Okay, we're going to continue where we left off last time of just uh, doing an off-the-cuff uh, first impression review of Uh Kead here now I unfortunately I Guess you could say had a couple of uh, tip offs from uh people last time about uh, various things. so uh, unfortunately I do know a little bit more than a slight bit more than just uh, being completely green with this program. like if you do question mark in the schematic editor here, it pops up with a hotkey list and there you go. They're the all of the uh, hotkey items for the schematic editor.

and I know a couple of other things like uh, this module here which I thought might have been the library editor or something. This is actually to link uh, component, uh it. It's actually to link Footprints through to schematic items for your particular Um project, which is a little bit convoluted. You shouldn't have to do that.

You should be able to do that with inside the schematic editor I think that, uh, that just seems a little bit silly to me. So um, what I'm going to do is I'm going to not quite sure how any of this works because it is literally the first time. so let's open up. uh, open recent.

We've already got that uh, pick programmer which we had last time so that's a good place to start. I Guess so um I don't know whether or not you have to have the schematic loaded I don't think so. So let's try and go into this component editor here and uh, not, sorry, not component Editer: this what's it called? It's called a Components to Modules Cvpcb gez I don't know, it's a bit. it's a bit convoluted I think they have to fix that up I Guess what? What do we do? Do We have to open it? No, that's right, Somebody said that we have to do a Net list.

That's right. So we have to go into apparently go into our schematic. uh generate Net list and default format orad Oh, here's a different CAD uh, Net list formats: Orcad PCB Cadar Spice There you go or add a plugin. Wow.

You can get plugins for different uh, export into different net list. That's excellent. Um, right. See this button should just not say net list.

It should should say generate or go or something like that. Start: Um, should. It's been a few buttons like that. So I'm not sure what the thinking of has been for this, so we'll keep it in the Pi programmer subdirectory here.

Pi Program.net And as I've said, this is the absolute first time I've done this. So uh, this is not a tutorial. this is a uh uh, a very much First Impressions type thing. So absolute first time I've used any of this tool.

So if you want, um, if you're watching this for the first time, you should check out my previous video. Otherwise, uh, you won't know where I left off from last time. So apparently we've got to open. I Think in this thing, we've got to open.

Ah, no, Where is it? Uh, doc? No, it wasn't in tutorials. No, where was it? No. Hang on, it's share. That's right, Demos and pick programmer.

There we go so we can load in our net. So that's what we're doing. We're loading in our net list and Bingo. Okay, so that's it.

Looks like that is correct. This is what this module does. It actually loads in, um, a net list from your schematic and then we assign footprint. So here's our footprint.

prints over here or filtered Footprints I guess I'm not sure where it actually got those from, but uh, here's all of our caps. and do we really have to? Oh, okay, no. All right, it's filtered, right? So as you choose a different component, it's it. Knows that that's a DB9 connector for example, and it's given you various options down here.

o That's a bit. Actually, that's kind of neat I guess, but it's a bit convoluted. I Would have liked to have had seen this functionality in the schematic editor I Don't see the need for having this separate program at all. Um, within the schematic editor in each part.

I Would have expected a field. Actually, let's go in there. and let's go into the schematic editor here and have a look. Do we actually have if we, uh, how do we edit I forget is it e there we go e you you hold your cursor over the particular item and you press e for edit and uh and no There it is.

it's it's got a footprint so you can presumably just enter that field value. um if you know the name I guess so you would have to actually type it in because if you just type in something you can't like, it's not like it pops up or there's a button to go to the uh, go to a PCB library to choose your footprint. You see, that's what I would have expected. That's how um Altium works and uh, some other packages.

So really, you know I Ah That's really a bit convoluted. I Think it should be in the schematic editor. It's already got the field here for the footprint, so I can't see any reason why you need that separate program should just be a button here that says you know, choose footprint a big button down here. there it is down there.

There's a tip for you off the cuff of course. haven't really thought about it too much, but that makes sense to me. If there was a pick footprint button there and you could just choose the footprint and it puts it in the schematic. and then when you push the schematic through to the PCB uh, that would be that would be much better.

So yeah, I'm not too happy with that. So apparently this is how you have to do your Footprints it's a bit crazy I know, but um, well these are already chosen by default because we already have a project. so I'm not going to do one from scratch. Yeah here.

um no eight pin dip so it's already. so if we choose this IC down here this uh eare Prom 24 cxx Um, it looks like it's come up I mean it's come up with 450 odd footprint which is um, which is okay I guess at least you can choose from the whole lot, but it's you know it's mixed in with with resistors and all sorts of stuff. So yeah. I yeah, not too keen on that at all.

So that's what apparently this uh module here does. uh display Footprints list documentation. oo let's have a look at the footprints list documentation and right, oh, it's kind of neat I guess, but that could be massively outdated in. well.

I guess it's never outdated because all the base Footprints are there. but gee, I don't know. So they've opened this, they've given you this PDF with presumably you can autogenerate something like this, the program is capable of doing that, so that's it's kind of neat. I Guess if you're a beginner and you want to choose a B basic footprint, but when you've you know in a professional package, you don't really want to.

