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PCTRACE Version 3.002 Users Manual July 29, 1990 by Douglas E. Ehlers Copyright (C) 1989, 1990 2 Table of Contents Notice of Copyright.......................................3 Introduction..............................................4 Installation..............................................5 System Requirements..................................5 Software Setup.......................................5 Input/Output Menu.........................................6 Board Definition Menu.....................................7 Chip Definition......................................8 Chip Placement.......................................9 Interactive Router.......................................13 Mouse use...........................................16 Autorouter...............................................16 Board Statistics.........................................18 Printer Menu.............................................18 Exiting the program......................................18 Brief Tutorial...........................................19 Advanced PCTRACE design..................................21 RPRINT Subprogram........................................23 Keyboard control summaries...............................24 Order Form...............................................25 3 Notice of Copyright This program is protected by a copyright held by me and filed with the United States Government. Although this program is being distributed as Shareware, that does not make it free. You are granted limited use of this program to test it out and see if it will fulfill your needs. If you find that your needs can be satisfied by this program and you decide to use it, you are obligated to pay the 75 dollars to register your copy. You are allowed and encouraged to give unaltered copies to your friends to test. This same agreement applies to them. Business organizations and education institutions must pay for this software if it is in use. Note: This program was originally marketed under the name PCROUTE but for copywrite reasons has been named PCTRACE. 4 Introduction PCTRACE is a computer aided design program for printed circuit boards. It contains board layout routines that should be quite adequate for most purposes. It also contains a full featured autorouter that averages around a 93% completion rate. It also supports four of the more popular printers for its output. This program is, to my knowledge, the first of its type to be released as shareware. Although it lacks several of the features of similar products that are commercially available, it also lacks a $1000 price tag. Key features include: 1. Autorouting 2. Graphic interactive routing 3. Board layout functions 4. Flexible pinouts for devices 5. 2X and 1X output for use in making PC boards 6. Disk functions built into the software 7. Sophisticated component and connection entry systems 8. General statistics 9. Up to 300 components and 1800 connections 10. Mouse support in the interactive router 11. Variable pad and trace sizes 12. Single and double sided boards 13. Manual placement of traces 14. The authors continued support 5 Installation Contents of Archive/Disk: PCTRACE .EXE - The main program RPRINT .EXE - The graphic printer output program PCTRACE .DOC - The documentation for PCTRACE.EXE TEST .CDT - Brief tutorial example EDGE .CDT - Advanced board in second example DIP24V6 .DEF - 24 PIN DIP chip definition-vertical .6 wide DIP20V3 .DEF - 20 PIN DIP chip definition-vertical .3 wide DIP40V6 .DEF - 40 PIN DIP chip definition-vertical .6 wide DIP40H6 .DEF - 40 PIN DIP chip definition-horiz. .6 wide PAD .DEF - Definition of a single pad 2PAD50V .DEF - 2 PADS 0.5 inches apart-vertical works well for 1/4 watt resistors 2PAD15V .DEF - 2 PADS 0.15 inches apart-vertical 2PAD10V .DEF - 2 PADS 0.10 inches apart-vertical PRINTDOC.BAT - Prints the documentation stored on disk System Requirements: To run this program requires: 1. CGA, EGA or better graphics 2. 640k of memory with about 540k free 3. 1 floppy disk drive 4. One of the following printers: a. IBM PC or compatible printer b. EPSON LQ-2500 or compatible printer c. Hewlett Packard Laserjet II or compatible d. Adobe Postsciprt Compatible printer e. HP Deskjet or Deskjet + 5. Hard-Disk (not essential but recommended) 6. Mouse (supported but not essential) A fast processor and math coprocessor are also beneficial. Software Setup: If you are going to run this program from a floppy disk system, simply copy all the files that came in the archive or on the distribution disk onto an empty formatted floppy disk by using the following command: COPY A:*.* B: Where A: contains the original PCTRACE disk and B: contains the empty formatted floppy disk. All the files that came on the diskette are required to run the program except the PCTRACE.DOC file. The PCTRACE.DOC file may be deleted from the run disk. If you will be using a hard disk to run the program, make a directory in which to place the program. Use the following 6 commands to accomplish this: 1. cd \ 2. md pctrace 3. cd pctrace 4. copy a:*.