the pin manager panel and change the width of the columns (we made the Name column
wider to see the full pin names). Also when you entered the pin name, just press Enter to
switch to the next pin name easily.

After entering all pin names, specify electric types for pins, and check the Show Name
box for all pins of the component. Notice that you can select as many rows as you need
and change certain properties at a time. Press OK.
Our symbol has inappropriate look, width is too small with pin names overlaying.
On the Component Properties panel change width to 1.9 inches and height to 2 inches.
Pin names still overlay a bit, but we will regroup pins which will probably fix this. We made
an IC a bit bigger because it will make it easier to do the pin regrouping. Change grid to
0.1 inch and place pins by this grid (select all pins, right-click, and select Snap to Grid
from the submenu).
Make buses (Group pins)

We need to group pins logically. First, we will make the busses – select "Component /
Make Buses from Pins" from the main menu. This feature allows the user to extract
buses based on the pin names and group pins by buses. In the pop-up dialog box, you
can define possible bus dividers. By default, only "/" is selected and it is OK for the current
component, however, some manufacturers use different dividers.
Press Extract button and you will see available buses and number of pins for each of
them. Select RA, RB, and RC buses using Ctrl key. Change Bus to Bus spacing to 1.3
inches, because pin names are quite long.

Press Make button to make the buses and close the dialog box. DipTrace sorts wires by
buses to the left from the IC symbol.
There are some pins that do not belong to the selected buses (4 pins left on the symbol).
Select them, use Ctrl and box selection, then move pins away from the symbol, for
example, to the bottom, because we need to place the busses first.
Place buses to the IC rectangle like in the picture below. Use box selection to select a
bus, then drag it. Press Shift+R to rotate the bus and Shift+F to flip pins, or select these
commands from the pin submenu (right-click on one of bus pins). Move the rest of pins to
the IC rectangle (press R to rotate selected object/pin).

Sometimes you need to place pins by electric type, select "View / Pin Colors by EType"
from the main menu and the software assigns different colors for pins of different electric
types.
Press button on the Component Properties panel to lock properties.

The final step is attaching SOIC-28 pattern to the component. Press the Pattern button
on the Component Properties panel and select SOIC-28 pattern from My library (we've
created it before 119 ). Select your library group, then select My Library (Patterns) and
SOIC-28 from the list below. All pin names and pin numbers are already there. You can
check pin to pad connections in the table. We don't need to change anything. Just press
OK.
PIC18F24K20 component is ready! Save the library.
4.2.8 SPICE settings

With DipTrace you can export schematics into LT Spice to simulate it and see how the
circuit works. We will review the simulation step later, for now, we need to define correct
SPICE settings for the component, otherwise, the Spice simulation for this component will
not work. Now we will specify that our CAP component is a capacitor with some value, so
it will work in the SPICE netlist. Select CAP on the Library Manager, then select
"Component / Spice Settings" from the main menu. Set: Model Type: Capacitor, then
double click in the Parameters table in the Value cell (the value reads "1uF" text) and
enter a new value – "23 µF" (DipTrace supports Unicode characters). Press Enter or just
move focus to another field.
In the Template field, you can see how this part looks in the SPICE netlist language. In
our case, pin-to-signal map is correct, however, if you need to edit it, enter signal names
into the table on the left side of the Spice Settings dialog box. The list of available signals
is right below that table.

Capacitor is a very simple component, we don't need specific text file model to let the
simulation software know how this component works (model type and capacity is just
fine). However, for transistors, you can load models from external files (usually SPICE
models are available on the manufacturers' websites) or enter model text manually if you
know how to do that (see SPICE Language documentation for details). Also, there is a
SubSkt Model Type, which allows the user to enter/load model of almost any part as a
program.
Press Get Spice Model from Library button to load existing Spice settings from another
DipTrace component.
Notice that this dialog box is also available in the Schematic Capture, you can define
Spice settings after completing or while drawing the schematic.
Library design is ready. Click OK to apply changes and close the Spice settings. Save the
library file.
4.2.9 Library verification

It is very important to verify library for the most common types of errors. We've
investigated the work of our library designers and added an automatic error verification to
the Component Editor.
In the Component Editor select "Library / Check "My Library" Library" from the main menu.
In this dialog box, you can see the total number of components/parts/pins in your library
and all possible errors.
The following errors can be found automatically:

1. Components without patterns – search components without patterns. Keep in mind that
some components may have only schematic symbol intentionally.
2. Similar components – search components with similar names. Notice that library
should be sorted ("Library / Sort Components in <current library>" from the main menu) to
enable correct verification.
3. Similar pin numbers – two or more pins have similar numbers (connected to the same
pad). This is probably a mistake in the component, please press the ... button and check
pin numbers for the listed component.
4. Shorted pins – pins are shorted by internal pad-to-pad connections.
5. Unconnected pins – pins do not have the corresponding pattern pads. It's not always an
error.
6. Unconnected pads – some pads of the pattern are not used (no corresponding pins). It
is not always an error.
7. Through pads without holes – verifies components for the through pads without a hole.
In the majority of cases this is a mistake in SMD pattern, please check if pads do really
have the surface type selected.
8. Undefined pins – some pins have "Undefined" electric property.
9. Pin superposition - some pins superimpose on the symbol, in the majority of cases
this is a mistake made while placing the pins.
To see details (list of components and pins) press button next to the corresponding
mistake. You can save the list of errors can as a text file.
Save changes and close the Component Editor.

4.2.10 Placing parts

Schematic
Open the Schematic module, i.e. go to "Start / All Programs / DipTrace / Schematic" in
the Windows OS or use the DipTrace Launcher if working on MacOS. Select My Library
from the User Libraries library group. Place a couple of resistors and capacitors to the
design area. Just left-click on the component on the Place Component panel and left-
click on the design area. If the origin is shown, press F1 to hide it. Usually, you don't need
the origin point for designing schematic.
Notice that you can place components using "Objects / Place Component" dialog box or
with the button on the Objects toolbar.

Notice that the colors of components, selections, etc., depend on the color template and
user preferences.
Multi-part component placement
Select multipart component (ANdNot4X). DipTrace always shows that
the current component is multi-part or a net port in the symbol
preview field on the Place Component panel (<the number of parts>
or "Net Port" text). We have created AndNot 4X with four similar parts
and a power part. You can place all parts as a single item or each
part separately, use the button. Switch to

AN(4) to place each component part one-by-one or PWR to place
only the power part. If Auto PWR/GND item is checked, component's
power part automatically appears on the design area when you place
the first logic part of the component.
Select AN(4), leave Auto PWR/GND checked, and place AndNot4X
component part by part. DipTrace automatically selects the next part
from the part group and places the power symbol for the component.
Notice that program will automatically switch to the next part when all parts had been
placed. Make sure you place parts only with RefDes from 1.1 to 1.4, like in the picture
below.
As you can see the similar parts of the multipart

component are already grouped inside the part selection
drop-down list. Deactivate "View / Group Similar Parts"
item in the main menu to ungroup parts. If this item is
checked, all logic parts of the component (AN(4) in this
case) will be grouped inside the All Parts pop-up menu.
If unchecked, you will be able to select and place each
AN part separately.
Connection via net ports

Net Ports are single-part components used to establish connection between nets without
wires. DipTrace Standard Libraries contain all the most popular net ports, but you can
also create new ones in the Component Editor. Net Port components have no patterns
attached since these elements are used only in Schematic to connect wires without visual
connections, and do not exist on the circuit board. Net ports are usually applied to Ground
or Power nets and schematics with flexible structure.
Let's practice using Net Ports. Make sure that you have two complete AndNot
components on the design area (IC1 and IC2) with two power symbols. Now we'll try
using the net ports. Select VCC and GND net port symbols from the library, and place two
of each to the schematic. Connect pins like in the picture below.
Notice that two wires connected to the same pins of the same-type net port are connected
to a single net automatically.

To rename net which connects VCC pins, right-click on the wire, and select the first item
from the submenu or right-click on the pin, and select the Net Name.
Notice that you can change part names directly in Schematic (on the Component
Properties dialog box).
Schematic allows the user to:
1) Connect pins to nets without wires (right-click on the pin, select Add to Net, then
select net, check Connect without wire, and press OK);
2) Merge nets by name (check Connect Nets by Name check box in the Net Properties
dialog box);
3) Connect pins to the net with similar name automatically (check Connect Net to Pins
by Name checkbox in the Net Properties dialog box). The last method is the fastest way
to connect VCC, GND (if you plan to hide power nets and parts), CLK, etc. More
information later 166 in this tutorial. Close the Schematic. Do not save the changes.
PCB Layout
Open DipTrace PCB Layout module, i.e., go to "Start / All Programs / DipTrace / PCB
Layout" on Windows or use the DipTrace Launcher on MacOS.
As you already know, correct component always includes at least a schematic symbol
(for Schematic) and attached pattern (for PCB Layout). Schematic works only with
symbols, while PCB Layout allows to select component libraries and place component's
patterns on the board. If you have selected component library and there are components
without attached patterns, you can not place them on the board. Notice that there is the
Patterns library group for convenience, which allows the user to place patterns as
separate entities (no schematic symbols attached).
Select User Patterns library group and My Libraries (Patterns) library. You will see that
all the patterns that we have created during the lessons of this tutorial are available here.
Now select My Library from the User Components library group. As you remember, we
did not attach patterns only to net ports, therefore we can not place them on the circuit
board in the PCB Layout. All other components work just fine because they all have
attached patterns.
Place some components of the library to the design area, excluding the VCC and GND
(select component on the Place Component panel and left-click on the design area to
place it), then return to My Library (Patterns) from the User Patterns library group and
place BGA-144/13x13 pattern, which we did not attach to any of the symbols, therefore it
is not available in the component library.
Change common marking settings to show RefDes and Name ("View / Component
Markings; in Show column check RefDes and Name; Align - Auto). For individual
customizations, right-click on the component, select Properties, select the Markings tab.
Select Bottom Side in the drop-down list on the Objects toolbar if you want to place
components on the opposite side of the board. For existing components, you can change
side with the right-click submenu. For example, the R3 resistor is on the bottom side (see
the picture below).
You can change pad properties for a separate pad or entire pattern directly in the PCB
Layout. Let's change one of the resistor pads. Hover over the pad you want to change (it
should be highlighted), right-click it, and select Pad Properties from the submenu. In the
pop-up dialog box uncheck the Use Pattern's Standard Pad Properties checkbox for
custom pad settings or press Pattern's Standard Pad Properties button to change
default pad settings for the pattern. To edit pattern pad properties, right-click on a pattern
(not a pad) and select Standard Pad Properties from the submenu.