Um, you know you don't really want some sort of capability like that. Here we go. What's this button up here? Display the filtered footprint list for the current component. Okay, yep, that's what we've got and display the full footprint list without filtering.

Okay, so at any time you can just so this one here. So if we got, oh no, there we go. So filtered? Yeah, and you can swap between the full list and fil it. Okay, fair enough.

I'm not sure how it determines the filter. Maybe based on that, it's a cap. It knows it's a cap. Maybe the Uh designator or something? C5 maybe it filters like that.

Here we go: create export file component footprint list used by Ee schema. Still don't like that name to fill the footprint field of components. Okay, so once you've matched them, that fills them up. But I think it's already been done because this is an example project.

Um, so what is it? Perform Automatic footprint Association I Don't know I Don't trust any automated Tools in a CAD program. That sounds a bit dodgy, but maybe maybe it's a decent first pass. Maybe it knows caps? Are you know, assigned to capacitor? Footprints or something like that. View Selected footprint.

Oh yeah, Oh, here we go. Now we're talking there we go. View Selected Footprint So we're in. This is a footprint viewer I'm assuming and not a footprint editor.

It doesn't look like change. Cursor shape, millimeters, metric show, text show outlines it. Oh yeah. okay.

that's pretty neat. It shows the outlet, it shows just the just the uh single line like that. or it shows the full actual width of the uh silk screen. Or it shows the outline silk screen.

That's neat. Text can be text can be the same thing there. Once again, panning is a bit of a pain in the ass in this thing. Not too happy with the panning, but uh, change cursor shape.

So this is not an editor. this is just a viewer I can't see any capability to edit. Let's view. 3D Oh, here we go.

There's our capacitor. Ah, neat. Looks like red is the top layer there. Green is the bottom layer, so haven't even opened the PCB editor yet yet.

I know I Hopefully it's consistent. They by by default Red's going to be the top layer and green is the bottom. Kind of makes sense because green is usually uh, ground and that's usually on the bottom layer and you're positive ones on the top which indicates by red so that's not bad. Kind of like that.

All right, that's pretty neat. So that's a component footprint viewer that that allows you to actually check exactly what footprint you've chosen. Which is a vital actually because you can't just rely on the name Over here. you know, Sm85? You know, who knows, right? It's someone who created that footprint.

might have had a different intention to what you think it is or to what it's labeled. So It's good to be able to go in there and check that footprint. So here we go: save net list and footprint files. Uh, View Selected Well actually I Think we're going to have to do that because no, it hasn't come up with anything.

V No, Oh okay, it's just saving the changes right? Okay, okay. View Selected Footprint Perform automatic. Okay, that create export file Okay, better do that actually. Stf: All right.

Pick programmer. Stf in the pick programmer subdirectory. Save: I Guess that's what we load into the PCB editor. All right, so we're done with that.

I Rather like like the modular approach I mean the uh modular thing that you know the schematics its own window automatically and you know Altium have followed, for example, followed the unified Library where everything's in the one program and that can. That can be nice in some respects, but this is. you know it's just nice just to have these things as separate Windows because most of the time when I'm doing Pcbs in uh Altium um I will have two separate monitors. and fact I work I used to have three separate monitors and I'd invariably end up separating the monitors into PCB and schematic anyway.

so I would actually have to create a second window instance of AUM But this does it automatic. This is because it's modular. Um, it's it's the it is the traditional uh way to do these programs. you have a separate schematic editor separate PCB Editor separate Library editor or something like that.

So really, um, that's uh, you know I don't don't think there's anything inherently wrong with that at all. and it could be advantageous. Now, somebody told me that within here within the schematic editor that we're in, there is a way to uh, the library editor is in here somewhere. Run PCB New to layout, new printed circuit board run CV PCB Okay, so you can load up that module we just had associate components with Footprints Pretty convoluted process as I said, but somebody mentioned that there is the editor in here tools.

Library Browser Library Editor There we go. All right, let's try the library browser. This is the schematic component Library browser and what have we got here? or where's the list? Create a new component, load component to edit from current Library Ah, okay. I would have preferred if it like down the right hand side here.

it just had a list of all your current components, but it looks like you've got to go up here and actually load one and choose your library and that's okay I just would have preferred that it actually had a um actually had a a direct wind like a tabed window or something on the side or something like that. Anyway, I do like as I mentioned before, I do like the fact that it has generated I presumably automatically a library for the current project. Um, that's rather neat. When you're loading someone's exist in design.

Then you can just load up their partic. you know, steal all their Footprints and stuff like that, doesn't It sounds bad, but it's not. You know, that's a that's a good idea. If you're loading in someone else's project, you go.

Oh look, they got all these nice Footprints I Want and uh, you can actually steal them out and put them in your own libraries. or just save it as their library and then just load it up. So let's say Place pin. That's pretty easy.

Oh, where's the picture of the pin? I'm trying to place a pin I Would have expected a picture of the PIN to show up and I presume that is that the this end or is that that end of the line? We'll find out. Let me click there. Okay, you can do the length of it3 in 300 th to start. width is the length does.