* Where A: holds the original PCTRACE files. For PCTRACE to run reliably, you must also have a line in your config.sys file setting files=20. If you are running any major applications program this command probably exists, but you should check. To execute the program type PCTRACE from the DOS prompt. Input/Output Menu 1. Load Data: This function is used to retrieve from disk the necessary information to design a printed circuit board. Select this function from the menu and when prompted, enter the file name. No extension is used, the program will add the .CDT extension for you. The drive and path should not be used on the filename itself. There is a function that will be discussed later to set the drive and path name. After entering the filename, press Return. The program will ask if this is the correct name, enter Y or N to answer. If the file is not found you will have a chance to re-enter the file name. You can also use the ESC key to jump back to the main menu instead of entering the file name. 2. Save Data: This function will save a complete description of the design layout, component list, and connection list. It does not save the information used for deleting traces in the interactive router which will be discussed later. When prompted, enter the filename. Again do not specify the file extension, drive designation, or path name. PCTRACE will ask after entering the file name if everything is correct, enter a Y or N. If the file exists the program will ask if you want to overwrite the file. If you say no, it will prompt for a new file name. ESC also works to return you to the I/O menu instead of entering the file name. 3 Write Autocad file: This function will write a file that can in turn be read into and edited with Autocad. The process is one way, you can not read an autocad file back into PCTRACE. Call this function from the I/O menu and give a name when prompted. Here as usual, specify no path or file extension. 7 The extension .scr will be added to the file. Once the program is done writing the file, you may run Autocad and use the command "SCRIPT" from the "Command:" prompt. Autocad will ask for the script file name. Specify the same name (with path if needed) as the one you used in PCTRACE and Autocad will read in the file. It may take awhile so be patient. Autocad will display three layers: solder, component, and silkscreen. You may edit them however you like and save them as Autocad drawing files. Doing this greatly increases the number of printers you can output to as Autocad supports mega-hardware. 4. Erase Data: This routine clears the memory of the program. It erases the boards, component list, and connection list. The program will ask if you are sure that you want to erase the data in memory. Answer Y or N. The program will respond with "Erasing..." and after a few seconds drop you back to the I/O menu. 5. Disk Directory: This function displays a directory of the current drive and path. Use the space bar to view twenty file names at a time. When no more files exist, the space bar will return you to the I/O menu. 6. Change drive/path: This function changes the current drive and or path. The ESC key will back you out of the function without changing the path. The function will display the current drive and path and then prompt for a new one. Just enter the new one and press Return. You will be returned to the I/O menu. Define/Edit Board Menu 1. Component Edit/Entry: This function is used to enter components into the system. Once you have entered this function you will placed in the entry/editing environment. If no components have been entered you will see only two possible commands, if there are components in memory you will have the option to delete, copy and perform other functions. New Component Entry: Hitting an "A" will allow you to enter new components. The program will display the component number being entered and then prompt for the name. The name is up to 15 characters long and serves only to remind the designer of what the device is. ESC can be used at this point to return you to the entry/editing environment. 8 The next question is for the designation. This is the unique name that you will give the component and use in the future to refer to it. Typical names include IC1, R1, IC2, and A1. The only reserved designation is for vias. (A via is a pad with no device attatched to it. It is just to connect a trace from one side of the board to the other) Designations that start with "V" and then have a number after that, are not allowed in the system. So V1 would not be accepted by VI1 would be. ESC may be used to back up while entering the designation name to reenter the component name. Third the program will prompt for the definition file name. This is the name of a file that tells the program how the pins on the device being entered are situated. The program first shows a list of possible definition file names at the lower right. At the end of the list the program will prompt for a name. Do not enter a file extension, the program will add it for you. If the name of the file entered exists, it will read the file for you, and display the chip definition for you to see if it is correct. If you answer yes that it is the correct definition you will continue to the next question. If the file did not exist you will be asked if you wish to create the definition. If you answer no, the program will re-prompt for the definition name after showing you the possible files. Otherwise it makes a new definition. ESC may be used to back up and reenter the component designation. Creating New Definition Files: The program needs to know the exact pin layout of any component placed on the board. This function allows you to create these definitions. Upon entry you will see a graphic screen with some information at the bottom and a green square in the middle of the screen. In the top left of the box is your cursor. You use the