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Hello,
No doubt then , that all would agree to the following test to see if high end PCB layout programs really are hard or easy……
In order to see if High end PCB Layout programs are not more difficult than they should be, a test should be done as follows….
Thirty electronics graduates should be chosen at random, none of whom should have any prior experience of using a high end PCB layout program…
They should each be given the task (over 8 hours in a day) of making a 2cm by 2cm PCB (1.6mm thick) comprising nothing more than a 0805 resistor and 0603 capacitor connected in parallel on the top layer. The bottom layer should be completely covered in copper, to within 1mm of the edge of the PCB and should be connected by three vias (round, 0.6mm hole diameter, 1.2mm total diameter) to the net of one terminal of the resistor/capacitor. The components should be named “R1” and “C1” in silkscreen.
There should be solder resist correctly covering the top layer, except for over the solder mask, which would be outside 0.2mm outside the copper of the resistor/capacitor pads.
There should be a solder paste layer, covering each pad of the R and C to within 0.2mm of the pad’s edges.
A rectangular silkscreen “box” of 0.3mm line thickness should surround each component. Any silkscreen should never be nearer than 0.3mm to a pad.
Different net copper should be at least 0.3mm apart.
No part of any pad should be nearer than 1mm to a via hole.
Via holes should be at least 1mm apart.
No hole should be nearer than 1mm from the board edge.
Each of the components should be correctly placed into a library named “TEST”. The components should have their centres correctly centred so that a file of pick-n-place coordinates can be delivered to the PCB assemblers.
There should be no solder resist on the bottom layer.
After finishing the PCB, the gerber files should be correctly produced, to include layers as follows…top copper, bottom copper, silkscreen, solder mask, solder paste.
The trial people will each be given a pre-made version of this PCB , so they have a better idea of what it is they are meant to do.
Let’s get this test done with a high end PCB layout program, and lets see just how easy these high end PCB layout programs are not!
The result of all this, will be that the Government works out what a shambles the high end PCB layout fraternity is, and realises that this is holding up the country’s industry, meaning a reduction in tax revenue due to lower productivity….then the government will sort it out…By either askin for proper “simplified guides” to be made, or a new PCB layout program made, or rather, just stick with Eagle for simple boards, and make an augmented Eagle for the DDR3 type boards.
A PCB is a simple structure, there is no earthly reason why laying out a simple PCB in a high end PCB layout program should be difficult.
If laying out a simple PCB in Eagle is simple (which it is), then why is this not simple to do in a high end PCB layout program?
(by the way, the above trialees should have internet access throughout the 8 hours)
Thanks.
I know that you are a very competent person.
You chose to do engineering so you are a decent guy, prepared to work for your pay, a doer, a tryer.
But look at what you have said, it echos what so many others say…..you are expressing how very difficult for you it was to learn the high end tools.
It should be obvious to all of us that most PCBs are simple, its bits of copper stuck to a bit of fibreglass, with bits of solder resist etc……..there is no earthly reason that any PCB CAD Package should be difficult. These tools are made more difficult than they need to be.
Someone said to me that high-end PCB packages MUST be difficult because they can do all sorts of things…….well that doesn’t make sense…..my laptop can do fantastically complicated calculations, but its still easy to use it to do 2+2 in the provided windows calculator.
The "TEST" of the post#31 above is coming soon, someone from a big UK newspaper has contacted me through someone else, and they want to go ahead with it...they have the headline ready for the newspaper for after the test......"UK electronics graduates cannot make simple circuit board".
By the way, it is not myself that is driving this PCB “TEST” of post#31, I am just a go-between here. It is so widely known and acknowledged that the PCB layout fraternity needs shaking up, that this is what is now happening.
demo mode not being able to save is not too much use.Treez, you can practice the high end PCB programs at home. I have looked at many of them over the years. They are free for the asking. Some are unlimited for 30 days and then go in to demo mode like not being able to save.
That previous post didn’t mention that with high-end PCB layout packages, you can’t practice them at home because they are too expensive…You can practice Eagle at home because it has a free version. (however, you don’t need to practice eagle as its so simple).
I think many Engineering managers will be smiling at this thread, because they know of a “nice use” for high-end PCB layout packages in their current “hard-to-understand” form…..
Picture this if you will, a 2-year graduate electronics engineer (who hasn’t used PCB layout software before) asks for their first pay rise.
Hmmm…..What the Engineering Manager then does, is set them a very simple test circuit to draw and lay out on the company’s high-end PCB layout package (knowing full well that the graduate will struggle like heck and not manage to get it done in a few days). The PCB dept will be told not to give the graduate any advice for the test.
After the graduate has failed to complete the job after two or three days, the Engineering Manager then pulls the graduate aside and informs him/her that they are not worth the pay rise…after all, they can’t even lay a simple circuit out in a couple of days.
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