Does that change in real time? Let's try it. Two? Yes, it does all right. so it'll be shorter than the others pin name test, pin number 10 and orientation right? blah blah graphic Styles Okay, so you can do It's got all the standard stuff you can do clocks, inverted clocks, and inputs and outputs. and uh, no, it's missing.

Open collector. Where's an open collector output? It's not there anyway. Um, let's just say it's a full inage. Nah, let's go.

What's it? An inverted clock? There we go. Ah, now it's popped up. Okay, it would have been. Is that a bug? I Don't know.

It probably should pop up by default as that. So there you go. We just added a pin. Nice easy that works well.

What else can you place? You can place text. rectangles, circles, arcs, lines of polygons. That's probably all you want. Um I assume that this text up here is your do The keys work the same.

So if I remember the cursor over and press E does that edit? Yes, it does. It edits that field so it is consistent. Um, with the uh schematic editor. It should be because the library editor is also part of the schematic editor.

So um, for the reference field. But how do we know that's the designator? It doesn't really. It just says it's a field. It doesn't actually say, doesn't actually say it's a reference designator so you can't actually place it's.

all you're doing is really placing text. You're not actually placing a reference designator as such. So there you go. Okay, right.

it's interesting. Now, what else have we got here? Test for duplicate and off- grid pins. That's handy because there's nothing worse than you having. And then you've used a different grid for your library editor.

and you've got some pins that slightly off grid. They're not in. They, they're not joined up to one of these dots You probably can't see those little background dots there. It's hard to see, but that that uh Grid in there.

If that pin is slightly off and then you go and place this Library component inside your schematic, then um, if it doesn't match and it's slightly off, it's really annoying. Unless you've got like a snap, an auto and a smart snap system that'll snap your cursor to the pin. Um, that can really be annoying and uh, and really ruin your day. so not too.

Keen With that, is there an option to push it straight through to, uh, place it directly there. Save: You can save it to the library, export it, import it. uh oh. let's have a look at import key CAD component libraries.

No, it's not like you can import a an Eagle footprint or something like that. Maybe there's a tool out there that allows you to convert libraries, but you can't do it directly inside the Library Ad Update component: create new component load component. Oh boy. Okay, and uh, presumably You' be able to make sub components I'm assuming that's what this field here is for is for doing subcomponents.

like if you've got a uh nangate like a 74, it would have four individual components within the one. Library So it would have you know. U1 A U1 B U1 C U1 D Etc So I'm assuming that's what that field there is four and create a new component load component and save current library to dis select working Library There's no place option. Where's a place? export current drawing I Want just a place command move part anchor.

well the anchor is in the center I'm assuming let's try that. move it here. Yep, there we go. So yeah, there's no option.

no button there to just go and place it. Bummer. So it only allows you to edit. Oh well.

could be worse. Discard disch dis card changes. Yes, All right. So that's our library editor.

I'm It's not bad. I Mean it, it, it does the job. Um, so where were we up to? We're up to the PCB So trying to push this through through to a PCB Now. So that's our library browser.

A library editor? Um, annotate. Oh, let's have a look at annotate. You can annotate the entire schematic, use the entire schematic, use current page only. Okay, so you can limit it the scope to the current page, which is good.

Um, you can keep any existing annotation so presumably anything with a question mark left. So if I I assume if you put like U something that it will actually uh like if you put you question mark then it will actually um add and and and give you the next available uh number. So if you've got C1 through five on your sheet and you've got C question mark, it will give you C6 for the next one. So or you can reset and just reannotate the entire schematic.

Good. That's a, uh, essential item. So we've generated our net list. Um, assign component Footprints That's that.

uh CV editor thing that we had before is's already running. Yeah, there there it is. Continue no okay, uh and you can save your preferences. All right Layout Printed Circuit board I Guess there's no way to is there a way to push it? Run PCB New to layout, so there's not like a push command to P something like that or something equivalent to automatically load in the PCB program and load in the net list from this.

It' be nice if it was automated. if it was just like a push a button up here that just said push to PCB and it would automatically generate the net list. If it has to work that way, then fine. generates a net net list, opens the PCB editor and loads in the net list, but you got to do it manually.

It's not a big deal, but just would have been nice to automate that process. Then again, I'm getting ahead of my myself. It might actually do that and it might make a fool of me. So run PCB New to lay out circuit board here we go.

Oh okay, no, it's all. it's smart. There you go, it's automatically loaded up the PCB It automatically knows because this is an existing project. So I Guess we would have had to start a new project to actually see if it had that capability of pushing those parts through.

So we're in the PCB editor now and it works. Looks like panning is exactly the same. It zooms in and out wherever your current cursor is. Um, how do you switch layers Let's uh, try the plus minus key.

That's what you're doing Alum Oh yeah, I can see it move over here Component: Uh no, it's just switch in between. Oh yeah it is. It's switching between. It says the layer over here.

it says front copper layer, back copper layer is called Cver I can't even pronounce that? I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong. but why is it called Cver by default? I Have no idea. Is that some sort of uh, it's obviously means something in a different language perhaps. but at least it.

uh, the tool tip there tells you it's the back copper layer So, but okay, I'm selecting that layer but it's not redrawing the screen so it's not putting that on top. See, it's it's shadowed and it's underneath. So it's how do I make like a single layer mode which is the equivalent in Altium Which allows. Um, because this can get very complicated like if I'm if I'm doing this board and it's an eight layer board for example.