Notice that if pattern's origin is different from the pattern's center position, the software will
show it while placing that pattern.
You can show/hide the pattern origin for all selected components: right-click one of them,
and select Pattern Origin from the submenu. Try to rotate different components and you
will see that the pattern origin is actually the center of rotation. When hovering over the
pattern you will see the coordinates of the pattern, which are actually the coordinates of
the pattern's origin.
5 Other features and tools

This part of the tutorial includes the description of important DipTrace features not
reviewed above. We consider that the reader already knows how to accomplish basic
tasks in DipTrace. Therefore, we can move on to more complex stuff.
5.1 Connecting
5.1.1 Buses and bus connectors
Now we'll learn how to use buses and connect sheets with bus connectors in the
Schematic. You can work with the circuit from the previous subsection of this tutorial or
create a new schematic with random components for practicing.
Create a bus
Select "Objects / Circuit / Place Bus" from the main menu or press button on the
Objects toolbar, then draw a bus line on the design area by defining its key points. Right-
click, and select Enter to finish bus placement. Right-click on a free space to switch to
the Default mode. Hover over some pin with the mouse, left-click it, and move the mouse
pointer to the bus, and left-click again to create a wire.
In the pop-up dialog box, you can define a name of a new net or connect a wire to one of
existing nets (which are already connected to that bus).
We did not connect the wire to the existing net. This is why we have seven separate
wires-nets (Net 0 – Net 6) not connected to each other via the bus. Fortunately, you can
change the wire-to-bus connections at any moment, just move the mouse cursor to the
wire segment connected to the bus, right-click, and select Bus Connection from the
submenu.

Other features and tools 161
In the pop-up dialog box connect Net 6 to Net 2 (select Net 2 from the list of the bus
wires). Now there is no Net 6 anymore. We have a single Net 2 connected via the bus.
Add a new sheet to the schematic, select "Edit / Add Sheet" from the main menu or
press Ctrl+Ins hotkeys. You can see the list of sheets as tabs at the bottom-left corner of
the design area. Select Sheet 2. The multi-sheet and hierarchical structure 214 is
described later in the corresponding section of this tutorial.
You can rename, move, delete, or insert new schematic sheets, right-click on the sheet in
bottom-left of the design area and select appropriate action from the submenu.
Bus connector
Press button on the Objects toolbar and place a bus connector on the Sheet 2 (it
should have "Port 0" name), then select Sheet 1, and place one more bus connector there
(it will be named "Port 1" automatically). Now connect the existing bus to the Port 1
connector: select the bus tool, left-click on the bus and draw the line to the bus connector
(blue circle in the center of the connector) and left-click it to finalize.
Notice that bus connector glows green if the bus is properly connected to it, blue circle
means that there is no connection.

Notice that two bus connectors on different sheets are still unconnected (they should
have the same name in order to be connected).
Rename Port 1, hover over it with the mouse cursor, right-click it, select the first item from
the submenu, and rename bus connector to "Port 0" (as you remember we've placed
"Port 0" on the Sheet 2). Press OK. You can see that the a has appeared around the
port's name. That means that this bus connector is connected to another bus connector.
In our case, the connector from the Sheet 1 is connected to the connector on the Sheet 2.
Notice that designer can connect more than two bus connectors by defining the same
names to all of them.
Select Sheet 2, and create a bus connected to the Port 0.

Notice that the name of the bus on this sheet is the same as on the first sheet, i.e. this is
a common bus. Now you can place random electronic components on the second sheet
(for example AD1856RZ from IC Data Acq DAC library) and connect their pins to the nets
on the first sheet via the bus.

5.1.2 Net ports

We tried using single-pin net ports before 155 in order to create VCC and GND
connections. This is the most common application of such components in real life, but
sometimes multi-pin net port is a more comfortable design solution.
Make sure there are unconnected pins on the Sheet 2. Select the Net Ports library from
the Components library group on the Place Component panel, find Bus_Port_Out 8
component, and place it on the design area.
Make connections from the component pins to the pins of the Bus Port, then position
Bus_Port_Out8 component on the Sheet 1, and connect some nets to it. Notice that net
names connected to the same pins of Bus Port 8 on Sheet 1 and Sheet 2 are the same, i.
e. all wires connected to pin 1 of the Bus_Port 8 are connected to a single net, the same
with other pins. You can connect or disconnect ports (i.e. change schematic structure) by
renaming them.
5.1.3 Connecting without wires

As you already know, DipTrace allows the user to connect pins visually (wires, buses)
and logically (without wires, by name, with net ports).
Connecting pins without wires
You can connect pins logically without wires. In this case, pins do not depend on the sheet
or part location.
Hover over an unconnected pin with the mouse, right-click it, and select Add to Net from
the submenu. In the pop-up dialog box select a net from the drop-down list, and check
Connect without Wire checkbox, then press OK. In the picture below you can see two
pins connected without wires.

Connecting pins by name

Now find a blank spot on the design area where we will try to connect pins to a net by
name. Place a single GND symbol from the Net Ports library, and create a small wire
from the GND's pin. Move the mouse a bit upwards, and press Enter, like in the picture
below, to create a wire segment. Now right-click on the wire segment connected to the
GND net port, and select Properties from the submenu.
In the Net Properties dialog box rename net to "GND," and check Connect Net to Pins
by Name checkbox. Press OK to apply changes.
DipTrace automatically connects all unconnected pins with the corresponding name to
this net.
Select IC Data Acq DAC library, and find 171 AD420AR-32 component (press
button, type "AD420AR-32" into the name field and press Apply
Filter). Place several AD420AR-32 components on the design area.
Notice that all GND pins of the placed components are automatically connected to the
GND net without wires due to active Connect Net to Pins option in the Net Properties
dialog box. This feature is the easiest way to connect pins with the same names for the
entire schematic. Usually applied to POWER, GND, CLK pins or even data buses.

Connect nets by name

DipTrace allows the user to connect nets on different sheets without net ports or buses.
Remember the name of some net that you have on the first sheet (for example, Net 3),
then go to Sheet 2, and right-click on the net you want to connect to Net 3. Then select
Properties from the submenu, type in "Net 3", check Connect Nets by Name checkbox,
and press OK.
This feature works like a regular net renaming. When you enter the net name that already
exists anywhere on the schematic, DipTrace asks if you want to connect these nets by
name.
Notice that you can not connect nets by name on different levels of hierarchy.
For hierarchy, you can create global nets. We will learn how to use them later in the
Hierarchical Schematic 214 topic of this tutorial.
5.1.4 Connection Manager in Schematic and PCB Layout

Connection Manager is another DipTrace tool which allows the user to create/edit/delete
connections in Schematic and PCB Layout. Select "Objects / Connection Manager" from
the main menu in Schematic or "Route/ Connection Manager" in the PCB Layout.

Open connection manager in Schematic. Select a

net from the drop-down list, and you'll see all pins
of the selected net. You can easily add/delete pins
to/from the net. To add new pins to the net, select
a component and its pin with the corresponding
drop-down lists, and press Add button. Notice that
only unconnected pins are available in these drop-
down menus, so if you can not find a pin that you
need, it is probably already connected to another
net. Use button to create a new net,
button to rename the current net, and to
delete it.
Press OK to apply changes and close the
Connection Manager or press Cancel to close
it and maintain the net structure unchanged.
5.2 Looking up components

DipTrace 4.X includes 170,000+ components in the standard libraries, and we
continuously expand them. Components are sorted by types. The cross-module library
management system with custom library groups and search filters allows the user to
seek through the libraries and quickly find what he needs.
Search filters
Go to "Objects / Find Component" from the main menu in the Schematic or press
button on the Place Component panel to customize the search
filters.
In the pop-up dialog box specify the search
area: all libraries, current library group or
current library, and type in the name or part
of the name of the component. DipTrace
allows for filtering components by RefDes,
Value, Pattern, Manufacturer, Datasheet or
Additional Fields. Press or buttons
next to the corresponding search filter to add
or delete the search filter respectively. Use
the drop-down list to select search
parameter.
As you can see in the picture, we search for 24LC256 memory with "U" RefDes.
Press Apply Filter. You can stop the search at any moment by pressing Stop Filter
button. As soon as the search is completed, only filtered components that correspond to
the search filters are visible on the Place Component panel. The state of the search filters
is always displayed on the Place Component panel – "Filter ON/OFF." To disable the
search filters, open the search filters dialog box, and press Cancel Filter.
You can redirect the search with the entered parameters to SnapEDA database by
pressing Search at SnapEDA button (see detailed description below).
Place component
You can find and place components with the Place Component dialog box ("Objects/
Place Component" from the main menu in Schematic). There are two sections in the pop-
up dialog box: Libraries and Components. Select library group from the drop-down list,
then select a library, and, finally, select component from the corresponding list. Press
Filter ON/OFF button to customize and apply the search filters.
"Objects / Place Component" dialog box is similar in the PCB Layout.
For example, we need a component that contains "232" in its name, but we do not
remember the other characters, letters or even a possible library. Press Filter ON/OFF
button, select Search area: All Libraries, type in "232" in the Name field of the filters
dialog box, and press Apply Filter. DipTrace has found 490 components with "232" in
their name. Components are in the list right below. Select a component, now you see its
schematic symbol, press Display Pattern to see its associated footprint.

Add more search filters to narrow the results. Press Search at SnapEDA button redirect
the search with the entered parameters to SnapEDA database.
Press Price and Availability button to check price and availability of the selected
component from a featured supplier or all the suppliers from Octopart catalog.
Press Place button and left-click on the design area to place the selected component or
check Place by Coordinates checkbox and enter exact coordinates, where you want that
component. This dialog box has all necessary tools to work with multi-part components
as well.
SnapEDA database
DipTrace features and integrated tool that allows searching SnapEDA CAD database in all
the modules. To launch the search dialog in PCB Layout go to Objects/ Search Parts at
SnapEDA. Register a free account with SnapEDA - and you are ready to go. Let's look up
an amplifier; enter LM358 in the Search line and press . Select LM358PSR
component from the results list.
Now press Place Component button to place the pattern to your design. Alternatively,
you can press Save to Library button to save it to an existing user library or create a new
one. Remember that you cannot change standard libraries, so make sure to select a user
library on the Place Component panel before saving the component.
Note that Download 3D Model button is active, which means that a 3D model for this
component is available in the database. Press it and save a .step file to your computer.
3D model is attached to the component automatically, however, it's recommended to
check its position relative to the footprint and map it, if necessary.
To select the most adequate component for the project it is also good to know if it is
currently available and its price. Press Check price and Availability button - you will be
offered to consult at Digi-Key web site or check all suppliers from Octopart catalog.
Choose the second option. In the pop-up you will see prices set by different suppliers and
also availability.
Note that Digi-Key is a featured supplier by default. You can set another one: press
Featured Supplier and Currency button, select preferred supplier and currency from
the drop-down, press OK.
5.3 Reference Designators

