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How to Convert PCB to Schematic Diagram
PCB to Schematic Diagram
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PCB
Schematic Diagram
Here are step by step introductions on how to convert PCB to
schematic diagram and schematic diagram to PCB file.
Step 1: The engineer analyzes the PCB layout through the circuit
board and then divides the circuit into several units.
Step 2: Prepare two computers, one of which is used to view PCB
documents, and the other is used to draw circuit diagrams.
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Step 3: Retrieve the components in the unit circuit and do
layout according to our work experience.
Step 4: Highlight the PCB document on the computer and then link it
to another computer. After the link is completed, the network needs to
be deleted.
Step 5: Repeat the first two steps until all files in the PCB document are
deleted. After that, the engineer can optimize the schematic.
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How to draw circuit diagrams according to real products?
When repairing electronic products, engineers often encounter
problems finding the drawings, especially for legacy products; the
circuit diagrams may no longer exist. In this case, to analyze and
improve the product, it is necessary to draw a circuit diagram based on
the actual product. The skills of this operation are as follows:
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1.Use the components with a large volume and many pins as a
reference for drawing. Use this as a reference to start drawing, which
can ensure accuracy andimprove work efficiency.
2. When an engineer is printing a circuit board, be sure to label
the components and pay attention to the regularity of the serial
number. They cannot randomize or remember which one to write.
Write and arrange according to a particularorder and rules to
ensure that it is not easy to make mistakes in the drawing
process.
3. Without marking the serial number of the components, if the
engineer wants to improve analysis and proofreading, you have to
number the components yourself. It is not annoying;otherwise,
the later work will be more difficult. Important components must
be marked so that they will not be missed in the process of
drawing the schematic.
4. Correctly distinguish the various wires on the circuit board.
There are various wires on the circuit board,such as power wire,
ground wire, signal wire, These wires have different layout
positions, rules, and functions. When drawing a schematic, you
must figure it out.
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5. When drawing a sketch, be sure to use transparent tracing
paper and mark it with colorful pens. It is convenient to identify,
modify,and analyze the circuit to reduce errors. In addition, when
drawing a circuit diagram, try to find a similar circuit diagram for
reference so that there is a multiplier effect, which is very worthy
of reference for newcomers.
It can be seen from the introduction that the process of
converting a PCB to a schematic diagram is not difficult.
Still, many novices lack experience or have not operated before,
so they will find it challenging to convert PCB into schematics.
Protel+PCB Convert Into Schematic – Detailed Steps
Full raiders from Protel PCB to SCH
This article takes the 4 Port Serial Interface, provided by Protel 99Se, as
an example. Open the PCB diagram, select the menu File-Export, export
the Protel network table; the file name is abbreviated as Serial.Net. 2.
Start the program Omninet for Windows, select Protel as the input file
type (Type). In Input File 1, use Browse to specify the location of
the netlist file. Select EDIF as the output file type (Type). In Output File
1, specify the file name and path of the output file. Then click Run (the
running icon).
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An output window pops up. Click Accept Data. Click “OK” when
finished, and then click “Done” to close the output window. Exit
Omninet for Windows.
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3.Start the E-Studio software and open the EDIF file generated in
step 2
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1. Right-click the Serial.EDF file and select Generate
Schematics:
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The system pops up a window
Click OK.
5. Select menu File-Save As, and select ORCAD as the output
format.Select Design v9.10 in the Save As drop-down menu.
Click Save to save. Click “OK” in the pop-up window to end.
The generated schematic can already be opened in ORCAD. The
drawings are a bit big! The picture below is just its parts.
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There is no hierarchy concept in drawings. No matter how
complicated the circuit is, there is only one plane graph.
6. Convert ORCAD schematics into Protel schematics.
Because the output format of E-Studio does not have Protel, it
must be converted separately. Protel 2004 is recommended for a
better conversion effect.
Start DXP 2004, select menu File-Open, select Orcad Capture
Design(*.DSN) for the file type.
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Click “Open.” An error occurred during the opening process, but
the file conversion was successful. Click OK to close the error
window.
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Double-click 1.SchDoc, the file can be opened normally. The
picture below is part of the file:
Select the menu File-Save AS, select Schematic Binary 4.0 (*.Sch).
This is the format that 99Se can open.
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At this point, the conversion of Protel 99Se PCB to the schematic
diagram is complete.
It should be noted that this conversion may be useful for those
with fewer components on the PCB. If there are many
components on the PCB, the converted schematic diagram will
be very large, and the network connection is extremely
complicated. At this point, it is still difficult to interpret due to the
lack of hierarchy or main thread. It is also not to be divided into
multiple sub-graphs, and all networks are all connected.
In addition, the unconnected pins in the PCB no longer exist on
the converted schematic. As shown in the example below:
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Another disadvantage is that the footprint information of the
component is gone and must be filled in again.
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Although there is no footprint information, the network name is
kept intact. After network comparison, no missing network is
found.
The electronic engineering industry is so vast and rapidly growing
that technology is evolving day by day. There are currently
numerous open-source software or Electronic Design Automation
(EDA) or CAD software available to help designers design
their electronic circuits and lay the PCB design along with tools
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available in the software to generate files that will be used directly
by PCB fabrication house.
Among these software, the most popular one is ALTIUM designer.
The Altium Designer 18 will be discussed in this article. The Altium
Designer gives you a complete platform where you can turn your
imagination and ideas into reality.