And you've got you know, eight different layers of all things that are slightly all shaded in different colors. It's going to be very confusing. so I Want to focus that color show Pro Active Layer Selections: Yeah, there we go. It's compos, scent cver Um so really these are not in English Um I don't know what language that is.

Somebody will tell a French because I think the main program is French I believe if I'm not mistaken. So and that kind of sounds French to me. So select layer pairs top layer, bottom layer. I'm not sure what this layer pair businesses are the same.

Yeah, Oh okay, right to be displayed I Guess I don't Yeah I don't understand that. Anyway, all I want to do is design Real Check reading n list. Let me look at the buttons here. Uh, open Module Editor Module Editor: I Assume Once again, it's uh I believe that's the footprint editor.

If I'm not mistaken, let's click on that and it is. It's the footprint editor but they've called it the Module editor. Wow, Really? I Think they need to work on these names I Mean you know nobody calls a PCB Footprint a module. That's just yeah, that just doesn't work.

Um new module. Load module from library? Yeah. I Load module from current board? No, no, nothing worked there. So anyway, their names are a bit convoluted.

Um, coming from a uh English speaking Altium user of course. Uh, completely biased. So oh boy. what else have we've got here? We've got mode footprint, manual and automatic move and place modules, mode, tracking Auto routing.

Ah, why anyone bothers with auto routing in a lowend product like this? You're just wasting your effort. If this thing does have an auto router, then uh I don't know why you would bother? Yeah I've turned that on and I'm not sure what I'm doing there manual and automatic move in place H show active layer selections and really I'm at a losses to bottom layer. top layer is I don't understand that. Okay, how do you like a double click on this and I expect maybe show all copper layers.

Yeah, okay, no hide all copper layers. All right. I've hit all my copper layers and I've just got one thing I don't like. um is the template on there I don't traditionally like a template on my PCB file? um sometimes I would do that.

um some uh jobs I've worked out of you know, forced me to do that and we'll have like a big info panel up here which has all the build information and stuff like that. but uh, typically. um, because that's red. I'm going to assume that's on the copper that's on the top copper layer and I really don't like that at all.

if I move my cursor over that and hit edit No, it's a it is a temp I think it looks like that hasn't been placed manually. This is all. this outer border here is a is a template thing and I'm not too keen on that at all. Um, if it does that by default if you go new I'm assuming it does that, if you go file new, it will come up with that template.

That's my guess anyway. but I still haven't figured out how to get to my layer I Know I should read the manual but I don't want to I Want to I Want to see how that's the whole idea of this video is to see how intuitive high contrast display mode: Oh I I Like that that allows you to uh okay, that allows you to see things. Can you switch between layers with that? Ah yeah, now we're talking Okay, so maybe you've got Ah that's the equivalent. There you go: I think I found it.

That's the equivalent of the single layer mode I.E It makes all the other layers grayed out and then the current layer you're on highlighted red above everything else and that's I'd have to load in a multi-layer board to actually confirm that effect. Um, and you can see this track here. Why have they go and around like that? We? why not just straight down like that? Anyway, Um, that's the things you pick up when you uh, look at boards in isolation and look at layers in isolation like this. you can really see things.

Oh okay, there's the uh, solid to um, uh outline Trace mode I'm not. Some people are a big fan of the outline Trace Mode I am not when I'm laying out my boards I like to see the real thing exactly like I'm going to get it. Um, so, but some people like that so that's a good feature. Show Via in outline Mode: Okay, Excellent.

I don't think there's any VI on this board is there? It's like oh yeah, there's a couple down here. Okay, there we go. And the good thing is there you go. It shows the uh net uh name on the it shows the net name on all you know parts of the trace.

uh, the traces that it can which is excellent and that really works. the the threshold level there actually where that switches on and off that is. they've chosen that well. I'm quite happy with that cuz you can read that almost down to that last level there and then it switches off.

You see that text that data rb7 there. it gets down to there and I can still just read that and then bang threshold level Perfect. Excellent work. They've done that well.

so let's take a look at the uh ah. still used to dragging, left, dragging. Hang on goof the window here. Um, so let's the outline via mode.

show. Pads in outline Mode: Okay, right. Excellent. VI In oh, that's uh, show outline the field areas.

that's our polygon pore. Excellent. Okay, you now how do I turn that off? Oh, we've disabled completely disabled. do Not show field areas in zones.

Okay, right. And then that show field areas. Okay, so we got show field areas. If we turn the outline mode off, where was it Show tracks in outline mode? No, we've lost that other icon.

Where did it go? Oh, there we go. Look yeah, this window is not big enough. We've lost a couple of items down the bottom here. We've got a couple show hiide the toolbar for microwave tools.

Ooh ooh, it's got Microwave tools. Does it create Gap Specified length for microwave applications. Create line of specified length. There you go there you excellent.

It's got some, uh, highspeed, um, highspeed design capability. You can create a matched length. Uh, it doesn't I Don't know if that does a match length pair or not, but certainly wow Length: Okay, yeah, I don't know how that works. That would require an hour of playing around with just on its own, but that's good that that that capability is there.