Now we'll work with schematic examples located in the "Documents / DipTrace /
Examples" folder. Open Schematic_2.dch file.
This project demonstrates application of various DipTrace features. However, we will
experiment with some basic principles of working with Reference Designators in the
Schematic.
This Schematic contains 23 capacitors from C1 to C24 (C19 is missing).
Optimize RefDes
While editing a principal circuit, sometimes you need to insert or delete components. Let's

add a capacitor to the schematic, select HAK222KBACRBKR component from

Capacitors Ceramic library and place it on the design area. We want "C5" RefDes for
this component, but the software automatically assigned the "C19" RefDes, because C19
was missing and C5 existed on the schematic. Change the RefDes: right-click on this
capacitor, and select the first item from the submenu, enter "C5", and press OK. The
warning message suggests to rename the component and shift the RefDes numeration,
press Yes.
The C19 capacitor is now C5 and the old C5 became C6 and so on till C18 capacitor
which is C19 now. See the design manager panel to the right to find out that C19
reference designator is not missing anymore because you have inserted C5 and C5 –
C18 RefDes indexes were shifted ( use button to sort the components in the list).
Now we have the correct array of RefDes indexes for all capacitors.
Now rename the C5 capacitor to C30, then check the list of capacitor designators on the
Design Manager (Ctrl+2 to show/hide the Design Manager, press button to sort the
components in the list) – C5 and capacitors with C25 till C29 indexes are missing. To
correct this issue, right-click on any capacitor, and select Optimize RefDes, then select
RefDes "C" – C30 becomes C24. The reason is simple – while optimizing the RefDes,
DipTrace removes all empty places in the designator index array. Therefore C6–C24
become C5–C23, and C30 becomes C24.
RefDes renumbering
What if we need to renumber Reference Designators in a very easy way that makes it
simple to navigate through the schematic? Select "Tools / RefDes Renumbering..." from
the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box do not change the First Index (starting point of
renumbering) and Page Step (if page step = 100, the designators on the second page
are R101, R102, IC101, etc.). Now specify the renumbering direction: in rows or columns,
and choose how DipTrace is going to count components while renumbering. There are
components of different sizes and shapes. If we choose Top-left in the Component
Position section of the dialog box, DipTrace renumbers components, based on the
position of the top-left corner of each component. If you choose Origin, the software
considers component's origin to determine its position.
Notice that renumbering always goes from left to right and from top to bottom of the
circuit.
Press OK to renumber all components.

If you need to renumber only the designators of components of selected type, right-click
on one of the components, and select RefDes Renumbering from the submenu. You
see a typical RefDes Renumbering dialog box, but this time you can apply renumbering
to the current RefDes.
RefDes Renumbering works the same in the PCB Layout.
Close DipTrace Schematic without saving progress and launch the PCB Layout module.
5.4 Placement and autorouting

DipTrace has advanced placement features and integrated auto-placer. This makes
placement and layout optimization much easier.
Launch the PCB Layout module, select "File/ Open", and select "C:
\Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples\Schematic_4.dch" and use the
schematic rules for this layout. You get something like in the picture below. The layout is
chaotic because components are placed just like their symbols in the schematic.
Manually arranging components would be a waste of time, this is why we recommend
using the automatic arrangement, but, first, let's place a board outline.
DXF import
We'll now import a board outline from a DXF file. Select "File/ Import / DXF" from the main
menu and open "C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples\outline.dxf" file.
In the pop-up dialog box, you can see a DXF file that will become the board outline. Select
Board Outline DXF layer, and specify Convert to: Board Outline in a drop-down list
below.

When importing component drawings or an entire layout from

the DXF format, you can Fill closed areas and cut holes using
Embedded polygons (usually DXF designs are made from the
outlines without fills). This feature works for copper and mask/
paste layers only.
If you are importing pads in signal layer, then you can check the
Pads in Signal Layers checkbox, and press button to
specify what shapes should be automatically converted into
pads and their possible dimensions.
Select Import mode: Add to add board outline to existing layout,

make sure inches are selected, and press Import button in the
upper-right corner.
The board outline appears on the design area, but components
are still messed. Select "Placement/ Placement Setup" from the
main menu:
Check Place Components Outside the Board Outline checkbox to arrange

components near the board outline. Keep other settings like in the picture above. Click OK
to apply changes and press button on the Placement toolbar or select "Placement/
Arrange Components" from the main menu.
All components are now located in one place near the board outline.
Notice that Arrange components feature is not the same as Auto-placement.
Automatic placement creates a layout with a minimum possible total length of
connections between the pads of components. Arrange Components feature simply
brings all components to one place and makes it easier to work with them.
However, in real life manual placement is widely used, because most of the time we have

certain places for certain components. DipTrace allows the user to combine automatic
and manual placement on a single circuit board.
Placement by list
Select "Placement / Placement by List" from the main menu, then in the pop-up dialog box
select component from the list (left-click it), move the mouse to the board outline, and
click inside the board outline to place the selected component there.
Component disappears from the list after placement (the list shows only those
components that are outside the board outline). Position U1, U2, U3, J1, J8, J12, RN1, and
RN2 components manually, like in the picture below. You can optimize connection lines
with F12 hotkey or uncheck the Ratlines item on the Objects tab on the Design Manager
to hide the ratlines. Close the Placement by List dialog box when done.
Custom component clearance

Default component clearance is set with X and Y spacings in the Placement Setup
dialog box. We need all other components to be at least 20 mm away from the U3
component. Therefore, we will set a custom clearance for this component. Right-click on
the U3, and select Properties from the submenu, then open the Other tab, and define:
Use: Custom and Value: 0.79 inches (approx. 20 mm). Click OK to close the dialog box
and apply custom clearance.
Now select all components which are already on the circuit board, and lock them (Ctrl+L
hotkeys).

Auto-placement
We do not have special requirements for other components. Therefore, we can place
them automatically with 5 mm spacings. Change measurement units (Shift+U keyboard
shortcut). Select "Placement / Placement Setup" from the main menu, change X Spacing
and Y Spacing to 5 mm, and set 3 mm board spacing. Make sure that Allow Pattern
Rotation checkbox is checked (sometimes it is better to turn it OFF, for example, for
single-sided boards with jumper wires). Uncheck Place Components Outside the
Board Outline and make sure Use Pattern Spacings item is checked, this allows the
program to use 20 mm (0.79 in) custom clearance of the U3 component. We do not
recommend to check Increase Placement Quality option now (you can try it later).
Press OK to apply changes, and then press button on the Placement toolbar or
select "Placement / Run Auto-placement" from the main menu. DipTrace looks for the
best location for each component. You will get something like in the picture below (notice
that Design Manager panel is hidden (Ctrl+2 hotkeys), the ratlines are also hidden).
Some connections are not optimal because we have placed large components manually.
If you auto-place the entire board, you can get better results, but usually, this is not the
option in real life.
It's clearly visible that there is no component on the board closer than 20 mm to the U3
because of the custom clearance.
Autorouting with net classes
Check via properties in the "Route / Via Styles" main menu item. One via style is enough
for this project (we'll use 1.2 mm via with 0.6 mm hole). Now we need to create a
separate net class for Power and Ground nets because traces of these nets should be a
bit wider. Select "Route / Net Classes" from the main menu. All nets belong to the Default
class. Press Add button to create a new net class, then select it from the list, and enter
its name ("POWER"). Specify: Trace Width: 0.6 mm, Clearance: 0.6 mm. Press
Clearance Details button and in the pop-up dialog box set Trace to Pad: 0.5 mm. Now
press OK. Select VCC and GND nets from the list of all nets of the project in the lower-
right corner of the dialog box (use Ctrl key for multiple selection) and add them to the
POWER net class (press button above the list).
Now select Default net class, and specify the following parameters: Trace Width: 0.4 mm
, Clearance: 0.4 mm, Trace to Pad: 0.3 mm. Use all via styles for both net classes (as
you remember, we have only one via style). Press OK to close the Net Classes dialog
box. Make sure that Shape Router is active ("Router / Current Autorouter / Shape
Router"), then go to the Autorouter Setup dialog box, and in the Settings tab uncheck
Use Priority Layer Directions.
Now press Ctrl+F9 or the on the Route toolbar to launch the autorouter. In a few
seconds you will get the results. Change layer colors if you want.

A detailed description of the autorouter settings is available in the PCB Layout Help
("Help / PCB Layout Help" from the main menu). If you still have some unrouted nets,
Undo, change trace width/clearance, placement or other settings, then launch autorouter
again. However, if you follow the beforementioned instructions you should not get any
problems.
5.5 Layer stack

DipTrace allows for comprehensive control over the stack of conducting and insulating
PCB layers in the Layer Stackup dialog box and generates a stack table that clearly
documents the PCB stack for manufacturing engineers.
Launch DipTrace PCB Layout module and open the PCB_6.dip file from the "Documents/
DipTrace/Examples" folder. It is a 4-layer circuit board. Select "Route / Layer Setup" from
the main menu or press button on the Layers tab, then press the Layer Stackup
button in the Layers dialog box.
In the Layer Stackup dialog box, you can see the table which represents a printed circuit
board's cross-section. In our case, DipTrace has automatically selected the 4 Layers
Default Stackup in the Template drop-down list because this design has two signal
layers.
There are many variations of PCB stacks on the market, but default stackups available in
the software are usually the most common and thus the cheapest ones. However, you
can create any stack. As you can see from the list, this 4-layer stackup is based on a
single FR-4 core and additional prepregs to separate copper layers. For this tutorial, we
will create a 4-layer stack based on two FR-4 core layers and capable of conducting large
currents (like in the picture below). This stackup is a bit rare because of certain hole-
plating difficulties, but it is a good example.
First of all, let's change the copper thickness to 2 Oz to conduct large currents. Usually, it
is the thickest copper that does not skyrocket the manufacturing price and is available at
most PCB houses in stock. Left-click on the layer #1 Top in the list, and select Copper
2Oz material from the Material drop-down list, then do the same for all conducting layers.
Because the copper layers become thicker, the overall board thickness of the circuit

board is recalculated automatically.
Notice that you can use Shift + U hotkeys to change the measurement units on the go. All
values are instantly recalculated.
Now left-click on the Prepreg layer right below the layer #1 Top, and change its material to
FR-4 substrate, then select another dielectric Prepreg 2113 layer, and move it down the
stack (press the Move Down button). Now left-click on the FR-4 layer below the layer #2
Gnd, and move it down. The final steps are deleting one of the prepregs left, and moving
the other prepreg up the list because we want to have double-layered 2113 prepregs
separating the copper layers (like in the picture).
The final stage is documenting the layer stackup in the Gerber file for a PCB house.
Press Place Table. In the pop-up dialog box, select a non-signal layer for placing the
layer stackup table (Top Assembly layer is the best choice); you can change fonts,
measurement units and preview the total dimensions of the Layer Stackup table.
Press Place, and left-click on the design area to place a Layer Stackup table on that spot.
The thickness of the layers in the stack influences the via height and is taken into account
by phase tune 204 and trace length measuring 190 tools. Hence, the software can ask if you
want to consider the stackup of layers for trace length calculation (if it is not considered
yet).

