The Living PCB Design Thread share

[ansonbao]

Komar ever post The Living PCB Design Thread share in other place,he wants to make this as community-written knowledge base about designing PCBs:

Here I also hope Eevblog engineers can also share anything you know about designing electronics: software, tutorials, theory, etc.Like:

Schematic design:

• pin- a dash on the schematic which represents an electrical connector in a component, which can be connected to a different pin
• net-a line representing an electrical connection between 2 or more pins
• bus - a thicker line representing a logical group of nets
• label - a name for a net, in EDA software, 2 nets with the same label will usually be treated as connected together, though various types of labels exist in various software (global, hierarchical, sheet labels, etc

PCB design

• PCB (Printed Circuit Board) - a sheet of sturdy laminate (usually FR-4) with electrical connections made of copper, which are used to conduct current between different components on the board
• pad - 1. a hole in the PCB surrounded with a copper ring used to mount THT components by putting a pin inside the hole and soldering it to the ring; 2. a shape (usually rectangular) made of copper used to solder pins of SMD components
• SMT (Surface-Mount Technology) - a technique of mounting components based on soldering their pins onto the surface of the board, on the same side as the component
• SMD (Surface Mounted Devices) - devices soldered using SMT

Free EDA software:

• KiCad (http://www.kicad-pcb.org)
• Eagle (free for up to 100 x 80 mm boards, 2 layers, one schematic sheet)
• ... write a post to add more, if you've used it and and you like it!

[ansonbao]

Exporting gerbers from kicad - http://breadboardkiller.com/index.php/blog/82-exporting-gerbers-from-kicad

[alexanderbrevig]

i am pcbway manager,you can ask to me any questions about pcb  technology.i think eevblog is a good communication place,i am not come for ads,just for learn

i am eevblog reader,you can ask me any questions about typing   technology.i think typing is a important communication  tool,i am not come for punctuation,neither for grammar [sic]

Things I'll add:

- decide if you do one symbol per group (i.e R) or one per type of resistor (120R_1%_0402)
- have a plan for easy reuse of your work
- learn how to do version control and proper backups
- work with the DRC not against it
- learn to use a SPICE simulator, simulate, breadboard, then design
- consider testing and prioritize it for the first revision. Many test pads, many 0R jumpers (to isolate parts of schematic). If it could fail, make sure you have a way around it

I like and use KiCAD for private stuff, and Altium at work. Altium is objectively a whole lot better than any other I've tried - but also much more expensive.

Not sure if this thread is really worth while as each topic is a huge thread in itself. Even something as simple as the pad, it's size, it's solder mask expansion, the paste aperture etc etc.