What are the PCB design software
The design of the printed circuit board is based on the circuit schematic diagram to realize the functions required by the circuit designer. The design of the printed circuit board mainly refers to the layout design, and the layout of the external connections needs to be considered. Optimized layout of internal electronic components. Optimized placement of metal traces and vias. electromagnetic protection. various factors such as heat dissipation. Excellent layout design can save production cost and achieve good circuit performance and heat dissipation performance. Simple layout design can be realized by hand, and complex layout design needs to be realized with the help of computer-aided design (CAD). The following introduces the world famous and powerful electronic design software and their comparison.
Tools/Materials
computer and eda software method/step
1. protel, Altium Designer
Undoubtedly, it is the first EDA software that I came into contact with. Most universities have protel software courses, but I have to admit that Protel is indeed one of the lowest-end software in the EDA software family. It is still handy to make single-panel and two-layer boards. , but it starts to feel difficult to use after 4 layers, let alone more layers. If you face high-frequency and high-speed multi-layer boards, people who can use protel to make high-quality boards are quite good.
It’s hard to say whether protel will be eliminated in the future. There is still a considerable market for people who use protel. Learning PROTEL is the basis for learning high-end PCB software. Today’s PROTEL has developed to the AltiumDesigner series, which is a huge EDA software , is a complete board-level all-round electronic design system, which includes circuit schematic drawing, analo circuit and digital circuit mixed signal simulation, multi-layer printed circuit board design (including printed circuit board automatic wiring), programmable logic device Design, chart generation, spreadsheet generation, support for macro operations, etc., and has a Client/Server (client/server) architecture, and is also compatible with some other design software file formats, such as
ORCAD, PSPICE, EXCEL, etc., the automatic routing of multilayer printed circuit boards can achieve 100% routing rate of high-density PCBs.
2. Mentorpads
That is powerpcb, I call it the uncrowned king of low-end, it is the best one among all low-end pcb software in my opinion, easy to use, easy to use, the quality of the board made will not be better than wg, allegro, etc. Inferior, the most widely used eda software on the market now, suitable for the needs of most small and medium-sized enterprises.
PADSLayout (PowerPCB) provides interfaces with other PCB design software, CAM processing software, and mechanical design software, which facilitates data conversion and transfer work in different design environments.
3. Cadence
(CadenceDesignSystems, Inc; NASDAQ: CDNS) is a software company specializing in electronic design automation (EDA), which was formed in 1988 by the merger of SDASystems and ECAD. It is the world's largest supplier of electronic design technologies (Electronic Design Technologies), program solution services and design services. Its solutions are designed to enhance and monitor the design of semiconductors, computer systems, network engineering and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and other types of electronic products. Products cover the entire process of electronic design, including system-level design, functional verification, IC synthesis and layout and routing, analo, mixed-signal and RF IC design, full custom integrated circuit design, IC physical verification, PCB design and hardware simulation modeling, etc. . Its headquarter is located in San Jose, California (SanJose), with sales offices around the world. Design and R&D Center.