Notice that the table is automatically updated. You can use Shift + U hotkeys to change
measurement units on the go. All values are instantly recalculated.
The color of the table depends on the color of the PCB layer. Now the manufacturing
engineer can understand which layer stackup you prefer. However, it is better to consult
your PCB house before making changes to the layer stack.
Don't save any changes in the PCB_6.dip file.
Add new materials to the stackup
If you can not find the material you need in the

list of available materials in the Layer
Stackup dialog box, press the Edit Materials
button. The Layer Materials dialog box pops
up, here you can add new and change
properties of existing materials (Type,
Thickness, and Dielectric Constant). All
materials are divided into three basic types:
Conductor, Plane, and Dielectric. Use the
corresponding buttons to add/delete /edit
materials.
Check Variable Thickness box to allow for changing the layer thickness directly in the
Layer Stackup dialog box.
5.6 High-speed nets and differential signals

5.6.1 Length matching
One of the core challenges with routing high-speed nets is controlling that certain critical
signals arrive at correct time. To achieve signal synchronization, the copper tracks needs
to be roughly the same length.
DipTrace has an elegant solution for matching trace lengths that helps when routing high-
speed data buses or any critical signals that require precise timing.
We will use one of the standard DipTrace PCB examples for practice. Launch DipTrace
PCB layout, and open the "BGA_Autorouter.dip" file from the "Documents/DipTrace/
Examples" folder.
If you're routing a high-speed bus, we recommend creating a separate net class for the
bus. This will automatically create a DRC length matching rule. However, you can also
select several nets and generate the length matching rule for the DRC without creating a
net class.
Length matching a bus
First of all, we need to create a separate net class that hosts all the nets that we need to
length match (Net 306 - Net 310). In this case, we have the "Memory" net class with
several nets connecting the U6 FPGA with the U14 memory module. When all traces are
added to the net class, check the Length Matching by Class check box to create a new
length matching rule verified by the DRC.
You can compare traces against the Fixed Length parameter or against each other with
required Tolerance. Don't change the default tolerance value and let's say we need
approximately 30-mm traces. Enter "30" in the Fixed Length field (the tolerance value

automatically changes to 1.27 mm to display the range of 2.57 mm over and under the
fixed length). Press OK to create the net class and the rule. Now go to "High Speed /
Length Matching" from the main menu.
Select "High Speed / Length Matching" from the main menu or right-click on the track, and
select Length Matching, then Open Length Matching from the submenu. In the pop-up
dialog box, select Memory (actual name of the net class) in the Rule drop-down list. All
nets of the memory data bus, which we assigned to the Memory net class, appear right
below. Some of the nets are highlighted in red to show the length tolerance violation. Left-
click a net in the list to show it on the design area or hover over a net to highlight it. In our
case, there are four nets that should be edited to comply with the rule.
The most efficient way to make traces longer is drawing meanders.

Add Meanders
Select "High Speed / Add Meander" from the main menu or press on the High Speed
toolbar. Now hover over the trace, and drag and drop to draw a meander. Meanders are
created one at a time. Move the mouse cursor to the right and create more meanders.
The software helps to create meanders of the same size. Drag and drop meanders' lower
vertices while holding the left mouse button to get something like in the picture below.
You can notice that the length of the trace is recalculated in real time. Once the trace
length is around 30 mm ± 1.27 mm, the net is not highlighted in red anymore.
DipTrace can consider via height (derived from the layer stackup) 185 and pad signal delay
195 when calculating the trace length. Press the corresponding button in the Length
Matching dialog box, and check Enable Layer Stackup and Enable Pad Delay check
boxes. Since there are traces crossing between layers, some of them might fall outside
the length matching tolerance and will require more or bigger meanders.
Edit Meanders
To push meanders along the trace segment, press the button (if not in the Add
Meander mode already), left-click on the trace segment opposite the preferred direction,
and drag and drop meanders.
Notice that you can also move meanders along the traces and change meander's
amplitude in the regular Edit Traces mode ( button).

By default, the gap between each meander is defined by the net class clearance. To set

custom meander gap, right-click on the trace, and select Meander Gap from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box, check Value, enter a new gap (for example 0.3 mm),
and press OK.
Notice that it's better to avoid any sharp angles when routing traces of high-speed nets.
Fix all other errors by adding meanders and editing other traces.
Length matching nets
You don't have to create a new net class to length match some nets, just right-click on a
trace segment or net in the list of nets on the Design Manager panel, and select "Length
Matching / Add Selected Nets" to launch the Length Matching dialog box. You can also
select several segments of different nets, and select "Length Matching / Compare
Selected Nets Only" from the net submenu. In the Length Matching dialog box, you can
compare nets against each other or against a fixed length.
You have to create a new rule (press Create New Rule, and enter a name in the pop-up
dialog); otherwise, the DRC does not verify the length matching constraints.
Press OK to create a rule.

You can also add new nets to the comparison with Add Net/Pads button.
If you work with nets that have more than two pads and you want to length match only
certain track of the net (trace between two pads), select the corresponding pads from the
drop-downs after selecting the net in the Add Nets/ Pads dialog-box.
5.6.2 Signal delay

Bond wires are the wires inside electronic component's package that connect pads to the
die. These wires introduce a signal delay, which should be accounted for in high-speed
designs. Manufacturers report this in-device pad signal delay in the datasheets in
picosecond time or as a length.
Pad signal delay value is considered for phase tuning and trace length matching and is
added to the total length of the traces. We recommend setting up signal delays when
designing a component in DipTrace Component Editor, but you can also set delays in the
Schematic and directly in the PCB Layout.
To set pad signal delay in the PCB Layout, right-click on the component and select Pad
Signal Delay from the submenu or right-click on the pad and select Signal Delay. Select
the pad from the list (if not selected already), and enter a signal delay in mm, mils, or
inches right below (use Shift + U hotkeys to change the measurement units on the go).
Select if you want to apply signal delay parameter only to the selected component or to all
components with the same name on the circuit board. Press OK to apply changes. If
DipTrace is not using Pad Signal Delay value for trace length and phase calculation, it
drops a warning message that suggests you apply pad signal delay values to trace length
calculation, press Yes in the Warning dialog box.
You can turn ON/OFF the considering of pad signal delay for trace length calculation, just
go to "High Speed / Length Matching" from the main menu, press button at the top of
the pop-up Length Matching dialog box and check/uncheck Enable Pad Delay item.
5.6.3 Create a differential pair
Differential pair signaling is a method of transmitting high-frequency signals using two

tightly coupled tracks on the circuit board. One track carries the signal and the other one
carries an equal but opposite image of the same signal. Differential pairs are EMI immune,
they generate less noise than single-track connections and, basically, are the only
acceptable way of transmitting information at high speed.
Open DipTrace Schematic, and go to "Objects / Net Classes" from the main menu. In
DipTrace, all differential pair parameters are governed by net classes, and the program
does not allow the user to create differential pairs outside of them. We need to create a
new special-type net class for differential pairs. Press Add button in the Net Classes
dialog box, then type in the name of the net class (for example, "Diff_Class_1"), and
change Type to Differential Pair. Now you can enter specific differential pair routing
parameters.
Enter the trace width for tracks of the pair, the primary gap between the tracks, and
clearance to other objects on the PCB (for example, 0.009 inch, like in the picture above).
You can leave default values in other fields. Notice that the net class is empty (because
the design is empty itself).
Press OK to close the Net Classes dialog box and apply changes.
Now we need to populate our schematic with components for practicing with differential
pairs. We have Atmel ATSAM4LC8BA-UUR (IC MCU Atmel ARM library) flash memory
module and EPM7128AETC100-7 (IC Embedded CPLD library) chip on the design area,

but differential pair declaration can be assigned to any nets between any components. So,
you can use any components of your choice. Create two nets which will eventually
become a differential pair. For example, we have Net 0 connecting the D1 pin of the flash
memory to pin#13 of the CPLD-component and Net 1 – connecting C3 to pin#14.
Now press button or select "Objects / High Speed / Define Differential Pair" from the
main menu. In the pop-up dialog box, specify the positive and negative net of the
differential pair. For example, we select Net 0 in the Positive Net drop-down and Net 1 in
the Negative Net drop-down. You can also pinpoint nets directly on the design area by
pressing or buttons and left clicking on the nets or their pins.
Since we have only one differential pair net class, the program automatically assigned
Diff_Class_1 to this differential pair. Net class properties are right below. Press Edit Net
Classes if you want to open the Net Classes dialog box and change differential pair
properties.
Press OK. Net 0 and Net 1 are a differential pair, these nets are renamed to DiffPair_P
and DiffPair_N respectively and marked with special symbols on the design area. You can
hover over one net with the mouse and the other net of the pair highlights. You can display
net names on the design area if you right-click on each net, and select Display Name
from the submenu.
Now let's switch this design to the PCB Layout stage and practice more in customizing,
routing, and verifying differential pairs. Proceed to the next topic of the tutorial.

5.6.4 Differential pair routing/editing
Notice that built-in DipTrace autorouter does not support differential pairs. We
recommend routing these nets manually or with external autorouters.
Select "File / Convert to PCB" from the main menu in the DipTrace Schematic, and
proceed with the schematic rules. In the PCB Layout, move components closer together.
You can see that differential pair is also marked with a special symbol, like in the
schematic. You can see that ratlines are twisted, it's possible to route the differential pair
like that, but it would be much easier to rotate the U2 pattern to eliminate the twist. Select
the component, and press R hotkey two times to rotate the component 180 degrees. Now
we're almost ready to start the routing, but, first, we need to go to the Net Classes dialog
box to check if we have acceptable routing parameters. Select "Route / Net Classes" from
the main menu, then select Diff_Class_1 net class.
Differential pair routing parameters. DipTrace allows the user to specify various
differential pair routing parameters. DRC takes these values as routing constraints when
verifying the PCB. You can specify the maximum uncoupled length for two traces of the
differential pair, length tolerance between the traces, dynamic phase tolerance (length
difference between corresponding segments of each track), and phase error length which
means that DRC will report any phase shift as an error only if it occurs on the track
segment longer than the Error Length value. Let's change the Dynamic Phase
Tolerance to 0.04 and Dynamic Phase Error Length to 0.3 inch. Leave default values
in other fields.
Since we have some small-pitch BGA footprints on the board, we can estimate that our
differential pair with 0.009 inch wide tracks, gap and clearance is too big to be routed.
DipTrace allows the user to define neck parameters which can be easily applied to
differential pairs while routing in tight spaces. Press Neck Parameters button.
In the small pop-up dialog enter 0.004 inch width and gap, and 0.1 inch as the maximum
neck length. This means that necked segment longer than 0.1 inch will be reported as an
error by the DRC. Press OK to apply neck parameters, and then press OK to close the
Net Classes dialog box.
Let's create one more differential pair directly in the PCB Layout. First, we need to
create a couple more nets with Place Ratline tool . For example, like in the picture
below.
Then press Define Differential pair button ( on the High Speed toolbar). Define
Differential Pair dialog box shows up (this dialog is the same as in the Schematic
module), pinpoint the positive and negative nets, change color for convenience (red in our
case,) and apply the same Diff_Class_1 net class to this differential pair. Press OK and
the second differential pair with custom color appears on the design area.
Now press button on the Route toolbar, or go to "Route / Manual Routing / Add
Trace" from the main menu, and left-click on any pad of the differential pair two tracks
starts to appear simultaneously. Routing a differential pair is very similar to routing a
single net 47 . Ratlines show the direction where to lead the traces. Continue from the U1
component to the U2, and left-click on the corresponding U2 component's pad. The
second trace of the pair will be automatically connected to another pad. You can change
the routing layer, route mode, current trace segment, and other routing parameters on the
Routing panel, with the corresponding hotkeys (noted in the brackets on the Routing
panel) or with the right-click submenu on the go.
If you want to change an active trace of the pair that you route, select Change Control
Trace from the right-click submenu while routing.