cursor keys to move the cursor around to define pin locations. The pins are entered in the order from 1 to up to 70. Move the cursor to the position of the first pin and hit return to place it. Then move to the second position and hit return to place pin 2. You may also remove pins in the reverse order you placed them by positioning your cursor over the last pin entered and hitting the backspace key. This key will only delete the last entered pin. The information at the bottom of the screen will tell you what pin you are entering, as well as its relative location on the screen. When you have placed 70 pins or are finished with the component definition, hit ESC to finish. The program will ask if you want to reedit. Answering yes will clear the screen and you can start over. By answering no you will receive the prompt asking if you want to keep the definition or not. Answering yes will save the definition for later use, no will give you the list of existing definitions on the previous screen. 9 All components are moved to the upper left most corner for saving. This is for internal reasons; you can design the chip anywhere in the square. You will need to make definition files for all your components. I would suggest a meaningful system for naming them. Maybe something like DIP16V and DIP16H for 16 pin Dual Inline Package Vertical attitude and Horizontal attitude respectively. ***Note: Most chip dimensions are available in data books such as RCA cross reference manuals. Radio Shack also puts device dimensions on the back of their packages. The fourth prompt is for the pad size for the device. A small window will pop up and prompt for a pad size between 0.05 inches and 0.07 inches. All pads are circular. Enter the corresponding number to the pad size you wish. The next question the program will ask is if everything is correct. Answering no will restart this process with re- prompting for the name. Answering yes will get the next prompt. The next prompt is if you wish to keep this device. Answering no will skip the next prompt and ask if you wish to enter another device. Answering yes gives you the next prompt. This prompt asks if you wish to place the device now. Entering no will allow you to delay this until later. All devices must be placed somewhere on the board before they can be connected. Placing a chip goes as follows: Placing Chips: When this graphic screen comes up you will see a representation of the current circuit board with all other placed components and ground planes shown. The chip you are entering will be shown in the upper left corner of the board. The arrow keys will move this chip around on the board. By using a shift-arrow combination the chip can be moved faster. Move the chip to where you want it and press return. You cannot overlap chips. The chip is now placed in this location. If you change your mind you can press ESC to exit without placing the chip. You will be prompted if you are sure you want to abandon chip placement or not. Yes will go to the next prompt, no will put you right back where you were before hitting ESC. The last prompt is if you wish to enter another chip or not. Answering yes will put you back up at the name prompt to enter another chip. No will put you back in the entry/editing environment. Editing Component Definitions: Selecting E from the entry/editing environment will give you the ability to change any part of each definition. Simply select 10 the letter of the item to change. For example, to change the name, hit A after hitting E and you will be prompted for the new name. Either enter the new name, or you can press ESC to leave it unchanged. When you are done editing, press the key that corresponds to exiting the edit. If you are editing the placement of chips, the chip definition file must be present in the working directory for the placechip function to work. The only time this is a problem is if the board you are editing is not your own, such that the chip definition files have different names from your own. Deleting Component Definitions: This function allows you to delete a component. The component that will be deleted is the one currently displayed on the screen. Press D and you will be asked if you are sure if you want to delete this component or not. Answer accordingly. All connections that contained the deleted function will also be deleted. Copying Components: This function will let you make copies of a chip definition to speed the entry of chips. It will copy everything from the displayed definition to a new definition except for the designation from which it will take the alpha part and then increment the numerical part to the next available part. It also does not put the chip in the same location. You will be asked if you wish to place the chip now or later. Searching for a Component: Sometimes finding the component you wish to edit or delete can take some time on a large board. This function allows you to search for components by the designation. When prompted enter the designation, PCTRACE will change the case to upper for you. If it exists the program will display that device's number. If it doesn't exist, you will continue right where you were. Incrementing and Decrementing the displayed Component: Using + and - will change the displayed component. + increments and - decrements. The display is circular in nature, therefore hitting + at the last component will put you at the first and hitting - at the first will put you at the last. Exiting the Entry/Editing Environment: Use the N key to end these functions and return to the board definition menu. 2. Connection Edit/ Entry: This system allows for entry and editing of all the connections that need to be made between the components in the system. The functions are very similar to the component functions. 