And why your library naming convention should be memorable.

As a designer who has put himself into the public eye, a lot of questions come my way. Several beginners have approached me with basic questions I can usually answer by sharing something I’ve already written. Sometimes I’ll end up writing a few paragraphs that eventually expand into a column to share with everyone. One gentleman, whom I will call Aakash, has leaned on me so many times I think he might be compiling a book. The messages pile up, as do the answers. Let’s get to one of those types of answers.

More than one person has asked about starting their first job going from the ground up. “How do I make all the parts I need for my first board?” The short answer is to build them one at a time. This is the internet age. This is the 21st Century. There must be a better way! It’s not that we’re impatient;  we just don’t have that kind of time. Software vendors know that, and the internet does too. The software installation comes with a bevy of common parts, but most boards go well beyond the generic SMD capacitors and resistors found in the default library.

Lessons learned the hard way.

I still remember a day back in the late ’80s when an electrical engineer invited me into his office and showed me a CAD PCB layout on his monitor. How cool would it be to do that? Well, now I know. Pretty cool, but frustrating at times as well. Placing and routing are the meat and potatoes of PCB design. (If you don’t like “meat,” think of your own metaphor.) There are other things to do, but this is what holds it all together.

The basic framework is built around two disciplines: mechanical and electrical engineering. The two main features are the components and, of course, the board. An intelligent set of library parts is essential to getting the placement off to a good start. Over the years, schematic capture has shifted from the PCB designer’s hands to those of the EE.

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