Single-track routing
In real life, you will often face more complex layout situations. Press button on the
Route toolbar, or go to "Route /Manual Routing / Add Trace" from the main menu. On the
Routing panel you can customize the set of the segments that will be used during
routing. Select My Routing Mode and press button; in the menu tick 90 > 45, 45 >
90 and free line segments, press OK. Now click on the Current Segment image and
select Free Line (press S hotkey two times). Start routing the first differential pair from
U2 to U1. You will notice that BGA pitch is very small and now is the time to apply the
trace necking defined earlier in the Net Class properties. When approaching the U1, left-
click to place the trace segments, and then right-click, and select Neck-down Segment
from the submenu to reduce the width of both tracks and the gap between the traces
according to the neck parameters. Left-click again closer to the U1 component to create a
small narrow segment (orange traces are routed). Now the tracks are small enough to fit
the BGA's pitch, but you still can't finish routing the pair automatically. Hover over the
terminal pad to see that the traces offered by the program are unacceptable.
Routing each trace of the differential pair will allow you to succeed in this situation. Right-
click, select Route Single Trace from the submenu or press Z hotkey, then change
current segment to regular lines with a 45-degree angle on the Routing panel (or just
press S hotkey), then left-click on the terminal pad of the trace. DipTrace will switch to the
second trace of the pair for routing. Left-click on the second pad to complete the
differential pair.

If you want to change the trace of the pair that you are routing, select Change Control
Trace from the right-click submenu.
Controlling the trace length
Controlling the total length of each trace is very important for successful high-speed
routing. Right-click on any trace of the differential pair, and select Show Trace Length
from the submenu, the total length of each track of the differential pair will appear right
next to the pads of the differential pair in the current measurement units. To hide the trace
length, select the same item from the same right-click submenu again. In our case, the
trace length is hidden to keep design more empty and easy-to-understand.
Edit differential pairs
Right-click on the differential pair, and select a required action from the submenu. You can
unroute tracks or separate segments, change the color of the differential pair, the layer of
the traces or segments, delete differential pair declaration from the nets, remove necking,
and much more. There are two distinct editing modes applied to differential pairs: regular
editing and single track editing. Each one can be in a regular or free style. For example,
press button on the Route toolbar, then drag and drop differential pair's traces to
another location. Notice that two tracks move respecting the differential pair gap. You can
also use the Free edit tool ( button) in some situations.

The other mode is similar to single-track routing because it allows the designer to edit
each trace of the differential pair separately from the other. Press button on the High
Speed toolbar, and move one track of the pair further away.
Single-track free edit mode ( button on the High Speed toolbar) behaves in a
similar way to the regular Free edit mode, but applies only to one trace of the pair. You
can practice more with differential pairs and change the layer of the trace segment. Right-
click on the longest differential pair's segment, and select "Segment Layer / Bottom". Two
traces will move to the bottom layer. Vias will appear automatically.
Please undo the last changes to return the blue differential pair to its initial state.
5.6.5 Phase tuning a differential pair
We have Real-time DRC OFF, this is why we do not see any errors on the design area.
Turn it ON, and launch the DRC 74 in the regular mode to see the error-report dialog box.
DRC checks all clearances and sizes against the target values defined in the
"Verification / Design Rules" main menu item. DRC also takes differential pair properties
from the Net Classes dialog box as design constraints. In our case, we have three errors
related to the differential pair. When you click on the error in the list, you see the
description of each violation, including the current and the target values. Rule Details
section right below the list shows where the target values are defined.

Move the DRC Error-report dialog box a bit, so that it does not obstruct the view over the
design area, and start fixing the errors. First of all, let's make the necked differential pair
segment a bit shorter, as we can see only 0.1 inch is allowed by the necking constraint in
the differential pair net class. Press the Edit Traces button on the Route toolbar,
then hover over the place where traces become narrow, the mouse cursor should appear
as a left-right arrow parallel to the traces. Now drag and drop the wide trace segments
closer to the terminal pads to make the necked traces shorter, like in the picture below.
You can apply single-trace editing tool ( button on the High Speed toolbar), if you can't
succeed without an error while moving two traces simultaneously.
The second error reports that we have phase tolerance violation and it happened on the
trace segment that is longer than Dynamic Phase Error Length value in the Net Class
parameters. We need to make the shorter trace a bit longer to fix the phase shift. We'll fix
the error with Phase Tune tool. Press button on the High Speed toolbar or go to
"High Speed /Differential Pair Tools / Phase Tune" from the main menu. In the pop-up
dialog box, you can check which track needs phase tuning. Hover over the bottom track of
the differential pair with the mouse cursor and notice that Forward Point Phase Lead
value is highlighted in red and the software suggests to add or increase the meander at
the opposite trace.

Now hover over the opposite trace. We see that the signal in the upper trace is a bit faster
than in the lower one. Left-click on the upper trace, and move the mouse cursor up while
holding the left mouse button to create a meander. Release the mouse button when the
meander is ready. Because there is a backward point phase lead on this trace, you need
to have a meander closer to the U1 component, but not too close to avoid very sharp
turns that are bad for the signal. Don't make a meanders too big. They have to be just
enough to fix the phase shift and not to cause any "uncoupled length" errors.
Press Run DRC to check the design again and make sure that all errors are fixed.
If you hover over a trace segment with the mouse and find out that some phase lead
violation is still shown in Phase Tune for Differential Pairs dialog, but DipTrace does not
report it as an error upon running DRC, it means the segment is shorter than Dynamic
Phase Error Length value set in the Net Class parameters. So, you still have a phase
shift, but it occurs on a relatively short trace segment well within the tolerance limits.
You can edit meander size anytime later, just press button on the Route toolbar, and
drag and drop the meander's tip.
Notice that DipTrace can calculate a phase shift considering layer stackup 185 (via height)
and the length of bonding wires inside a component (determined by the Signal Delay 195 ).
By default, DipTrace does not consider these values. If you want to consider them, press
button in the Phase Tune for Differential Pairs dialog box, and check the
corresponding items in the pop-up dialog box. However, this is not important in our case,
because there are no differential pairs crossing the layers in our design.
5.6.6 Differential Pair Manager

If you have a complex design with lots of differential pairs, it becomes hard to manage
them directly on the design area. DipTrace has Differential Pair Manager which allows for
easy managing/editing/deleting differential pairs. Select "High Speed / Differential Pair
Manager" from the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box, set specific net class in the Net
Class drop-down to display only the pairs of the net class, or select All Classes to show
all pairs of the design in the list right below. However, this does not make any difference in
our case, because we have only two differential pairs of the same net class.

Press Add to open Define Differential Pair dialog box and create a new differential pair,
or select existing one from the list and modify its name, color, nets, net class, etc. Right
below you can see the Class Properties and Pair values if this differential pair is routed.
Red-highlighted value is the violation. In our case Phase shift on selected differential pair
is bigger than the tolerance, but it is not considered an error unless there is a Phase Error
Length violation.
5.6.7 Define paired pads

On rare occasions for the circuit boards with lots of various differential pair pads located
very close to each other, DipTrace might not be able to draw two traces and finish routing
the pair. In this case, you will get a warning message that offers to use Define Paired
Pads feature.
Here is a typical situation. We have R6 and R10 pads that belong to the negative net and
R11, R7 pads of the positive net of the differential pair. It is possible that the software in
such case can terminate the second trace on the R7 pad (not on the R11), or either drop
the warning message.
To fix this issue, you need to group the pads. Go to "High Speed / Define Paired Pads"
from the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box use the Differential Pair drop-down list to
select the pair. You can press Update button to let the program find pads automatically,
or check Manually checkbox and define the pair of pads using the lists right below.
We have one pair of pads on the side of the J2 connector (J1:2 and J1:3). Select R10:1
from the Positive Net list and R11:1 from the Negative Net list, because we want the
differential pair to terminate on these pads. Then press the left arrow button to add
selected pads to the Paired Pads list, and press OK to apply changes.
Now route the differential pair. Everything works fine because the software clearly knows,

where you want to connect the differential pair nets. Finally, draw two traces from the R6
and R7 pads to their respective nets.
5.7 Renew layout by schematic

Sometimes electronic designer needs to make important changes to the circuit board, for
example, add new net or component. We always recommend to start implementing those
changes in the Schematic, but they do not automatically appear in the PCB Layout, you
need to launch Renew Design from Schematic to automatically update existing circuit
board according to the schematic.
If you made changes in the Schematic and want to bring them to PCB Layout, select
"File / Renew Design from Schematic" from the main menu in DipTrace PCB Layout,
then select one of available renewing modes:
1) By components means using the hidden IDs to determine component-to-pattern links
– this mode works only if the circuit was created in DipTrace Schematic. Renewing by
components doesn't depend on Reference Designators, therefore, they can differ in the
schematic and on the PCB.
2) By RefDes means that component-to-pattern links are determined only by Reference
Designators. Components must have the same reference designators on the circuit
board and in the schematic.
3) Related Schematic means renewing by components from a related schematic file (go
to "File / Layout Information" from the main menu if you don't remember the source-
schematic file).
Now select the schematic file, and press Open. DipTrace will keep component
placement and current routing on the circuit board. New components appear near the
board outline ready for placement.
5.8 Back annotate

Back Annotation allows the user to update schematic according to the PCB file. This
feature is useful when you've made changes directly on the circuit board and want to keep
the layout and schematic synchronized. Use it with caution, because the Back Annotation,
unlike the Renewing from Schematic 211 , has certain limitations.
Launch DipTrace PCB Layout module, then open "PCB_2.dip" file from the "Examples"
folder. Use Design Manager to find C8 and C10 capacitors. Right-click on the
components in the list, and select the first item from the submenu to change the
reference designators of C8 and C10 capacitors to C28 and C30. Select "File / Save As"
and save this PCB as another file, for example, "PCB_2_ver1".
Close the PCB Layout and open Schematic Capture again (notice that you can open it
directly from the PCB Layout by selecting "Tools / Schematic" from the main menu.
Open "Schematic_2.dch" file and find C8 and C10 components. You can use the Design
Manager or press Ctrl+F, then type in "C8", and press Enter to find the component. C8
capacitor appears highlighted in the center of the screen.

