1 Pcb-4.0.0 an open source, interactive printed circuit board layout system harry eaton i Table of Contents Copying ...................................... 1 History ....................................... 2 1 Overview .................................. 4 2 Introduction............................... 5 2.1 Symbols .................................................... 5 2.2 Vias........................................................ 5 2.3 Elements ................................................... 5 2.4 Layers ...................................................... 7 2.5 Lines ....................................................... 8 2.6 Arcs........................................................ 9 2.7 Polygons ................................................... 9 2.8 Text ...................................................... 10 2.9 Nets....................................................... 10 3 Getting Started........................... 11 3.1 The Application Window ................................... 11 3.1.1 Menus ................................................ 11 3.1.2 The Status-line and Input-field ......................... 14 3.1.3 The Layer Controls .................................... 14 3.1.4 The Tool Selectors ..................................... 15 3.1.5 Layout Area........................................... 17 3.2 Log Window ............................................... 17 3.3 Library Window ........................................... 18 3.4 Netlist Window ............................................ 18 3.5 Drawing and Removing Basic Objects ....................... 18 3.5.1 Common Drawing and Removing Methods............... 19 3.5.2 Lines ................................................. 20 3.5.3 Arcs .................................................. 20 3.5.4 Polygons and Rectangles ............................... 20 3.5.5 Text .................................................. 21 3.5.6 Vias .................................................. 21 3.5.7 Elements .............................................. 21 3.5.8 Pastebuffer ............................................ 23 3.6 Moving and Copying ....................................... 23 3.7 Loading and Saving ........................................ 24 3.8 Printing ................................................... 24 3.9 Exporting a layout ......................................... 26 3.9.1 Bill of materials (bom) ................................. 26 3.9.2 G-code (gcode) ........................................ 26 ii 3.9.3 Gerber (gerber)........................................ 28 3.9.4 Nelma (nelma) ........................................ 28 3.9.5 Image (png) ........................................... 28 3.9.6 Postscript (ps)......................................... 28 3.9.7 Encapsulated Postscript (eps)........................... 28 3.10 Connection Lists .......................................... 28 3.11 Arrow Tool ............................................... 29 3.12 Rats Nest ................................................ 30 3.13 Design Rule Checking ..................................... 31 3.14 Trace Optimizer........................................... 31 3.15 Searching for elements ..................................... 32 3.16 Measuring distances ....................................... 32 3.17 Vendor Drill Mapping ..................................... 32 4 Autorouter ............................... 35 5 User Commands .......................... 36 6 Command-Line Options ................... 37 6.1 General Options............................................ 37 6.2 General GUI Options ....................................... 39 6.3 GTK+ GUI Options ........................................ 40 6.4 lesstif GUI Options ......................................... 40 6.5 Colors ..................................................... 40 6.6 Layer Names............................................... 41 6.7 Paths ..................................................... 42 6.8 Sizes ...................................................... 42 6.9 Commands ................................................ 43 6.10 DRC Options ............................................. 44 6.11 BOM Creation ............................................ 45 6.12 IPC-D-356 Netlist Export.................................. 45 6.13 Gerber Export ............................................ 45 6.14 Postscript Export ......................................... 45 6.15 Encapsulated Postscript Export ............................ 46 6.16 PNG Options ............................................. 46 6.17 lpr Printing Options ....................................... 48 6.18 nelma Options ............................................ 48 7 X11 Interface............................. 49 7.1 Non-Standard X11 Application Resources .................... 49 7.2 Actions .................................................... 55 7.3 Default Translations ........................................ 65 iii 8 File Formats.............................. 67 8.1 Pad and Line Representation ................................ 67 8.2 Layout File Format......................................... 67 8.3 Element File Format ....................................... 68 8.4 Font File Format ........................................... 68 8.5 Netlist File Format ......................................... 69 8.6 Library Contents File Format ............................... 70 8.7 Library File Format ........................................ 70 8.8 File Syntax ................................................ 71 8.8.1 Arc ................................................... 71 8.8.2 Attribute ............................................. 72 8.8.3 Connect............................................... 72 8.8.4 Cursor ................................................ 72 8.8.5 DRC.................................................. 73 8.8.6 Element............................................... 73 8.8.7 ElementArc ........................................... 74 8.8.8 ElementLine........................................... 74 8.8.9 FileVersion ............................................ 74 8.8.10 Flags ................................................ 75 8.8.11 Grid ................................................. 75 8.8.12 Groups .............................................. 75 8.8.13 Layer ................................................ 75 8.8.14 Line ................................................. 76 8.8.15 Mark ................................................ 76 8.8.16 Net .................................................. 76 8.8.17 Netlist ............................................... 77 8.8.18 Pad ................................................. 77 8.8.19 PCB................................................. 77 8.8.20 Pin .................................................. 78 8.8.21 PolyArea............................................. 78 8.8.22 Polygon.............................................. 78 8.8.23 Rat.................................................. 79 8.8.24 Styles................................................ 79 8.8.25 Symbol .............................................. 79 8.8.26 SymbolLine .......................................... 80 8.8.27 Text ................................................. 80 8.8.28 Thermal ............................................. 80 8.8.29 Via .................................................. 80 8.9 Object Flags ............................................... 81 8.10 PCBFlags ................................................ 82 iv 9 Library Creation.......................... 84 9.1 Old Style (m4) Libraries .................................... 84 9.1.1 Overview of Oldlib Operation........................... 84 9.1.2 The Library Scripts .................................... 85 9.1.2.1 Scripts Used During Compilation ................... 85 9.1.2.2 Scripts Used by PCB at Runtime................... 86 9.1.3 Creating an Oldlib Footprint ........................... 87 9.1.4 Troubleshooting Old Style Libraries ..................... 89 9.2 New Style Libraries......................................... 90 9.2.1 Creating Newlib Footprints ............................. 90 9.2.2 Modifying Newlib Footprints ........................... 91 10 Schematic Capture for PCB .............. 92 10.1 gEDA .................................................... 92 10.1.1 Set Up Project Directories............................. 92 10.1.2 Set Up gEDA Config Files............................. 92 10.1.3 Set Up gsch2pcb Config Files ......................... 93 10.1.4 Capture Schematics Using gschem ..................... 93 10.1.5 Create Any Unique PCB Footprints .................... 93 10.1.6 Generate Initial PCB Design Using gsch2pcb ........... 94 10.1.7 Layout Circuit Board ................................. 94 10.1.8 Forward Annotation of Schematic Changes ............. 94 10.1.9 Generate Photoplot Files (RS-274X) ................... 94 10.2 xcircuit................................................... 95 Appendix A Installation and Troubleshooting ........................................ 96 A.1 Compiling and Installing ................................... 96 A.1.1 Quick Start ........................................... 96 A.1.2 Running the configure Script ........................... 96 A.2 Troubleshooting ........................................... 96 A.2.1 HP Series 700 and 800 ................................. 97 A.2.2 Sun SPARC architecture............................... 97 A.2.3 Silicon Graphics......................................