At least show the Layers Manager Toolbar: Okay, excellent and normal. Ah, normal contrast display mode. There it is. So it was off the screen.

So once again, you've got to have bigger than a 1280 by 720 screen to maybe not to use it, but to see all the icons and stuff, you've got to have a screen that's bigger than that. So there you go. That's our so we'll be able to see our polygons there. Our polygons are gone, you just make them vanish.

That's nice polygon outline mode. Some people like that and but me: I I Either want full polygons or no polygons if I'm routing the board and then full polygon, can we just redraw I wonder if we can reflood that polygon if we just go? Edit: No. Maybe I've got to go to the top layer. oh press Escape I'm on the top layer.

the Kuv pronouncing that wrong I'm sure the French people are laughing at me and E for edit see: I can't edit that polygon so there's probably some redraw polygon command somewhere. free route DLC Oh boy that PCB editors are you know to look at these things I've been going for 33 minutes already and I Really, it would take me many, many hours to come to grips with this PCB editor. So um, please forgive me if I don't cover. I'm definitely not going to be able to cover everything here.

and once again, this is the first time I've used it now. They call it a zone. Is it a yeah, they call it a Zone a flood fill or a polygon. pore is a Zone and but they're in zones.

show field areas in zones. Okay, sorry polygon PO is a Zone in uh key CAD speak I Guess so every every program has its own little you know different thing like that. Now what? Maybe I'm probably done enough I Want to do in a preloaded PCB actually? Um, well, no. I haven't.

I mean let's go in and edit a pin. For example, module properties See: it's a module. It's A. it's a PCB module.

I Don't like that. it's a it's a part. you know it's oh. they call it a module.

Don't like it so you can. Looks like you can change the footprint directly. here. you can choose another one change module.

You know it should be called footprint. crazy. Um, how can I edit that pad? I Just want to edit that pad. please.

Uh, Edit: no, it just footprint. See, they've called it footprint there. but when you go into it, it's module, right? That's there it is. They've got footprint here here.

Um, and then delete module. It's delete footprint is it not? I Don't understand all the mixed. There's a lot of mixed terminology in this program, which uh, could do with some clarification. Um Global move in place like how do I can I edit Surely I can edit the pad Must be a way I can edit the pad.

This is not good anyway. Uh, metric Imperial mode of course. um I'm sure you can change out grid, hide hide grid. Okay, the grids are just dots at the moment.

Can probably change those to lines for those who prefer the line grid. Uh, origin point for the grid Okay Place origin point for the drill and place files I'm not sure why you'd want a different one. Uh, usually they're tied together. Set the origin point for the grid.

Oh okay, right. So you can offset a grid from the oh yeah? I Don't know. Um, add layer alignment Target Oh okay, that's neat. You can add a fiducial.

There we go. Layer alignment. It's not a fiducial, that's just A. it's just a yeah.

They've just done a Target thing. I Don't know. Don't get it. Add field zones, add module.

There it is. ADD Module not add footprint. um. display local rats nest.

Okay, that's what I wanted to look at when I did a a board I wanted to display The Rat's Nest but you won't get that on the finished board because presumably The Rat's Nest will vanish. Um, if you don't know what A Rat's Nest is, it just shows all the connections between. You know, if this, this resistor here is connected to this pin down here, there'll be a faint line between those. Um, when you first put all the footprints down, it'll tell you that you have to.

You know you haven't routed that connection yet and that's what A Rat's Nest is. so. uh. highlight net.

Oh, there we go. That highlights a net. Neat. That works.

Pretty essential feature in a uh PCB program. Does it okay? It just swaps it. Maybe if you hold down control. Does it highlight multiple shift? No, it doesn't.

It doesn't let you highlight multiple. I Really like it' be nice if that could highlight multiple traces. Maybe there is a way to do it, but it doesn't look like it. but it highlights it in top and bottom and does it come through? That's what.

I Want to check? Does it come through the high contrast display mode? Yes, it does. There we go. We're in high contrast display mode and although it doesn't, it shows you. it does show you the highlighted on the bottom.

so they've got that working. Pretty happy with with that. Um, and what else have we got here? Oh boy. Fast access to the webbased free route.

Advanced Router No thanks Auto Routers Geez. Uh. Perform design realle checks. buy netclass Minimum: Trace Width Excellent.

Uh. Minimum: VI Is it only in millimeters? or can you choose Metric for that if we're in Mill We're in millimeter mode at the moment. So I'm assuming if if we go to Imperial mode inches and we go back up to that, where was it? Design rules? No. hang on.

Where was it? ERC Perform Design Real Check There it is in inches. Yes, it's put the right. It's put the Um quote marks there for inches. There you go.

But it does okay. It does. Switch That works. They've done that.

Um, be nice if you could do it from within here. Just you know. a little button up here which says Imperial Metric or something like that, but that's only A small thing. Not a big deal.

Um, polar coordinates as well. You can display the uh, there you go down In down here, you can display polar coordinates. Excellent. That's handy for laying out, uh, circular boards and things like that.