11 New Connection Entry: Typing an "A" will allow you to enter new connections. The program will display the connection number being entered and then prompt for the name of the source designation. The name must exist in memory as a component. ESC can be used at this point to return you to the entry/editing environment. The next question is for the source chip pin number. Enter the number of the pin that you want the trace to connect to. ESC will back you up to the previous prompt. The program will now prompt for the name of the destination designation. The name must exist in memory as a component. ESC can be used at this point to return to the previous prompt. The next question if for the destination chip pin number. Enter the number of the pin that you want the other end of the trace to connect to. ESC will back you up to the previous prompt. The program will now ask if this is a priority route or not. By answering yes, this trace will be routed before all other non- priority routes no matter how long it may be and what other routes it may block. This might be used for making sure a memory access bus is all done in copper instead of using jumpers for a vital connection. Next, the program will want to know the desired trace width. Traces from 0.01 to 0.07 are supported. Select the number corresponding to the size required. The following table will tell you what size trace will go between two pads of some size that are spaced on 0.1 inch centers. Pad Size (inches) Trace width 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.01 Yes Yes No 0.02 Yes No No 0.03 Yes No No 0.04 No No No 0.05 No No No 0.06 No No No 0.07 No No No These tolerances can be overridden using the interactive router which will be discussed later. The next question the program will ask is if everything is correct. Answering no will restart this process by reprompting for the source designation. Answering yes will bring up the next prompt. The next prompt is if you wish to keep this connection. Answering no will skip the next prompt and ask if you wish to enter another connection. Answering yes gives you the next prompt. The last prompt asks if you wish to enter another connection. Answering yes, will put you back up at the source designation prompt to enter another connection. No will places 12 you back in the entry/editing environment. Editing Connection Definitions: Selecting E from the entry/editing environment will give you the ability to change any part of each connection. Simply select the letter of the item to change. For example, to change the source designation, hit A after hitting E and you will be prompted for the new designation. Either enter the new designation, or press ESC to leave it unchanged. When you are done editing, press the key that corresponds to exiting the edit. Deleting Connection Definitions: This function allows you to delete a connection. The connection that will be deleted is the one currently displayed on the screen. Press D and you will be asked if you are sure you want to delete this connection. Answer accordingly. Searching for a Connection: Sometimes finding the connection you wish to edit or delete can take some time on a large board. This function allows you to search for connections by the designation. When prompted enter the designation sought. PCTRACEwill change the case to upper for you. PCTRACE then will search from the current connection to the end. It looks at both the source and destination designations for a match. If it finds the search string the program will display that connection's information. If it doesn't exist, you continue right where you were. Incrementing and Decrementing the displayed Connection: Using + and - will change the displayed connection. + increments and - decrements. The display is circular in nature, therefore hit + at the last connection will put you at the first and hitting - at the first will put you at the last. Exiting the Entry/Editing Environment: Use the N key to end these functions and return to the board definition menu. 3. Ground Plane: This function is used to set up a ground plane. The program will display a picture of the board. It will prompt for the width of the ground plane on all four sides on both the component side and solder side of the board. Each digit entered corresponds to .05 actual inches. You may come back and change the ground plane sizes at any time. ESC will also back you out of the first prompt only (top-solder side). *** Please note that this function erases any work done in the interactive router (discussed later). 13 4. Define Board Size: This function is the first function used. It defines the dimensions of the board. The maximum board size supported by PCTRACE is 11" X 8". When prompted for numbers, you must enter the numbers as multiples of 5. Each number represents 0.05" of actual size. So an entry of 100 would correspond to 5". You may change board sizes at any time during the design process by calling the routine. If you make the board smaller, the chips that were outside the new border will have to be replaced. ESC will back up to the previous prompt, or jump out of the routine leaving the board size unchanged. 