Notice that you can minimize the Find Object dialog box by clicking the arrow in its
upper-left corner and use this dialog while editing the circuit.
Zoom on the design area to see C8 and C10 components better. PCB_2 is the circuit
board related to Schematic_2, but as you remember we have renamed C8 and C10
capacitors directly on the board. Of course, we can rename that components manually in
the schematic or use the Back Annotate feature.
Go to "File / Back Annotate" from the main menu, and select the PCB file where we saved
modified copy of the PCB_2 board ("PCB_2_ver1" in our case), then press Open. Now
you can see that all designators in the Schematic (in our case C28 and C30) are changed
according to the PCB.
Notice that net names and net classes are also back annotated from the PCB, but this
feature has limitation and is not capable of adding new nets or components.
5.9 Hierarchical schematic

We will design a very simple two-level hierarchical schematic just to show you how this
feature works in Schematic and PCB Layout modules of the DipTrace.
Hierarchy blocks
Launch DipTrace Schematic. Hierarchy blocks are associated with sheets, so, first of all,
we have to add two sheets to the blank schematic, select "Edit / Add Sheet" from the
main menu twice. Then specify that additional sheets are hierarchical blocks, not just
regular schematic sheets, select the second sheet in the bottom-left corner of the design
area, and go to "Edit / Sheet Type / Hierarchy Block" from the main menu. Do the same
for the third sheet.
Select main (the first) sheet, and place several components there (for example, three
MAX6050AEUR-T components from the IC PMIC Voltage References library). This will be
the main circuit. It doesn't have any hierarchy blocks yet.
Select the second sheet, then go to "Object / Hierarchy / Place Connector" from the main
menu or press button on the Objects toolbar, and place several hierarchy
connectors to the second sheet (notice that you can not place hierarchy connectors to
non-hierarchical sheets).
These connectors are the inputs and outputs of the hierarchy block, position and rotation
of the connectors is the location of the hierarchy block pins on the main sheet.
Place eight connectors, four on the left side and four on the right. Add two diodes from
the Diodes RF library, connect them to the connectors, leave some free space for the
upcoming hierarchy block of the second level. Use R hotkey to rotate hierarchy
connectors.

Select Sheet 3, and create the second hierarchy block here. Place several hierarchy
connectors (two on the sides and two at the bottom), add couple components (for
example, two AD1856RZ components from IC Data Acq DAC library), and connect
them.
Notice that you can rename hierarchy connectors in the right-click submenu (select the
first item from the drop-down menu). Connector name will be the name of the block's pin
on the main circuit.
DipTrace supports multi-level hierarchy, i.e. hierarchy blocks can be inserted into the
main circuit and into each other as many times as needed.
Select Sheet 2, then go to "Objects / Hierarchy / Place Block" or press button on the
Objects toolbar. In the pop-up dialog box containing the list of available hierarchy blocks,
select Sheet 3, and place two blocks (Sheet 3) into the second sheet (Sheet 2). Use R to
rotate blocks.
Notice that you can place Sheet 2 inside itself or make a closed loop of hierarchy blocks,
but it is an error. To avoid this situation, use "Verification / Check Hierarchy" from the main
menu. DipTrace PCB Layout also checks hierarchy for closed loops and displays the
warning message when you open schematic with hierarchical errors.
We are not making any closed loops right now, just place two Sheet 3 blocks into the
Sheet 2, and connect them to connectors like in the picture below.

You can rename hierarchy blocks just like regular sheets, right-click on the corresponding
sheet tab in the bottom-left of the design area, and select Rename from the submenu.
Select the main sheet, and place hierarchy blocks to the main circuit (for example, add
two Sheet 2 blocks and one Sheet 3, like in the picture below). Connect hierarchy blocks
with other components of a schematic.
Notice that hierarchy blocks are similar to regular components, they have pins and you
can rotate or move them around the design area.
This circuit is not a real-life project, it's just a demo example for this tutorial.
Global nets
As you already know 166 , pins on different levels of hierarchy can not be connected with a
single net, unless it is a special-type net called "global". Global nets exist on different
levels of hierarchy and do not depend on the hierarchical structure of the schematic.
Return to Sheet 3, and place a ground (GND) net port from the Net Ports library, then
connect it to DGND pins of U4 and U5 components. Notice that the net has automatically
become global.

Select Sheet 1 (the main circuit), and place GND net port there, then connect it (create a
wire from the net port to some free GND pin). You'll notice that this net now becomes Net
30 (Global). We have a single global net on two hierarchical levels. We can continue this
net into Sheet 1 etc. Rename net to "GND".
Notice that the same net ports anywhere on the circuit are automatically connected to a
single net (Global – if in the hierarchy).
You already know how to connect nets by name 166 , creating global nets does not differ
much. Right-click on a random net, and select Properties from the submenu. In the pop-
up dialog box check Global Net for Hierarchy, and Connect Nets by Name
checkboxes. Type in the name of the global net that already exists, and press OK.
Hierarchy in the PCB Layout
Convert this hierarchical schematic to PCB. Press Ctrl+B, and select Use Schematic
Rules. In the PCB Layout module components that were in the hierarchy blocks are
superimposing each other, arrange 177 them with button on the Placement toolbar).
Notice that all components have the same reference designators as in the Schematic +
the hierarchical block index.
Go to "View / Component Markings and mark RefDes in the Show column to display the
reference designators if they are hidden.
Right-click on one of the components that belongs to a hierarchy block, and select
Properties from the submenu. Notice that component involved in the hierarchy has an
additional field with each hierarchy block RefDes and component RefDes (path). This
additional field is used while updating the PCB by RefDes ("File / Renew Design from
Schematic" from the main menu).
DipTrace works with hierarchy circuits in the PCB Layout module. You can automatically
arrange components by hierarchy blocks and apply routing and component
placement from one block to another similar block. On the printed circuit board all
components, regardless of their hierarchy level, are on the same layer.
Select "Route / Hierarchy" from the main menu. There are two hierarchical sheets
available (the same as in the Schematic). Select Sheet 2, and you will see two actual
hierarchy blocks (because Sheet 2 was inserted two times into the main circuit in the

Schematic). Select Sheet 3 and you will see five blocks inside it (because Sheet 3 was
inserted two times into each Sheet 2 hierarchy block, and inserted once directly into the
main circuit in the Schematic). Notice that the name of the block of higher hierarchical
level is listed in the brackets. When you select a hierarchical block from the list, you can
see components and nets that belong to this block on the right in the Block Content
field.
None of the blocks is routed so far.

First of all, we need to arrange components by blocks on the circuit board, select
hierarchy block in the list and DipTrace highlights its components on the design area.
Press Select Block button to arrange components by selected hierarchy blocks.

We will arrange components of the two hierarchy blocks on the board, select Block3 and
Block4 from the Sheet 2 (use Ctrl to select two blocks at a time), press Select Blocks
button, and then press OK to close the dialog box and apply arrangement. Now the two
blocks of components are clearly visible on the design area. We will work with Block 3,
which is right below the Block 4.
Change the layout of components in the Block 3 and route traces automatically, do not
route global nets. Since GND is a global net, we need to exclude the GND net from the
autorouting. Right-click on GND net in the list on the Design Manager panel, select Net
Properties from the submenu, and in the pop-up dialog box specify Auto-route Mode:
Don't Route. Press OK to apply.
Notice that global nets should be routed only after finishing routing and arranging
components in the hierarchy blocks.
Now let's route the traces, right-click on component pad, and select Route Net from the
submenu or right-click on the component, and select Route Traces to route all nets of
this component. The autorouter automatically creates a rectangular board outline. Edit
traces manually, if you need.
Notice that we didn't autoroute the entire board: only the traces inside the Block 3, some
connections to Block 4, traces to components from the main schematic sheet.

Copy placement and routing between hierarchical blocks

Go to "Route / Hierarchy" from the main menu, select Sheet 2 again. This time, Block 3 is
routed. Select Block 3 from the Routed list, and Block 4 from the Non Routed list, then
press Copy Placement and Routing button to apply Block 3 placement and routing to
the Block 4.
If you have routed many traces from Block 3 to Block 4, the Block 4 can appear in the
Routed list in the hierarchy dialog box. Just select it, and press Unroute, then apply
routing and placement.
Let's also apply placement and routing to Block 5 without closing the Hierarchy dialog
box. Select Block 5 on the Sheet 3, and then select one of the routed blocks, then press
Copy Placement and Routing button again. Now press OK to apply routing.
Routed blocks are next to the board outline, use box selection to move them on the design
area.
Notice that DipTrace did not copy traces heading outside selected hierarchical block.
5.10 SPICE simulation

DipTrace does not have a built-in simulator, but the program allows the user to define
SPICE settings and export SPICE netlist to any third-party simulation software. We will try
to simulate astable flip-flop schematic 5 using LT Spice simulation software, which is
free and of a good quality. However, if you have another program that you use for
simulation, you're good to go.
Edit SPICE settings
Launch DipTrace Schematic, and open "C:\
Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples\Spice\Astable_Flip_Flop_Spice.
dch" file. We have already defined all SPICE settings for this circuit. However, let's review
a couple of the components just to learn how to work with the SPICE simulation. Right-
click on the C2 capacitor, and select Spice Settings from the submenu. Spice settings
for capacitors are pretty simple: select Model Type: Capacitor, enter values into the
parameters table (in our case "22µF "), and specify positive and negative pins (enter
values into the pin-to-signal table on the left side of the dialog box, the list of available
signals is right below). Notice that you can enter parameters directly into the table cells.
The Template field shows how this component is represented in the SPICE netlist. You
can scroll that field to the right if it is long. Make sure that settings are like in the picture
below.

Select another model type, for example, a Current Source. The user can specify a
function for this model type. Use the Function drop-down list and select PWL(). In the
pop-up dialog box enter the number of points for PWL function, and click OK. Now you
can enter the values for each point in the Parameters table. Different functions require
different parameters (amplitude, phase, etc.). See detailed description in the SPICE
language documentation.
Now return to the Capacitor model type, and discard any changes, or simply close the
dialog box.
SPICE model
Capacitors do not require additional model description, but transistors do. Right-click on
the Q1 transistor, and select Spice settings from the submenu. In the pop-up dialog box,
you can see that there is the Model tab near the Parameters tab, select it. Now you can
enter the model text or load the SPICE model from an external file (Load and Save
buttons). Some component manufacturers publish SPICE models for their components
on the web.
Notice that you can get all SPICE settings from another DipTrace library (use Get Spice
Model from Library button). Click OK or Cancel to close this dialog box (discard any
changes).
There is no valid SPICE model for the power source (battery) in the
Astable_Flip_Flop_Spice.dch file, we should define it. Right-click on the B1 component,
and select Spice Settings from the submenu. You can see that component has the
Voltage Source model type, but no valid function. Set Function: PULSE(), then specify
the following parameters in the table below: Pulse V2=5, Pulse PW=20s, Pulse
PER=30s. Keep other parameters, and press OK. Now we have the voltage source that
produces 5V during the first 20 seconds, then there is a 10-second interval. Now
everything is ready for simulation.
Export SPICE netlist
Select "File / Export / Spice Netlist" from the main menu. In the
small pop-up dialog box select GND from the GND Net drop-
down list. Specify Commands: .TRAN 0s 30s 0.1s to simulate
the circuit from 0s to 30s with 0.1s step. Notice that you can
define/change commands directly in the simulation software.
Click OK and save the *.cir netlist file. Launch the SPICE
simulator that you have. We will use LT Spice as an example
(download it at Linear Technologies website).
Select "File / Open" and open the *.cir netlist that you just saved (notice that you should
select correct Files of Type). Now you can see the netlist in the text format. Select
"Simulate / Run" from the LT Spice main menu, and close the error-log dialog. Select
"Plot Settings / Visible Traces", and choose I(D_led1) to see electrical current on LED1.