So um, you know, if youve got a circular board and you want to put things around the outside connector at at certain you know, 10 intervals or something like that. Um, that's pretty handy. So I like that. That's neat.

Disabled design Real checkin presumably Azure Routing: Uh, what else have we got? Page settings, paper size, and text. Oh yeah, by default? Yeah. A4 none of this. Uh, none of this.

Uh, fools. none of this. you us rubbish. That's great.

A4 Excellent. Um, and what? El we got 3D Display: Oh, let's have a look at it. There we go. let's check it out.

I Don't have my 3D space Navigator But presumably hey, there we go. Neat that you know it's it's pretty primitive, but uh, it's certainly not. Uh, nothing compared to the Altium 3D viewer which is pretty much the best in the business. Um, but hey, for the price, you can't complain.

So there you go. That's the thing. I Use uh 3D mode for though is not necessarily for the components. I Use it because it gives you the very high contrast of what the board's going to look like.

Now this 3D mode doesn't appear to give me the Uh solder mask and stuff like that. which is what I use the 3D editor in Altium mostly for is to actually you can. It actually looks like your finished board. You change the color of the solder mask.

It shows the solder mask expansion and stuff like that. That's one thing we haven't looked at yet is solder mask expansion in here 3D Axis 3D Zone Fill in you can turn the zones off and on. Okay, well that's wonderful, but where's the where's the Uh solder mask? I Mean that's a huge I Think they've missed the boat there? Oh yeah, there you go. You can export to a PNG or Peg.

That's nice. but I think they've entirely missed. half of the point of having a 3D mode is that you can actually view the bord as a finished product and I'd have to load up Alum to actually, um, show you. But I've done it in previous videos and it shows the solder mask expansion in the silk screen and stuff like that.

So here we go. If we go mask here we go. Here's our mask. There we go see and what I'm talking about by solder mask expansion right? assuming like this is all a through hole board.

but if this was a if this was a um uh SMD board right that distance between those two pink or purple solder mask um that solder mask there that wouldn't be enough and you'd get A breakout between those two. You know there would be a minimum um, say 4 TH or 5 TH or something like that that you'd want between the uh, solder mask points there. So um, you'd have to go through and ah, there's so much to do in a P Ofb Ed it's crazy. So in the design rule Checker um, you would have to check I would have to make sure that it can actually do what solder mask.

uh, solder mask. um uh. rule that the actual rules apply to the solder mask as well and possibly it looks like it might only be a copper. DRC Checker I Don't quote me on this, but I can't see like any option there.

minimum minum track width minimum via size, minimum microa size. but where's like the options for the solder mask expansion I don't for for the solder mask you know, like a a minimum solder mask Slither they they might call it so I don't see anything there at all. Crazy unconnected pads, track clearances, nut looks like it's only a copper DLC Oh, that's pretty disappointing. Um, any good.

uh PCB Tool should be able to, um, tell you that you haven't met some minimum requirement between your solder mask there. So oh jeez, I wish it had that feature. It's not a showstopper, but gee, that would have been nice. um and also in the 3D viewer of course because but we can view our we're in high contrast mode here.

Okay, so if we yeah, you've got to go into that high contrast mode to actually see the SOA mask expansion. That's not bad. you know you can. that's a substitute for the good 3D mode.

that would have that. But yeah, well. there you go. I Mean, once you're in okay, once you're in that high contrast mode, you can just single click between the layers and that's that's that's really quite good.

I Do I Do like that? That works as expected. Excellent. And the silk screen layers and uh, PCB edges so it looks render okay. Ah, okay, what's that? Okay, so you can, yeah, tell it to render certain layers only effectively.

Okay, so that's like an a um turn on off feature for that layer. I Guess get no. but that's no, that's turn off and on. Okay, it seems to do the same thing if you go on there and you okay I don't get that.

But anyway, let's highlight now. what else we haven't Rat's Nest we haven't looked at Rat's Nest and I've being on for 45 minutes already. Jeez sorry, this sort of stuff takes you know it takes a long time. This is me playing with it for the first time as I've said.

So maybe if we go into to if we go back into our schematic editor and we go run new PCB run PCB New to lay out printed circuit board. well that's what I did last time but I want to actually do a completely new one um layout printed circuit board and it's just going to load piece of in is already running. Continue yes it just loads up the existing board. Maybe I've got to rename it? Let's try and save whole schematic project.

save current sheet as uh now you're getting into where you've no I'd have to go into uh Explorer and you know the file system and actually change copy a project and then delete or manually delete the PCB and oh boy yeah um I could do it I could do it um yeah if we're really really Keen I think I am I think I really want to see this so let's uh I'm off screen here I'm just uh program files x86, uh key CAD where are we yeah key Cad and being uh, share documents, demos, demos yep, pick programmer okay I'm what I'm going to do is I'm going to to re label that pick programmer board so continue. Okay, I've relabeled it all right So let's go back into this file doesn't exist anymore. So I'm going to shut down that no and right? So I've relabeled that board so it hopefully shouldn't be able to find um that pick programmer PCB anymore. So if we push through to our PCB there we go.