5. Spider Web: This function is useful for checking to see if a chip would be more logically placed somewhere else. By using the + and - keys, you can toggle through the chips. As each chip is selected, it as well as all traces connected to it are highlighted in red. Once a chip is highlighted, you can select M to move the chip. After pressing M, the arrow keys become active and the chip as well as all its connections will be rubber banded around the board. You can hit RETURN to place the chip at the current location, or hit ESC to not place the chip and put it back at its original location. The ESC or E key will exit you from this function. *** Please note, if you move any chips, the work done by the interactive router is erased. Interactive Router This board editing system allows you to interactively design a board. It can be very useful for finding possible routes that the autorouter was unable to find. Upon entry to this section the program generates the borders and places the pads of all the chips. It will also ask you to place all the chips that have not been placed yet. If you intend to route the entire board this way, place your chips and then leave them. Moving them around after placing the chip will distort your board. PCTRACE has no way of connecting traces up to a chips new location. The screen will show all the chips with their designations centered amid each components pins. This system has many keys that are active while in this environment. An explanation of each follows. 14 S - switch sides: This function changes the side of the board displayed. When you enter S, you will be shown the other side of the board. The program supports only 2 sides, solder and component. G - grab location: The key is only active at certain time. The F1, F2, F4, F5, F6, and F7 function all use this key. E or ESC - end: Pressing E or ESC will exit you from the interactive router. Cursor Keys: The cursor keys move the solid block around on the board. Each time you press the arrow key, the cursor will move 1 space. Relative coordinates are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Using Shift-Arrow moves the cursor 10 spaces. If you come to the edge of the screen but not the edge of the board, the screen will shift the board over for you. Function Keys: The function keys numbered F1-F8 do the majority of the work in PCTRACE. They allow you to place vias, run traces, delete traces, resize traces, and delete vias. F1 - Set Source: By pressing F1, the bottom of the screen will say to position the cursor over the pad you wish to designate as the source and then press G for grab. The bottom status line will tell you exactly what chip and pin number you have selected. F2 - Set Dest.: This function works exactly as the F1 function but selects the destination pin. F3 - Run Trace: Once you have defined a source and destination, pressing F3 will attempt to connect the two pins with a trace 0.01 inches wide. If it is successful, you will see the trace appear. If it cannot complete the route it will notify you at the bottom. At this point you might try placing a via and routing from the source to it on one side and from the via to the destination on the other. F4 - Delete Trace: This function will delete any part of any trace that you define. Pressing F4 enters the delete selection mode. After pressing F4 the screen will say to use G to grab the parts to be deleted. As you press G on valid traces 15 the pieces will be highlighted. You can change screens by moving the cursor off the screen without losing the already selected traces. Once you have selected all the pieces you wish to delete, press F4 again and you will be prompted to make sure you wish to delete the selected traces. Answer Y to finish the delete operation. F5 - Add Via: This function key will add a via at the location of the cursor when G is pressed. It will be V and then the next available number. Use these for multilevel routes or just extra pads needed. You cannot place a via adjacent to an existing pad. You can place one diagonally from one though. You also may not place a via in the middle of a trace. All vias are deleted by the autorouter when it is invoked. F6 - Del Via: This function deletes the via at the cursor location when G is pressed if one exists there. F7 - Resize trace: This function will resize a trace to any valid trace size. Select F7 and the use G to select the traces to resize. Once you have selected the traces to resize press F7 and you will be asked if you really wish to resize the traces, answer Y if you do. Next the program will prompt for the trace size. 1 corresponds to 0.01 up to 7 which corresponds to 0.07 inches. Be careful not to overlap other traces or pads with this function. F8 - Check Route: This function will check to see if a selected pair of pads can be connected. It will report back as to whether the route can be completed. This is useful for doing multi- layer routes using vias. Checking for an available route before laying the actual trace will save a number of deletes if later your path is blocked. F9 - Manual Route: This function allows you to manually route traces. Place the cursor on the starting pad or trace and press F9. If the cursor is not on a valid starting point, nothing will happen. Now use the cursor control keys to route your trace. Every time you move, your trace is lengthened. When you are done, you can either stop in and open space and press F9 or you can stop on a trace or pad and hit F9, the correct connecting piece will be 16 added to make the connection. Please note