All Topics  
Schematic capture

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Schematic capture
 
 
  Topics Schematic capture Topic Home

Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation
Electronic design automation

Electronic Design Automation is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards to integrated circuits....
 (EDA) at which the electronic diagram, or electronic schematic
Circuit diagram

A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional pictorial representation of an electrical circuit. It shows the components of the circuit as simplified standard symbols, and the electric power and signal connections between the devices....
 of the designed electronic circuit
Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is a closed path formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current can flow. The electronic circuits may be physically constructed using any number of methods....
 is created by a designer. This is done interactively with the help of a schematic capture tool also known as schematic editor
Schematic editor

Schematic editor is a tool for schematic capture of electronic circuits.Schematic editors replaced manual drawing of schematic diagrams, but they still retain the capability of outputting schematics on specially formatted sheets....
.

The circuit design
Circuit design

The process of circuit design can cover systems ranging from complex electronic systems all the way down to the individual transistors within an integrated circuit....
 is the very first step of actual design of an electronic circuit.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Schematic capture'
Start a new discussion about 'Schematic capture'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Orcad Schematic Capture
Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation
Electronic design automation

Electronic Design Automation is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards to integrated circuits....
 (EDA) at which the electronic diagram, or electronic schematic
Circuit diagram

A circuit diagram is a simplified conventional pictorial representation of an electrical circuit. It shows the components of the circuit as simplified standard symbols, and the electric power and signal connections between the devices....
 of the designed electronic circuit
Electronic circuit

An electronic circuit is a closed path formed by the interconnection of electronic components through which an electric current can flow. The electronic circuits may be physically constructed using any number of methods....
 is created by a designer. This is done interactively with the help of a schematic capture tool also known as schematic editor
Schematic editor

Schematic editor is a tool for schematic capture of electronic circuits.Schematic editors replaced manual drawing of schematic diagrams, but they still retain the capability of outputting schematics on specially formatted sheets....
.

The circuit design
Circuit design

The process of circuit design can cover systems ranging from complex electronic systems all the way down to the individual transistors within an integrated circuit....
 is the very first step of actual design of an electronic circuit. Typically sketches are drawn on paper, and then entered into a computer using a schematic editor. Therefore schematic entry is said to be a front-end operation of several others in the design flow
Design flow (EDA)

Design flows are the explicit combination of electronic design automation tools to accomplish the design of an integrated circuit. Moore's law has driven the entire IC implementation Register transfer level to GDSII design flows from one which uses primarily...
.

Despite the complexity of modern components – huge ball grid array
Ball grid array

A ball grid array is a type of surface-mount packaging used for integrated circuits....
s and tiny passive components – schematic capture is easier today than it has been for many years. CAD software
Computer-aided design

Computer-Aided Design is the use of computer technology to aid in the design and particularly the drafting of a part or product, including entire buildings....
 is easier to use and is available in full-featured expensive packages, very capable mid-range packages that sometimes have free versions and completely free versions that are either open source or directly linked to a printed circuit board
Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using Conductor pathways, or signal traces, industrial etchinged from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate....
 fabrication company.

In past years, schematic diagrams with largely discrete components
Discrete device

A discrete device is an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive component or active component , other than an integrated circuit....
 were fairly readable however with the newer high pin-count parts and with the almost universal use of standard letter-sized paper, schematics have become less so. Many times, there will be a single large part on a page with nothing but pin reference keys to connect it to other pages.

Readability
Readability

In writing and typography Readability is defined as reading ease, especially as it results from a writing style. Extensive research has shown that easy-reading text improves comprehension, retention, reading speed, and reading persistence....
 levels can be enhanced by using buses and superbuses, related pins can be connected into a common bus and routed to other pages. Buses don't need to be just the traditional address or data bus directly linked pins. A bus grouping can also be used for related uses, such as all analog input or all communications related pin functions.

Other Considerations


After the circuit design
Circuit design

The process of circuit design can cover systems ranging from complex electronic systems all the way down to the individual transistors within an integrated circuit....
 is captured in a schematic, most EDA tools allow the design to be simulated.

Schematic capture involves not only entering the circuits into the CAD system, but also generally calls for decisions that may seem more appropriate for later in the design, such as package choice
Chip carrier

A chip carrier, also known as a chip container or chip package, is a container for an integrated circuit. The carrier usually provides metal Lead s, or "pins", which are sturdy enough to electrically and mechanically connect the fragile silicon microchip to a circuit board....
. Although you may be able to change the package later, many PCB CAD systems ask you to choose both the part and package when placing it into the schematic capture program.

This also brings into play such considerations as prototyping and assembly. In a high-volume assembly environment, there will be plenty of opportunities for DFM
Design for manufacturability

Design for manufacturability is the general engineering art of designing products in such a way that they are easy to manufacture. The basic idea exists in almost all engineering disciplines, but of course the details differ widely depending on the manufacturing technology....
 analysis. However, in a rapid prototyping
Rapid prototyping

Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using solid freeform fabrication. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts....
 environment such as at assembly houses specializing in low-volume/high-mix and quick turnaround times, the pick and place machines are programmed directly from the board layout files. Careful package selection during schematic capture will save time during the assembly and debug process.

With new parts, the CAD system may not have your chosen component in its parts library, so you may need to create the parts library yourself. Again, you may at the time not be overly concerned with the package, but careful creation of the part library will save time and risk later.

After the circuit design
Circuit design

The process of circuit design can cover systems ranging from complex electronic systems all the way down to the individual transistors within an integrated circuit....
 is captured in a schematic, then the PCB layout can begin.

See also

  • Altium – Providers of Altium Designer (formerly Protel) and P-CAD (retired June 30, 2008).
  • AutoTRAX EDA – Schematic Capture, Simulation and PCB design software (free DOS application).
  • Edwinxp
    Edwinxp

    EDWinXP or Electronic Design for Windows is a commercially available printed circuit board design integrated CAD/Computer-aided engineering package....
     – Totally Integrated Schematic Capture, Simulation and PCB design software.
  • Electronics Workbench
    Electronics Workbench

    Electronics Workbench is an electronic circuit simulation, and was also a company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that first produced the software....
     – Schematic Capture, Simulation and PCB design software suite.
  • Cadsoft EAGLE
    Eagle (program)

    EAGLE is a proprietary Computer-aided design program produced by Cadsoft in Germany . It is very commonly used by private electronics enthusiasts, because there is a very usable free demo version for nonprofit use and is available in English and German....
     – Very capable mid-range Schematic Capture software that has a free version.
  • Kicad
    Kicad

    KiCad is an open source software suite for Electronic design automation - designing schematics of electronic circuits and printed circuit boards ....
     – open source schematic capture and PCB design software suite
  • OrCAD – Full-featured commercial Schematic Capture and PCB layout.
  • gEDA
    GEDA

    The term gEDA refers to two things:# A set of software applications used for electronic design released under the GPL. As such, gEDA is an ECAD or EDA application suite....
     – open source schematic capture using gschem
    Gschem

    Gschem is a software under GPL, written by Ales Hvezda, that makes Schematic capture. Gschem is part of the project gEDA....
    , simulation, and PCB design software suite
  • The Electric VLSI Design System
    Electric (software)

    The Electric Very-large-scale integration Design System is an Electronic design automation tool written by Steven M. Rubin.Electric is used to draw schematics and to do integrated circuit layout....


  • wikibooks:Robotics: Design Basics: Design software (at Wikibooks)
  • wikibooks:transwiki:PCB layout guidelines


External links


– Free Schematic Capture and layout linked to fab house Sunstone Circuits by Screaming Circuits – Low-cost Schematic Capture, layout and circuit simulation