Excellent, Hang on, let's come up with this error message. This is normal for a new project. Yeah, whatever does not exist yet, right? Okay, so it's actually created so it knows that file's not there and it's created the board. Let me drag this into view here.

so it's created our PCB there. and once again, it did exactly what I thought it's created that template. There you go, it's create I'm not a fan of that. Maybe there's a way to disable it.

but I don't like having a template on my uh board unless I choose to do it. But anyway. Um, so now with it hasn't see, this is where it should have automatically pushed through those components. This is where you need to integrate the programs just a little bit.

You need to automatically push through that net list and load it onto this. PCB And it hasn't done that. So we've got to do that manually. obviously.

So open existing board. Save board. Place blah blah blah. Import Net Fine Component Net Read Net list.

Here we go. So we've got to read the Net list. read current Net list, browse Net list files. Ah, that.

There you go It know at least it knows the current Net list is pick program.net or did it get that before we did? It just knows that from before when we had it loaded up. I Don't know whether or not smart or just coincidence, but let's read it. so rebuild board connectivity. Some Footprints are not found in libraries.

Oh great. Okay, it hasn't found Dip Li It hasn't found the dip packages terrific, hasn't hasn't found quite a few things that's disappointing. For an example: demo program not too happy with that extra Footprints Keep Exchange Module Exchange Module I Have no idea what that means, but we do know that module means footprint Module Selection Reference Tim Stamp What Select how Footprints are recognized by their reference designator or their timestamp. Why would you want them recognized by the off if it's newer special setting after a full schematic reannotation? Okay, right, fair enough.

Keep will change in existing footprint when the necklace gives a different footprint. All right. Uh, bad track deletion. Oh, that's nice if it do keboard delete bad tracks after netless change.

If that does what I think it does, that's quite a neat feature. Um, if you're laying out a board and you've done it, you've half done it. Or you fully done it and you make some changes in the schematic and you push them forward and you import the net list here. then any non-matching tracks that don't go anywhere anymore are automatically deleted.

That can be a nice cleanup step so you don't have to go through and manually clean up those tracers. I'm going to assume that that's what that does. It really sounds like it, so that's a neat feature. I Like that that could come in, That could save you a lot of time.

So somebody was thinking there extra Footprints and if we got any leftover Footprints Um and you can lock Footprints Good Okay I didn't check that capability. You can actually lock them. um Footprints Test: read the current netlist file and list missing an extra Footprints Well, there's our duplicates. There's no duplicates, but we're missing a few.

So missing couple of P's and a couple of U's rebuild board connectivity. rebuild the full Rat's Nest useful after a manual pad change, right? No. Okay So we've read it in. I Guess we're done.

We're closed. right? Where are our Footprints Oh, there they are There they are. They've uh, dumped them all there now. Is there a way to automatic way to spread them? That's the first thing.

Would have been nice if it automatically just, uh, spread them out. but so is there an auto place. Capabilities is. The only thing that auto placement Auto component placement is good for is just getting them out of this jumbled mess.

and uh I don't think I don't remember seeing any. there was Auto routing but there's no Auto placement tools. No Free route, no design? No. All we had is the auto router thing over here.

Web based free route Advanced Router No. Okay, maybe there is some selection clarification, but yeah, this is going to get nasty. So what we're going to do? what we might have to do, there's probably a better way to do this. Surely they've thought about it.

but M for move So you know you just go M and you've got to just manually get them out of there. Oops. see I accidentally moved a uh foot? a designator instead of a footprint, you know. So wow, and this can be this.

Can you know really be an annoying step if you got a lot of components then? but maybe there's a better way to do it? Um, so don't quote me because I don't know anything about this package at all. Um, so there you go. But anyway, that shows the net lists and especially when you drag components around, that's what I was looking for. un Unfortunately, all the chips aren't in there.

but uh, when you move something around, you can see that the netless, uh, netless. the the uh Rat's Nest sorry. the rats nest. Um, lines there automatically move around with it to show you.

and that's absolutely essential with any PCB editor program to be able to do that. There's once again, there a bit of ghosting left over on the display, bit of garbage left there. that's just a driver is or something like that. But anyway, that's quite.

Uh, that's quite neat. So the Uh Rat's Nest works and you can turn that off and on. Where was it? Highlight Net Uh. display Local rats nest.

Oh, it doesn't allow you to switch it off. H Okay, no, don't know what's going on there. Yeah, Highlight and display Local Rats doesn't let you turn it off, which can be annoying cuz sometimes you just want to get rid of those bloody rats nest lines cuz they're annoying. Um, but other times they're absolutely essential so you want to be able to turn those off and on fairly easily.

There probably is a way I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. Um, what else have we got in a PCB editor? Tons of stuff haven't even covered. Uh, haven't even tried to Route anything yet? for goodness sake. Um, and grids.

Where's our grid? Where's our uh, component and uh. electrical grids hide grid preferences Display: There's no grid references. Let's try display I guess or let's try General uh. Display Polar grid.

Oh, there we go. That's neat. Okay, and once again, inch. Okay, this is where we do inches.

millimeters. Got a full screen cursor for the fan of the full screen cursor. It's there. very 1970s.

the old full screen curs cursor. If you don't know what that is, it's uh, it. It's a full screen cursor like that and you go all the way across. It's very old school, but some people love it.