that if you go over an existing trace, PCTRACE will cut that trace in favor of the new path. This works well for putting short jumpers on the board. This is very useful for routing traces that would normally block other routes if they were not placed this way. With the interactive router you can run any size trace anywhere you wish. It is possible to over-ride the autorouter and run a 0.01 inch trace between two 0.07 pads. If your board making process is accurate to 0.01 inches you can complete many low power traces this way. The manual router is also used in many advanced "tricks" for making specialized boards. Using a mouse in the interactive router: The mouse allows you to do all the functions mentioned previously except for the manual router. You must install the mouse before running the PCTRACE program. When you enter the interactive program you will see four arrows in the lower right corner of the screen. By using the mouse, putting the cursor on one of these arrows, and pressing the left button the screen will be moved by half in that direction. The same thing was accomplished by moving the cursor off the board using the arrow keys. Pressing the right button will pop up a menu along the bottom of the screen. The menu corresponds to function keys F1- F8. The exit command at the far right, exits the menu. By placing the cursor anywhere on the command desired, you can execute that command by pressing the right button. If the command selected is F1, F2, F4, F5, F6, or F7, you will be using the "Grab" method. The left button works the same as the G key in these cases. Use it to highlight sections and locations on the board to work with. When using the delete and resizing functions (F4 and F7) you must press and release the left button for each piece of trace. Autorouting Selecting this from the menu will enable you to connect all or most of the connections you desire. The program will first draw borders, place pads, and set up the ground planes. If a component has not been placed, you will be asked to place it. The program requires all chips to be placed before it can route. There are four routing strategies that can be employed. You select each strategy by hitting Y or N as the cursor moves to each option. If you hit Y for single or double via routing you will also be prompted for the maximum number of tries for each. 17 Just enter a number. Bigger numbers are better for bigger boards, smaller number for small boards. The PCTRACE system is totally re-entrant. The first question you are asked is if you wish to clear all traces. Answering yes clears anything currently on the board. No would keep what was on the board such as work done by the interactive router. You can hit ESC during any routing strategy to exit that routine and the autorouter. The program will then show the list of all unconnected routes still existing. If the router has not completed one run-through and you have routed before, traces may have been completed by the earlier route and still be reported as unconnected. You can do a design check to see which routes in you connection list have not been connected either by hand or by autorouter by running the autorouter and not erasing the current traces. Just select the double or single sided route system. It will report any routes that are incomplete. Any route that was completed before will be marked as complete and not reported. The program will report whatever routes weren't done and the ones it couldn't complete. Single Sided Route: This function will attempt to place all the routes on the solder side of the board. It is the least efficient strategy but is great for small projects where ease of making the board itself is a priority. This function cannot be used in conjunction with the next three strategies. Double Sided Route: This function will do its routing on two sides of the board. It has a higher completion percentage than the single sided strategy. Single Via Route: This function requires that the double sided strategy be select first. This function is used after the double sided strategy to try to complete any uncompleted routes. It places a via and tries to do the single route with a trace on each side of the board. A number such as 50 is good for maximum number of tries. Double Via Route: This function also requires double sided routing be selected to work. It uses two vias to attempt to complete the route. A good maximum number of tries is 30 or so. This function can take a great deal of time so be patient. 18 Board Statistics This function displays 5 statistics that may be of some interest. Equivalent Integrated Circuit Count: This function is the total number of pins divided by 16. Board Density: This is the amount of space total that each chip has to occupy. It is calculated by taking the area of the board and dividing by the Equivalent IC count. Total Trace Length: The function gives the total length of all the traces on the board. The smaller the number, the better the design. Board size: The board dimensions in inches. File name: This is the file name currently in memory. Printer Menu 1. Print Component List: This function will generate a list of all the components. It can be sorted by name or designation. 2. Print Connections: This function will generate a list of all the connections in memory. It can be sorted by the source or destination designation. 