This component works during the first 20 seconds, then has 10 sec interval. Select other
signals to see how they work.
5.11 Saving/loading design rules

In the Converting to PCB 26 topic of this tutorial, we mentioned that you could use
Schematic rules or load rules from any PCB layout project while converting schematic to
the PCB. No need to specify all layers, net classes, via styles, and design constraints
again. Let's see how it works.
Create a new layout, select "File / New" from the main menu or press Ctrl+N hotkeys. In
the pop-up dialog box, you can choose to create an empty layout or use settings from the
previous project.
Check Use Rules and Settings from Previous Layout, press Browse, and select the
*.dip file of the circuit board that contributes its settings for a new layout. Press OK. In our
case, we have selected the *.dip file of the project that we have created in the first
paragraph of this tutorial. Layer colors and some DRC settings were changed.
In the DipTrace PCB Layout, you can save settings in the special file, separately from the
layout itself. Just go to "Route /Save Rules" from the main menu, enter the file name, and
press Save. Now you can use rules and settings from this file while creating new
projects. Go to "Route / Load Rules" and choose the *.dip or *.rul file.
Please add some via styles, a new net class with random parameters, GND and PWR
inner layers and save this as a *.rul file. We will use it later in the Fanout 232 topic.
5.12 Electrical Rule Check

Electrical Rule Check (ERC) feature is one of the main verification features in DipTrace.
ERC checks the circuit for pin type conflicts, unconnected and superimposing pins as
well as one-pin nets and short circuits.
Launch DipTrace Schematic and open Schematic_2.dch from the "Documents/DipTrace/
Examples" folder. Define electrical rules, select "Verification / Electrical Rule Setup" from
the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box specify incompatible pin-to-pin connections and
the program's reaction to them (error, no error or warning, depending on the color) by
clicking in the grid cells with green, yellow and red squares.
Pin Type checkbox in the Rules to Check section means checking pin-to-pin
connections defined in the grid;
Not Connected Pins – the program searches for unconnected pins;

Pin Superimposing – the program searches for pins overlaying each other;
Only One Pin in Net – the program reports nets with only one pin, i.e. net that makes no
sense. It can be a potential error in the net structure;
Nets With Single Pin – the software searches for nets that include only one pin.
Short Circuit – the program reports any connections between Power and GND nets. Let
the software know which net is POWER and which one is GROUND in the Power Pins
for SC section below.
Press OK to close the dialog box.

Now select "Verification / Electrical Rule Check (ERC)" from the main menu. If you verify
"Schematic_2.dch" file, according to the rules from the picture above, you should get
many error reports in the list: one warning for Bidirectional to Output connection and a lot
of Not Connected pin errors. To localize error on the schematic design area, double-click
it in the list (or press Localize). You can fix errors without closing the ERC report dialog
box. Press Run ERC button to start verification again.
ERC does not report errors for pins, which are intentionally unconnected. Right-click on
one of these pins, and select Not Connected from the submenu. Alternatively, you can
uncheck the corresponding item in the ERC settings dialog box, but then the possibility of
an error increases, because all unconnected pins are now OK, even if it is not supposed
to be that way.
5.13 Checking net connectivity

This type of verification allows the user to check if all nets on the circuit board are
connected. Net connectivity check reports broken connections and isolated copper areas
(not depending on the connection type: traces, thermals, shapes, or copper pours).
Launch the PCB Layout module, and open "PCB_2.dip" file from the "C:\
Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples" folder. Go to "Verification / Check
Net Connectivity" from the main menu. In the pop-up dialog box you define the objects that
will be considered as connectors by the verification algorithm, typically we recommend to
keep all checkboxes checked. Press OK to launch verification.
The circuit board does not have any unconnected nets. Therefore, we will make two
errors intentionally.
Close the error-log dialog box, press button on the Route toolbar, then move the
mouse to the trace that connects C16:2 to the via and GND copper pour in the Bottom
layer, right-click on this small trace segment, and select Unroute Trace from the
submenu. This is going to be our first error.

Isolated copper pour area is the second error that we are about to commit. Double click
on the Bottom layer, then pan to the bottom-right corner of the circuit board, and draw a
couple of shapes (arcs or lines) to isolate one of the vias, and don't forget to update the
copper pour (right-click on the copper pour's outline, and select Update from the
submenu).
The picture shows a simple situation when it's very easy to find the mistake, but most
errors of this type (isolated copper pour areas and non-connected pins) usually go
unnoticed on complex circuit boards.
Go to "Verification / Check Net Connectivity" from the main menu, and click OK in the
pop-up dialog box. The verification reports a broken-net error. Click on the error in the list,
and check error Details. We have Net 7 broken to 4 unconnected areas, scroll down the
Details section of the Connectivity Check Results dialog box to see all unconnected
areas of the net and component pads sorted by areas. Area 1 is the biggest, it is the main
part of the copper pour, the second area is that C16 capacitor's pad which trace we
unrouted at the beginning of this topic, the Area 3 and Area 4 appeared as the result of
isolating the part of the copper pour at the bottom-right of the circuit board.
You don't have to close the Connectivity Check Results dialog box to fix errors, just
move it a bit.
Sometimes it's hard to understand how to find and fix errors on the design area. We
recommend using the Design Manager for easy navigation. Just scroll down the list of
components and double click on the component in the list to highlight it on the design
area.
You can also save the net connectivity error report into the text file.
5.14 Fanout
Fanout allows the user to automatically connect pads of the selected components (BGA,
SOIC, QUAD) or SMD pads of the selected net to inner plane layers with vias of a certain
style.
Open the PCB Layout module or if it is already open, select "File/ New" from the main

menu. Load rules from the *.rul file that we created at the end of Saving/Loading Design
Rules 227 topic of this tutorial. It should have the default, through-hole, and blind/buried via
styles, custom net class, and two inner plane layers.
Fanout a component
Now select Patterns library group, it contains all patterns available in standard DipTrace
libraries. Notice that these are just the patterns without schematic symbols. Place one
PLCC20P127_990X990X457L203X43N from the PLCC library and two
BGA100CP50_10X10_600X600X100B30N from the BGA Pitch 0.50 mm library. We will
use these patterns for demonstration, but you can select another patterns/components for
practicing with fanout.
Right-click on the PLCC pattern, and select Fanout from the submenu. In the pop-up
dialog box specify: Pattern Type: SOIC/QUAD, Placement: Outside, Pads: Left (this
means that only the left row of the pads will have fanout vias), and make sure that Use
Connected Pads Only checkbox is unchecked (because we want to have fanout vias for
all components pads, regardless of whether they are connected or not).
Select different Via Styles for the pads on the top and bottom side of the board (inactive if
there are no pads on that side). Preview parameters of the existing via styles by pressing
the Via Styles... button. In our case we have three via styles: one with through-holeU vias,
another with blind/buried vias and the Default via style with relatively big vias. Select the
one which fits the size of the current component (Default via style in our case).
Press OK, and vias will appear outside the left pad
line of the PLCC pattern. Right-click on the same
pattern, and select Fanout again. Now we will place
zigzag vias for the top pads. Set: Placement: Zig-zag
and Pads: Top, keep other settings, and click OK.
Now we will make through-hole vias for one of the
BGA patterns and blind/buried vias for another. Make
sure that you have the corresponding via styles first.
BGAs will need smaller vias (we used 0.3 mm vias
with 0.15 mm holes for this example).
Right-click on the first BGA pattern, and select Fanout from the submenu, specify
Pattern Type: BGA – All pads and select custom via style with through-hole vias. Press
OK.
Now select the second BGA package. Right-click it, and choose Fanout from the
submenu. Set Pattern Type: BGA - By rows. This allows the user to apply different via
styles to different pad rows of the same pattern or even exclude some rows from the
fanout. Left-click on the row number, and select Via Style from the drop-down list.

We will not create vias for

rows #1 and #2 and use
different via styles for
different rows. Press OK.
We can see, that for the
first BGA pattern all pads
are connected to vias, for
the second pattern first
two rows are without vias,
because these are usually connected on the top layer of the board.
Fanout net
We will connect several SMD pads to the GND plane layer using the Fanout feature.
Place several SMD and a couple of through-hole patterns on the design area. Create a net
that connects some pins of these components (we suppose this is our GND net that we
should connect to the GND plane layer). Select "Objects / Place Ratline" from the main
menu or press button on the Objects toolbar to create ratlines (connections).

Rename net to "GND" if you want. Check the Ratlines item on the Design Manager's
Objects tab if you don't see the ratlines on the design area.
Make sure that there is a via style with blind/buried vias from Top to GND layer, then right-
click on one of the connected pads (not on the pattern), and select Fanout from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box select appropriate via style, and click OK. Now all SMD
pads of selected net have vias connecting them to the GND inner plane layer, where we
placed a copper pour 64 connected to GND net.
5.15 Bill of Materials (BOM)

In DipTrace a bill of materials can be generated in the Schematic and PCB Layout
modules.This tool is similar in both modules, but has more advanced options in PCB, so
let’s see it in more detail.
Open Banana_Pi.dip project from DipTrace examples (C:
\Users\Documents\DipTrace\Examples) To create a bill of materials for a printed circuit
board, select "File/ Export/ Bill of Materials" from the main menu.
Bill of Materials dialog allows the user to customize columns and rows, add interactive
autoapdating tables to the existing project, save BOM in HTML, Excel CSV or text format
with the required table configuration.
To begin with, let’s see how to create and configure several Assembly Variants for the
same board. Press button, in the pop-up window press Add and enter the name of
the assembly variant. Select any cell in the Variant column and remove blue checkmarks
for the parts you don’t want to appear in the BOM of a certain prototype. You can use
quick-selection buttons at the bottom of the window: All - to select all components, SMD -
to select surface mount components only, Through-Hole - to select all through-hole
components.

