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RiscPcb Version 0.01 © 1997 T.Swanborough Copyright ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Version 0.01 of this RiscPCB is Freeware and is supplied on the understanding that :- Any copies made of this application, contain ALL files in the directory (Including this one). • It may not be sold for a profit. • It may not be included on any Public Domain disk costing more than £2 without prior agreement with the author. • It may NOT be included on any CD ROM collection where the price of the CD is in excess of £15 without prior agreement with author. • The copyright remains with T.Swanborough at all times. • I offer no guarantees as to the reliability/stability of RiscPcb or any of its functions. This software is provided 'as is', with no guarantee of its suitability for any purpose. No responsibility will be accepted for any data lost while using this program. NO WARRANTY IS GIVEN! Please note: new versions of RiscPcb can be downloaded from http://www.idealist.demon.co.uk/ Please send any comments/bugs via EMAIL terry@idealist.demon.co.uk Any suggestions regarding the program would be gratefully received. A bit of history ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Although I have been using Acorn machines since the Acorn Atom, this is my first major attempt at programming in the wimp environment. The program started life in Basic but it was soon obvious that it would be to slow, so i've been teaching myself C/C++ (slowly). I've been designing PCBs for about ten years, they are used mainly for radio transmitters & receivers so they tend to be double sided boards. I normally use a DOS based program to create PCBs but never could quite ignore the Acorn A440 that lurks in the corner at work so I started toying with the idea of writing a PCB program that could produce artwork printed via !printers, or out to files (GERBER) for the creation of professional PCB. Most of the PCB programs i've tried to use on the PC tend to be rather complicated, so I have tried to keep the operation of the program as simple as possible, making operations similar to !draw, where possible. This is what I have so far. Terry ...... Operation ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Please note you will need the Toolbox Modules to run RiscPcb I have tested the program on a riscpc600 riscos3.7 & on 3.1 on a A440 it also works with the StrongArm. The program is started in the normal way by double clicking the !RiscPcb icon, after a short wait the riscpcb icon should appear on the icon bar at the bottom of the screen, press the SELECT button over the icon to open the main window The program works in four possible modes pad,track,text,and select. These are selectable via four icons. INDEX ¨¨¨¨¨ (1): LAYERS (2): PAD MODE (3): TRACK MODE (4): TEXT MODE (5): SELECT MODE (6): COMPONENT FILES (7): PCB FILES (8): GENERAL KEYS (9): PRINTING (10): GERBER OUTPUT (11): LIMITATIONS (12): FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1): LAYERS ¨¨¨¨¨¨ The current Layer you are editing is selectable via the layer selection icon. All layers pads,track,text placed on this layer will appear on all layers. This is useful when creating doubled sided pcbs as any pad placed will appear on both sides also useful for marking outline of board. solder side bottom side of board comp side top side of board silk screen used for location of components ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2): PAD MODE ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ The current pad shape you are using is selectable by pressing the menu button over the pad icon. (note: this will only work if you have selected the pad icon) The current selected pad is shown in red. The layer will automatically set to the last layer you were editing in pad mode. To place a pad use SELECT To erase a pad use ADJUST you have to be exactly over the centre of the pad for this to work To update a pad to a new shape/layer place new pad over the exact centre of the pad you wish to update and press the SELECT button. Note: There are two shaded pads in the pad selection window these are rotations of the pads to their left, if any one of these pads are used and you then rotate the pad or component containing them, they will automatically be rotated for you. The pads on the screen cannot be simply rotated because of the GERBER output option, GERBER files do not know what shape a pad is it only Knows it by a id number, therefore if you rotate a normal oval/square pad it will move to a new position but will not rotate itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (3): TRACK MODE ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ The track width you are using is selectable by pressing the menu button over the track icon. (note: this will only work if you have selected the track icon) The current selected track is shown in red. The layer will automatically set to the last layer you were editing in Track mode. PLACING TRACKS To place a track first select the layer and track width, now click the SELECT button this is now the track start, a rubber band will now appear, move and click SELECT again this will place the track. To turn off the rubber band move to an empty area of screen and press adjust. DELETING TRACKS Pressing adjust anywhere along the length of a track will have the following effect,The track will be lifted for editing, the end of the track you were nearest to will be the end that will be lifted.This way either end of a track may be lifted and can be edited to new lengths quite easily. if you try to place a track of zero length a via pad (top left pad in pad selection window) will be put in its place and the layer will toggle between solder/comp side. this way tracks can be placed on double sided boards quite easily. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (4): TEXT MODE ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ When entering text mode a window will appear allowing various options to be set,move into the main window and press the SELECT button this will place the text. when in SELECT MODE text can be edited by selecting the text and pressing ^E ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (5): SELECT MODE ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ This mode works very much the same as !Draw pads,tracks,text can be selected A single click of the mouse SELECT button will select the item under the mouse pointer. A click/drag of the mouse SELECT button will allow selection of multiple items A click/drag of the mouse SELECT button above an item will allow you to move the items position, in the case of Pads & Components if an ALT key is held while moving a pad/component any attached tracks will be moved as well. a double click of the mouse SELECT button will cycle through all the selectable items under the mouse pointer. The ADJUST button can be used to select/unselect items Once selected various functions can be performed EDIT ^E also via menu COPY ^C " " " DELETE ^X " " " ROTATE ^R " " " MAKE COMPONENT ^G " " " UNMAKE COMPONENT ^U " " " The ROTATE command will rotate at the centre of the currently selected area, not around the centre of each selected item. !Draw does not do this unless you group everything together. ie. If you have two rectangles side by side and rotate them using Draw they will rotate at their own centres and clash into each other. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (6): COMPONENT FILES ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Creating/Saving Components ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ SELECT the items you want included in the component press ^G to create the component go to save from main menu, Save Comp will now be highlighted drag and drop in the normal way. note: save comp will only be highlighted if 1 component has been selected. loading components ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ drag component file to main window ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (7): PCB FILES ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Saving PCB files ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Go to Save in the main menu then go to Save pcb enter filename then drag and drop in the normal way. note: any changes in the pad shape/sizes will be saved with the pcb file also line widths will be saved. Loading Pcb files ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ drag PCB file to main window ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (8): GENERAL KEYS ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ PAGE UP key will zoom in at centre PAGE DOWN key will zoom out at centre CURSOR KEYS will pane around main window ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (9): Printing ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ A printout of any layer can be produced via !printers !! WARNING this can take a long time on older machines !! There is a setup button in the main print window use this to select layers to print more than one layer can be printed at a time ,if you select comp & ground an then produce a print out, this represents the top of a double sided board with ground plane, the white crosses are used to locate earth pads on the solder side, one disadvantage of producing ground planes in this way is if you have a lot of top tracks (comp side) you can isolate an earth pad from the ground plane, by using the white crosses for reference you can see if any of these have been isolated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (10): Gerber Output ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ Gerber files can be produced from !RiscPcb This is a industry standard way of producing professional PCBs, there is also a save aperture list option this will save a text file containing all the D numbers that RiscPcb assigns to pads / tracks ,this normally has to be sent with the GERBER files so that the PCB can be photo plotted correctly. Please note: RiscPcb can be used in conjunction with prevue a PC based gerber file viewer please read the sections in the prevue directory Solder Side bottom of board Comp Side Top of board Silk screen Used for location of components Solder Mask Created by using the pads on the Solder Side but increasing the aperture list by 20 thou Ground Plane Created by using the tracks & pads on the Comp Side but increasing the aperture list by 30 thou Which is then normally reversed and then merged with the comp side to create the top of a double sided board. Drill Positions Created by using pad positions on solder side ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (11): Limitations ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ All measurements are in imperial only Board size is limited to 6"x 6" there is no way to allocate drill sizes to pads apertures no auto route facility does not support drawing of arcs or circles there is an extended gerber file format to support this but i don’t know how standard it is at the moment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (12): Future Enhancements ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ all of the limitations above. Selectable option between board layout or circuit diagram design create rats nest from circuit diagrams. ability to import gerber files. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