3. Print a Silkscreen Representation: This function will generate a pseudo-silkscreen. It is not the same scale as the actual board but it is useful for remembering where components are to be placed. Select the printer to be used and watch it go. The postscript driver, however, does output a scaled silkscreen and will also prompt for an output destination of file or printer. Exiting the Program Selecting 7 from the main menu will drop you from PCTRACE back to DOS. If you have data in memory you will be asked if you wish to save it. Answering Yes will prompt you for a file name. Enter the file name as you would in the save data function in the Input/Output menu. You can hit ESC to abort the save, but it will not return you to the program. Answering N to the save query, will drop you immediately to DOS. 19 Brief Tutorial The following is intended as a method of getting up and running with the program. It will give a general idea of how the program works. 1. Begin by running PCTRACE. This information can be found back in the section on setting up PCTRACE for your machine. 2. Once at the main menu, press 3 for define/edit board, and then select 4 for define board dimensions. For our purposes we will use a board size of 80 x 80, which translates into a 4 inch square board. 3. Select function 1 to enter new components. You will see that no data has been entered yet. Press A to enter data. We will put three chips on the board and two resistors. Answer each prompt below with the following data. When asked to place each chip answer Y and place the chip with the cursor keys. After you have entered the last item, answer N to the "Enter another component?" prompt. Name: 8051 uP Designation: IC1 Definition file: DIP40V6 Placement: Left side of board Pad Size: 0.05 Name: 74ls373 Designation: IC2 Definition file: DIP20V3 Placement: Upper right Pad Size: 0.05 Name: 2716 Designation: IC3 Definition file: DIP24V6 Placement: Lower right Pad Size: 0.05 Name: 100k resistor Designation: R1 Definition file: 2PAD50V Placement: Upper middle Pad Size: 0.06 Name: 10k resistor Designation: R2 Definition file: 2PAD50V Placement: Lower middle Pad Size: 0.07 N exits you to the board definition menu. 4. Next, we want to enter some connections to be made between the chips. Select 2 from the menu to enter the connection entry section. Enter the following connections. All traces should be 0.02 inches wide. Answer N to each prompt of "Is this a priority connection?". When you have entered the last connection answer N to the "Enter another connection prompt?". 20 Source Device Pin Desitination Device Pin IC1 2 IC3 2 IC1 3 IC2 16 IC3 22 IC2 6 R1 1 IC2 4 R2 1 IC1 8 R2 2 IC3 6 R1 2 IC1 31 IC2 8 IC3 17 IC1 21 IC1 15 IC2 8 IC3 8 IC2 9 IC3 9 IC2 10 IC3 10 IC1 14 IC2 9 N returns you to the menu. 5. Ok, lets autoroute the board. Go back to the main menu and select 4 to autoroute the board. When prompted to use single sided routing or not, answer Y. Now hit the ESC key and watch the machine route. When it is done is will display the list of uncompleted connections to the printer or screen. Select whichever you wish. We will now be dropped back to the main menu. We can take a look at what we have done by selecting number 5 from the menu. You can cursor around and see a representation of the board on the screen. Hit ESC when done. Now lets re-route the board using double sided techniques. This time say N to single sided and Y to double sided and then hit ESC. The machine will route double sided and again give a list of incomplete connections if any exist. Select printer or screen for this list. Lets take a look at the board again. This time we may also want to use the S key to change sides of the board that we are viewing. When you are done hit ESC. 6. From the main menu, hit 6 for statistics. Displayed are five statistics that tell you how good your design is. Hit space when you are done with this. 7. Last of all we'll print this baby out. Follow instuctions in the section on the RPRINT Subprogram to do this. 21 Advanced PCTRACE Design By using the interactive router before running the autorouter, and using a few tricks, different board shapes, cutout areas, and edge connectors can be created. The following is an example of how to do this: The objective here is to make a four inch square board with a 10 pin edge connector on one side. There also needs to be a one inch square hole in the center of the board. 1. Define a board size of 5x5 inches. 2. Place a via at coordinates 0.15,0.15. A via must be placed so that the manual router has somewhere to start. 3. With the cursor still at 0.15,0.15 press F9 (manual router) to draw the outside edge. a. Right arrow to 4.20,0.15 b. Down arrow 5 times c. Right arrow 5 times d. Down arrow 22 times e. Left arrow 5 times f. Down arrow 44 times (4.2,4.2) g. Left arrow to 0.15,4.2 h. Up arrow to 0.15,0.15 4. Delete Via 1 at 0.15,0.15 5. Put the cursor at 0.15,0.2, press F9, go Up 1, Right 2, and press F9 to close the path. 6. Move to 2.0,2.0 and place a via here. 7. Start the manual router at 2.0,2.0 go right 20, down 20, left 20 and up 20. Delete the via and close the box as before. 8. Move to 4.45,1.0, start the manual router and go left 6. Press F9 again. Repeat this command at 4.45,1.1 , 4.45,1.2. The last one goes at 4.45,1.9. There will be ten traces when you are done. 9. Use the resize function (F7) to resize each of the previously drawn traces (#8) to 0.05 inches in width. 10. Add vias at 4.15,1.0 , 4.15,1.1 down to 4.15,1.9. There should now be 10 vias on the board. 11. Delete the traces at 4.45,.95 4.45,1.05 down to 4.45,1.95. This is necessary as the autorouter will get stuck on the outside loop that we created and never complete the route. 