Several variants can be configured at once. When done, click OK to save them. Once
created, the Assembly Variants will appear in the drop-down list. Default variant
represents the original layout and is not editable.
The Supplier drop-down allows generating BOM based on the Supplier status of the
components. You can create a BOM that includes all the components, components from
certain supplier or parts to which no supplier has been assigned. The last two options
work only if suppliers have been selected for the components of the layout. We have not
assigned the suppliers yet, but we can do that right now.
Press Suppliers and Prices button in the bottom-left corner - Suppliers and Prices from
Octopart dialog will pop-up.
In the Layout Components list select a component. In the central part of the dialog the
available parts are shown. We are going to select packages and assign suppliers
randomly, just to practice. As you can see on the image above, Digi-Key is automatically
selected as the supplier of the part because it is established as a featured supplier (press
Featured Supplier and Currency button in the bottom-left corner to change that), but we
can easily choose a different provider by pressing Select button. Once the provider is
chosen, press Assign to Component button to confirm the selection of the part and
supplier for the current component. Proceed with other unassigned parts, if you want to
practice a bit. When done, close the dialog.
For more information please refer to PCB Layout Help (PCB Layout > Objects >
Component > Assign Supplier).
Next, let’s configure, how the information will be organized by Rows and Columns in the
BOM table.
In the Group Rows by drop-down select Components. Use the checkboxes below to add
a header, row number, and total quantity/ price of the components.
In the Columns section on the right add columns to the BOM file with the settings like in
the picture below. Select the corresponding item (Name, RefDes, Value, Quantity,
Supplier, Price etc.) from the Show: drop-down list, and press Add button. You can
change the order of the items using arrow buttons, add or delete columns from the table.
Besides, you can select how the data will be aligned and also specify the width of the
columns.

If you are going to place a BOM table directly in the project, use Table section of the dialog
to set font parameters and row height. Press Set Font button to customize the font
settings. Use only TrueType fonts for Unicode characters.
When you are done with configuring the BOM table you have four different options to
create it.
1. Place a Table on the design area. To do that, press Place Table button, and left-click on
the design area, where you want the top left corner of the table to be located. An
interactive table with all the components will be placed in the Top Assembly Layer.The
components selected in the table are highlighted on the board. The table is updated
automatically, so can keep editing your layout after placing the table - all subsequent
changes will be included into the report.
2. Interactive BOM within PCB Layout - a pop-up table corresponding to the column and
row settings will appear. The components selected in the table are highlighted on the
board. Press Localize for DipTrace to center the component from the selected row on the
design area.
3. Export to File. The BOM files are available in 2 formats: Excel CSV and files with *.bom
extension. When exporting to file, DipTrace will ask you to set a Column Divider and
decide whether to use Quotation Marks for values or not. Please notice that you can add
custom rows and columns to the BOM file in any spreadsheet editor.
4. Export HTML - this option provides for easy BOM sharing and revision outside DipTrace
environment. Save HTML file and then open it in your browser.
Use buttons in the top-right corner to configure BOM generation parameters, table and
layout display mode.
U (Ungroup) - show each component of the circuit board in the BOM separately.
NL (Netlist) - generate a list of all the nets of the circuit.
N (Component Name) - group components in the BOM table by component name.
NV (Component Name and Value) - group components in the BOM table by component
name and value.
NP (Component Name and Pattern) - group components in the BOM table by component
name and pattern.
NVP (Component Name, Value and Pattern) - group components in the BOM table by
component name, value and pattern.
BOM - show BOM table only.

LR - display BOM on the left and layout on the right.
TB - display BOM in the upper and layout in the lower part of the window.
T - show BOM and layout of the top side of the board only.
TB - show BOM and layout of both, top and bottom sides.
B - show BOM and layout of the bottom side of the board only.
5.16 Importing/exporting netlists

DipTrace allows the user to import and export netlist files of various formats (Accel,
Allegro, Mentor, OrCAD, PADS, P-CAD, Protel, Tango). Netlist export can be used to
review schematic net structure or board design in other software.
Export netlist
To export netlist from the DipTrace Schematic, select "File / Export / Netlist" from the
main menu, select the netlist format, specify folder and file name, and press OK to save

the netlist file.
Import netlist
DipTrace PCB Layout allows for importing netlists created in other software. We will
import Tango netlist as an example. Launch the PCB Layout, create a new project, and
select "File / Import / Netlist / Tango" from the main menu, then select "tango_1.net" file
from "C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples" folder.
As you already know, all components are represented by patterns on the circuit board.
The first step while importing the netlist is to make sure that each component has its
pattern. Check all patterns in the File Components list:
RefDes column shows component RefDes in the netlist,
Name column shows component's name,
Pattern Name column shows pattern's name from the netlist,
Pattern column shows attached pattern in the DipTrace libraries. If it is blank, the
component does not have a pattern.
Press Add button to add new pattern libraries that contain the required patterns. For
example, add Cap Chip Inch library to find a pattern for C 225 components. Add several
libraries at a time with "Shift" and "Ctrl" hotkeys. DipTrace standard libraries are in the "C:
\Program Files\DipTrace\Lib" folder and user libraries – in the "Documents/DipTrace/My
Libraries" folder by default.
Select a library, and press Assign all Patterns by Names – the software will find and
assign patterns with the corresponding names automatically.
Sometimes DipTrace is not able to find all the patterns, because of partially or completely
different pattern names in the DipTrace libraries and in the netlist. In this case, the
designer should find and assign all patterns manually. Select a component in the File
Components list, then select a library and a pattern from the respective lists. Now press
Attach to Component button to attach pattern to the component according to the
component's RefDes, name, or pattern name. For example, we will attach CAP_2225_N
pattern to all components with CAP 225 pattern.
The asterisk symbol (*) after the pattern name in the list means that this pattern was
connected manually.
Click Import button when all components have correct patterns.
5.17 3D preview and export

DipTrace PCB Layout module features built-in real-time 3D visualization with STEP and
VRML export. This tool allows the user to visually check the circuit board with all
components installed and export the PCB model to mechanical CAD programs for
developing the device housing etc.
Download and install 3D model libraries from the DipTrace website. Components
without 3D models appear only as footprints on the circuit board in the 3D mode.
Launch PCB Layout then go to "File / Open" (or press Ctrl+O) and select "C:
\Users\<UserName>\Documents\DipTrace\Examples\PCB_6.dip", then press

button on the Standard toolbar. The Attached 3D Models dialog box will pop up.
DipTrace checks if all components have 3D models and tries to find correct models for
components without them.
See 3D preview and export section in the PCB Layout Help ("Help / PCB Layout Help"
from the main menu) for more details.

Press OK, and you'll see a 3D model of the circuit board. You can rotate the circuit board
model by three axes, move it with your mouse, zoom in and out with the mouse wheel,
etc.
You can change colors of the background, board, solder mask, copper and silk screen
display options, just press Redraw to implement the changes.
Note that the general settings of the mask are defined in the Gerber export window 90 .
3D export
DipTrace 3D Preview module

allows the user to export 3D
model of the board to STEP (*.
step) and VRML 2.0 formats (*.
wrl) supported by most
mechanical CAD software.
When in the DipTrace 3D
preview & export module,
press Export STEP. In the pop-
up dialog box, specify which
objects to include in the
exported model (Board,
Package models, Pad holes),
and whether to export the model
as a solid body or as parts.
Press OK to specify a filename and folder. We recommend exporting a project as a Solid

body in STEP format.
Notice that exporting holes dramatically slows the process.
To export the board model to VRML format, press Export VRML button, select which
objects to include in the exported model, set the units, press OK, and define the file
location.
Previewing and mapping component 3D model
Press button in the Attached 3D Models dialog box or right-click on any

component on the design area in the PCB Layout, and select 3D Model from the
submenu. In the pop-up dialog box, you can rotate a 3D model by three axes, zoom in and
out, move the model by holding the right mouse button, and change colors of the preview.
If you need to change a 3D model, press All Models>> button, and select a 3D model
from the list of all available models sorted by pattern libraries.
To attach a 3D model from the separate file, press the button to specify the path to
the file on your computer. DipTrace supports 3DS, VRML, STEP, and IGES files.
If Pattern Generator was used to create the 3D model you can preview it by selecting IPC-
7351 Model Generator option.
3D model can also be automatically generated based on the component outline - by

Component Outline option. To use this option, an outline of the footprint has to be placed
in Pattern Editor. After that you only have to specify the model height and DipTrace will
create a 3D shape to mimic a device.
DipTrace automatically places a 3D model to fit the pattern's drawing, but sometimes you
may need to adjust a 3D model location or its scale. Just enter appropriate values into the
corresponding fields of the 3D Model Properties section (shift, angle, and scale for each
axis). Changes apply instantly. Check out Attaching a 3D model topic of this tutorial and
PCB Layout Help for more details about mapping a 3D model.

Press OK to close the 3D Model dialog box.

Search 3D models
Go to "Tools / 3D Preview / Patterns and Models Search", in the pop-up dialog box you
can change the search accuracy and active search folders.
In the Pattern Search section, you can select the level of conformity that will be used by
DipTrace while searching for the models (more strict requirements mean less possible
models found). Press Search 3D Models... to check the results.
If you have 3D models in other folders on your machine, you need to let the software know
that it should search 3D models in those folders, just add a new folder to the 3D Model
Folders list. By default, all 3D models are in the "models3d" folder inside the "DipTrace"
directory.
Notice that standard 3D libraries are not included in the DipTrace installation package.
You need to download them from the DipTrace website.
We recommend attaching 3D Models in the Pattern Editor when making footprints.
5.18 DipTrace Links

DipTrace official website.
FAQ.
How to install DipTrace.
DipTrace Support Portal.
DipTrace Sales.
Download the latest version (go to "Help / About" if you don't know your current version).
Order DipTrace.
Download Libraries.
DipTrace YouTube Cannel
DipTrace Forum – suggest new features, discuss DipTrace and share your experience.
DipTrace PCB Design Service.

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02/11/2021

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

Created for DipTrace version 4.2. November 2021.

Part I Creating a simple schematic 5

Part II Designing a PCB 27

Part III Generating files for manufacturing 83

Part IV Creating Component Libraries 95

Part V Other features and tools 159

1 Creating a simple schematic

1.1 Establishing schematic size and placing titles

© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software

scroll the mouse wheel.

1.2 Configuring libraries

DipTrace has a single cross-module library management system.

Configuring library groups

Press (<Current Library Group>) there are

and select Add Library to "User

Add library from a separate file

1.3 Designing schematic

© 2021 Novarm Software

Components library group on the Place Component panel.

Close the Search Filters dialog box.

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© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software

positive pin should be facing right.

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Place a battery symbol SOURCE_BATTERY2 component from the Objects Symbols,

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© 2021 Novarm Software

Press OK when ready to close the Attach Pattern dialog box.

1.4 Converting to PCB

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2.1 Preparing to route

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Changing the net structure

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© 2021 Novarm Software

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© 2021 Novarm Software

2.3 Working with layers

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"Route / Layer Setup" or press button on the Layers

Insert Another plane layer and Call it Tutorial Layer 2.

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– layer display mode;

– contrast level setup.

2.4 Working with vias

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2.5 Net classes

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© 2021 Novarm Software

2.6 Manual routing

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© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software

© 2021 Novarm Software