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| are drawing normal schematics a dying art? |
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| Berni:
--- Quote from: VK3DRB on November 16, 2021, 12:13:53 pm ---Altium allows you to you harnesses in schematics. Harnesses are OK if used wisely and the engineer does not go over-board ('scuse the pun). I have seen harnesses grouping harnesses grouping harnesses! And with harnesses' signal names changing between sheets. The engineer who created it made such a mess, there were Altium harness errors he left in the design, then he left the company. I ended up fixing the errors, and in doing so I found two instances where where one digital output was driving two GPIO digital inputs in a processor. I do use harnesses myself but rarely. Altium made a mess of harnesses in my opinion. Changes to harness names is not trivial. I think that engineer is like some sharp coders who make a point of writing pointers to arrays of pointers which point to pointers so that the appointed engineer points out he doesn't see the point. --- End quote --- Yeah i am not a fan of how harnesses work in Altium. They are a great idea, but poorly executed. For the medium scale designs i tend to work on, my preferred way is to have a high level block diagram out of those green sub-circuit blocks on the first page of the schematic and then have one schematic page per block. All the external connectors are also typically on the first page. That way you can get a good high level overview of what talks to where while each schematic page only has the relevant things within that block. Sometimes i even add some simple block diagrams on top of the green block to give a basic jist of what is going on inside before you even open it (ie an amplifier or level shifter shown as a triangle arow). Flowing a signal around is reasonably easy even manualy when exported as pdf. That being said i still found this style of schematic used in confusing ways where parts of a circuit are cut up in a nonsense way and spread across two or more modules, so you have to constantly flip pages to figure out what is going on. |
| jonovid:
is a problem making too many assumptions in schematics. IMO better to know what something is, then to guess if it has supply or ground pins :-// I like the old school black and white schematics with full detail. |
| Zero999:
--- Quote from: John B on November 15, 2021, 09:54:55 pm ---Communication in the engineering and scientific world is, or at least should be about conveying the relevant information in the most concise way without extraneous information. The fritzing schematic method seems to be fundamentally similar to a regular schematic but using flashier photo realistic circuit components. OK, but I don't like that it expresses circuits in a breadboard format because that adds an extra step of decoding the circuit path. It also makes an assumption that the schematic creator and reader have the same breadboard layout, whereas I've come across varying rail splits on breadboards. That probably isn't an issue for anyone here who can read a schematic, but for someone who lacks that knowledge and is trying to recreate a visual representation, they are left without troubleshooting knowledge that should allow them to rectify the circuit. Same goes for the arduino board connections. Sure if the pic is high res enough, you can read what each pin is, otherwise you need to go find the pinout for the arduino board and determine which pin on which pin header is what. Or you could just have a schematic that says GND, 5V etc etc :-// The lack of textual information for each component is a giant no-no for me. This is compounded by the elaborate graphics that take up screen space around each component blocking out room for any text info. So Ill take the elitist route here, not out of any gatekeeping but out of a desire to see people have long term skills to succeed with. Anyone interested in electronics regardless of age should be encouraged to learn traditional schematics first off. Don't underrate people, explain the basic concepts behind schematics and help them understand and give them the proper foundation for the rest of their life in electronics. I've come across this exact issue in the pedagogy of other fields. People, especially young people and beginners often see a traditional method as a barrier which "seems" too hard and so they seek out a simpler and easier method, but one that ultimately leaves them with a substandard skillset and time wasted that could have been spent on a more effective way. --- End quote --- I suppose fritzing drawings are similar to those of electrical panels, which show where all the wires and terminals go. I personally find all the extra information on electrical drawings distracting, when all I want to do is understand how the flaming thing works, but it's necessary to wire it up and can help with fault finding. I like to have a schematic which just shows what's connected to what, without showing the terminals and wiring in too much detail and a separate drawing, or wiring schedule detailing how it's actually wired up. |
| ejeffrey:
--- Quote from: Bud on November 15, 2021, 10:23:45 pm ---At least people draw proper point to point connections with it. Not like the army of new generation dummies who drops parts on the schematic sheet and terminates every single pin with ports. --- End quote --- This. Also, modern board designs are 5 ICs, 100 decoupling capacitors, 500 nets, and 3 resistors. So much of circuit design has moved into IC design that I know people who just say "I'm a circuit designer" to mean "analog IC designer." It's pretty understandable that few board level schematics look like the beautiful drawings in the end of an old HP service manual. Finally, I have to say looking at some fritzing schematics to see what it was all about that I am a bit disappointed that regular schematic design has not adopted color. Many schematics will only ever be viewed on a monitor and color printers are hardly more expensive than black and white. Color coded nets definitely could certainly be abused but it could also be a powerful tool for communication of intent if done properly. |
| fourfathom:
--- Quote from: ejeffrey on November 16, 2021, 04:29:50 pm ---I am a bit disappointed that regular schematic design has not adopted color. --- End quote --- Please, though, consider the *very* common red/green color deficiency that affects a good percentage of the male population. Some colors are extremely hard for me and others to tell apart, and it's not just red and green. At least make sure there is redundant information on the schematic so I can figure it out without being able to differentiate all the colors. |
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