22 You must be careful not to allow the router to see a source or destination network that is circular. It will cause the router to hang the computer in an infinite loop. 12. Exit to the component entry screen and add a 40 pin DIP that is horizontal (DIP40H6) to the top of the board. Make sure that it is opposite the vias shown will placing the 40 pin device. Also make sure that it is within the bounds of the outside edge we drew. 13. Enter the following connections. IC1-40 to V1-1 IC1-22 to V7-1 IC1-21 to V10-1 14. Run the autorouter but say no to clearing the traces. Use single sided mode. When the autorouter has completed this process, go back to the interactive router and notice that all the traces went around the middle box. The router will not cross that boxed area. This system will allow you to get the general board shape and edge connector dimensions correct. You will still have to cut and file the edge connector to get it to fit nicely. When doing double sided boards the same technique will work. You will have to be careful that as you add vias, you bring the edge connector trace out far enough to offset them so that you can get individual pads for each side. Instead of using edge connectors you could also define a single pad definition and use numbers other than V1, V2, and so forth. If you are designing a card for an IBM PC, use A1-A31 and B1-B31. The pads would have to be placed first using the component entry system and then go in with the interactive system to put in the connections to the pads. One method of marking the boundaries of the board so that you can see where you are placing chips, relative to the board edge and connector, might be to put a via at any corner so that it will show up as a single pad in the placechip function. It will also give you the general outline of the edge connector. 23 RPRINT.EXE Subprogram Execute this program by typing RPRINT from the dos prompt. Upon entry into this program you will be prompted for you printer type. Enter the corresponding number. You will then be prompted for the board name. Type the name with no extension. The main control panel will now explode onto the screen. A math coprocessor is particularly useful in this program. 1. File name: Selecting 1 will allow you to change the file to be printed. Enter the filename with no extension. 2. Board side: This selects the board side to print. Selecting this number will ask if you wish to change board sides to print. Answer Y or N. Single sided boards are done on the solder side. 3. Mirroring: This selection will allow you to mirror the board left to right for whatever reason you might have. 4. Negative: This function will allow you to toggle between printing a negative or a positive of the actual board. 5. Actual size: Laser printers and 24 pin dot matrix printers can output the images at actual size. If your printer will not do this, this menu choice will not exist. You can use this selection to toggle between actual size and double size printing. 6. Print Board: This selection starts the printing of the board. 7. Exit program: This selection exit the RPRINT program back to DOS. Note: The postscript driver also has the ability to output to a file. You will be prompted after pressing 6 as to whether you wish to print to the printer or to a file. If you select a file, the program will prompt for a file name. Do not enter an extension. ".PST" will be appended automatically to the filename. This allows you to use someones (god forbid) MAC Laserwriter or a high quality typesetter. 24 Keyboard Summaries Chip Placement Screen: ESC - Option to Abandon Placement RET - Place chip at current location Cursor Keys - Moves chip one space for each depression Shift Cursor Key - Moves chip 10 spaces for each depression Define Chip Definition: ESC - Option to Abandon Definition RET - Place pin at current location Cursor Keys - Moves cursor one space for each stroke BACKSPACE - Removes last placed pin Spider Web System: M* - Set system to move highlighted chip Cursor keys - Move chip one space on board RET - Place chip at current location ESC - Abandon placement +,-* - Increment and Decrement through chips E* - Exit Web System * - Denotes that this selection is displayed on screen. Interactive Router: S - Display other side of board G - Grab a piece of trace at cursor E,ESC - Exit interactive router F1 - Select source pad F2 - Select destination pad F3 - Attempt to connect source and destination F4 - Delete traces F5 - Place via at cursor location F6 - Delete via at cursor location F7 - Resize selected trace F8 - See if route is possible between source and destination pads F9 - Enters and exits the manual router 25 Order Form Please enclose this form when ordering. Name: __________________________________________ Address1: __________________________________________ Address2: __________________________________________ City: _________________ State: _______ Zip:_________ Phone Number: (________) ________-______________ Serial number on opening screen of PCTRACE: _________________ Computer name: _____________________________________ Processor: 8086 8088 80186 80188 80286 80386 80386SX Printer type: _____________________________________ Suggestions/comments/other information: ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Please also enclose the $75 check or money order, (do not send cash) made payable to: Douglas E. Ehlers 4520 S. 58th Lincoln, NE 68516 (402) 435-8440