Some people really get off on that. um and it. and it can be useful. So uh, that's neat and uh, DLC on options.

Okay, they are the I assume they No, you say right? DLC I assume When you're routing, it'll automatically tell you if you're It'll do online DS What's called online DLC or real time DLC Magnetic tracks When creating tracks, control the capture of the PCB cursor when the mouse cursor enters a track. Excellent. That looks like automatic uh snap centering which I think I mentioned before. um magnetic pads Excellent.

So you actually so it will snap to the center of the pad. That's absolutely essential. So if your component's off grid, this is really useful in mixed um Imperial metric uh boards. If you're um say you're laying out a a board compl an an all SMD board but you got one through hole part on there which is off grid because it's an imperial pin pitch of 0.1 in then you don't have to change your grids.

this will all you can just place your component and even though it's the pad is Off the Grid this should automatically snap your track into that particular Um pad and we can try that. but jeez! I've been going for almost an hour and wow it would take me another hour just to try out all the routing things on here. So really it's you know. Oh outline mode does it automatically do that? Or are we okay but it it has limited you to 45 which is excellent and uh oh that's yeah, that that works.

Works as expected. Routing Works Routing Works A treat. What if we go over something that is not the design not in the design rule? No hang on that doesn't seem to snap into place. Hey, what happened to my what happened to my route there? I Put it in place.

doesn't let me. Ah, right now, how do you back? Can you go back? Backs Space: Will that take you back? Yes. Backspace takes you back one point at a time that works exactly like Alium. That's brilliant.

Excellent. So you can. So if you just placed some really complicated route, you don't have to ditch it all and go back. You can just press backspace and go back.

That's excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Now it looks like it's not telling me that that's going to be a DRC error if if I go over that pad.

If I go over this pad here or try and connect to this pad, you watch, it won't see it. Didn't let me do it. It didn't let me create that route because it knows that it's a DRC violation. I'm assuming.

so if we go like this but it will let me do that. There we go and presumably I can finish that by going Escape Can I No Escape getss through the whole lot not happy with that. Why can't Why can't that just end like that? How How do I end routing? Here's my hotkey list for the PCB editor. Zoom in.

Zoom out: Zoom Auto Switch units. Oh switch units as control you? That's handy. Uh. reset Local coordinates Space undo Okay, well I'm not.

M Don't tell me that it's only going to let you finish the route if you go to a valid DRC Maybe you've got to turn DRC off. So if we switch um, where was that tools? uh, preferences? General Wow. Now I'm really getting into it. Um DC on.

let's turn DLC off. Okay, so we track only 45? Yeah, excellent track. Auto delete enabled to automatic track deletion when recreating the track. Okay, show Mod Rat NST Okay, let's try that.

I switched off my DC Okay, so if I try if I place my Trace like this. it's got a question mark there. Don't know why it's got a question mark now. Okay, yeah, see it.

Let me go it. Let me place that Trace over the pad before whereas online DLC It wouldn't let me do that, but it didn't tell me. that's the thing. It just wouldn't tell me unless I missed something down the bottom of the display or some status indicator somewhere.

But it didn't tell me that I was violating that particular track. it just wouldn't let me place it. and I find that rather annoying. So um, if I go into there, how do I end the I Guess it's Left End track.

Oh, you've got to press the end key there. It is all right. Duh. Okay, well okay, so don't press Escape people.

If you're routing a trace like that, you got to press the End Key Too bad if your end key is not conveniently uh located, then you'll have to rightclick and select this menu. So end track and there we go. We can place it and it goes like that. So the online DLC works, but it it didn't seem to give a status indicator.

Rather annoying. Um, anyway. I got to look into that stuff. but I've been going for an hour, folks.

that's uh, far too long for this uh episode. So I'm probably going to have to call it quits and um, I will very likely, uh, do more of this stuff. So that's my first impression of the PCB editor: I'm not that Keen on the way it. uh man, you manually have to, uh, export the net list first and then load the net list into the PCB and uh, it should just automatically do that sort of stuff.

Um, and uh, I I Don't know how to say edit the pad. Haven't figured out how to do something simple like edit that particular pad on that particular component. Maybe? I' you know I'm not selecting I Got to select a certain layer or something before I do that. but yeah, not too pleased.

If you can't I'm sure you can do it. Surely there's got to be a way to got to be a way to do it cuz how I'm assuming also that that whole size is actual whole size? Um I'd be very disappointed if that isn't actual size. but the only way to do that is to go in there and change it and see if that whole size changes. But it doesn't let me.

I'm only in the module here I'm uh, solder paste layers I don't actually have like a pad layer or something silly like that. and uh, I don't know. Edit there a way to edit pads please. it must be.

Oh, anyway, could take me half an hour to find that. So anyway, yeah, first impression it. um, it's a bit quirky. uh, but it's got some.

It's got some nice features. It seems to be doing some things right. It really needs to work on its naming to get things consistent with sort of what people call it in the industry. I think um, I don't know.

Maybe it's different in France or something like that. But anyway, considering it's uh, free and open source, it seems reasonably, uh, powerful. It's just a matter of driving the thing. that's all.

So I'll catch you next time.