We will discuss three main features of the Altium designer in
the following sections: 1- Schematic Capture, 2- PCB layout, and 3-
Fabrication Output Files.
The first step in turning the idea into reality is to do manual
design or hand sketch on paper. This gives a clear understanding
to the designer to know what he is looking for. Now the design on
paper will be transferred to a CAD software like Altium. This
process is called schematic capture. Having knowledge of the
software, an expert will professionally capture the design in the
schematic window.
File >> New >> Project >> PCB Project. Then right click on the
project to “Add New to Project” >> Schematic
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You can save your PCB project and schematic file with *.PrjPcb
and *.sch extensions respectively. After saving, you can now start
the placement of components from the library on the rightmost
menu. You can add the manufacturer libraries available directly
from the Altium website.
Just download the library zip folder. Unzip it and copy-paste the
folders
inside C:\Users\Public\Documents\Altium\AD18\Library\ this
folder. Now find the component in the library and place them on
the schematic one by one. Ctrl+R will rotate the component. Press
and hold the right click to “Pan,” and the Left Ctrl + Right-click will
zoom in and out.
The top menu shows the wire, GND, library, place port, place text,
move, drag, and select options.
The left panel shows the project files like schematic Diagram, PCB,
Gerber, BOM, and other files are shown as sub-folder files inside
the main project. Any changes made in the schematic will mark
with a red symbol on the left panel schematic file. After you save
changes, the red mark will disappear.
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Now you interconnect the components using the wire or bus
option. GND, VCC, and other signal ports can be placed
accordingly. This will correspondingly generate “NETs.” The NET is
the interconnection between two leads/legs of components. The
net name shows the details of its connection. You can go
to tools >> preference >> Schematics >> General, where you can
edit and change the properties of the existing schematic
sheet, like snap and visible grids.
You can also annotate your components designators by Tools >>
Annotation >> Annotate Schematics. You can change the sheet
size by Right Panel Properties >>Page Options >> Formatting and
Size >> Custom, and change the values of width and height
according to needs, and change orientation to landscape or
portrait. You can also switch between the units of measurement
mm and mils.
The schematic capture is the basis of the PCB layout coming in the
next step. Hence schematic capture should be completed free of
errors. There should not be any error in the schematic design, and
it must be cross-checked by another verification engineer to
evaluate for any faults in the design. Otherwise, the wrong
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schematic will be translated into PCB and cause PCB not
to function as expected.
Project >> Project options >> Class generation >> Uncheck
generate rooms and uncheck electronic component classes. This
is done to avoid any unwanted errors in PCB.
Now go to the schematic window. Design >> Update PCB
Document. This will open the “Engineering Change Order” window.
Now click on validate changes and then click execute changes.
This will generate a green color tick sign on the right of the
window. This shows everything is OK. Now go to the PCB
document, and on the bottom right, your components will be
available.
Drag and drop the components one by one onto the board. Now
to reshape the board and go to View >> Board Planning Mode 1.
You will see that the board color turns to green from black. Now
go to Design >> Redefine Board Shape. Now the green color plus
pointer will appear. You can now redefine the boundaries of your
PCB board according to your needs. Remember to connect the
last final edge with your starting edge/corner to complete the
board shape. You can also use the edit board shape or modify
board shape to change the board’s shape or style.
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Now go to Design >> Rules. You can edit the PCB layout design
constraints according to the PCB fabrication house capacity and
limits and your design requirements. This is very important
because while laying out PCB design (e.g., routing, placement of
components, holes, vias, and other inner and outer layers), if
there are violating constraints, the Altium will give you an error
and will not proceed.
The main design rule constraints/clearances that need to be taken
care of are track to track, track to SMD or THT pad, track to via,
track to copper, SMD pad to SMD pad, SMD to THT pad, SMD pad
to via, SMD pad to copper, THT pad to THT pad, THT pad to via,
THT pad to copper, via to via, via to copper, and copper to copper
clearances. Moreover, the maximum and minimum routing
width and preferred values need to be defined. Solder masks and
power planes with power pads constraints are also needed to be
defined in design rules. Likewise, maximum and minimum via
diameter and preferred values can be set in “Routing via Style.”
Now go to Design >> Layer Stackup Manager. This will show you
the layer stack-up details, such as thickness, material, layer
type, and name.
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Now go to Route >> Auto Route >> All >> Route All. This will help
you automatically route your components placed on the PCB
according to the rules defined in the design rule wizard. The
auto-routing will save ample time and effort but may not be a
good choice when special care is needed for special ICs
for EMI and other thermal considerations.
After everything is complete, go to Tools >> Design Rule Check
(DRC). Running the DRC is important as it will identify any
violations of design rules.
For NC (Numeric Controlled) Drill File, checkmark the “Generate
Separate NC Drill Files for plated and non-plated through holes”
and keep all other parameters the same and then click OK.
Now that open source hardware is prevalent, many open-source
hardware manufacturers will make circuit diagrams public. For
example, for Arduino, we can download the Arduino Eagle file on
the official website. Still, many people don’t know the Eagle
drawing software very well. So you need to convert the file into a
format that can be opened with Altium Designer.
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1. Download the ULP file to be used on the official website of
Eagle circuit diagram drawing software.
2. Put the file in the ULP folder under the Eagle installation
directory, as shown in the figure:
1.
4. Click the ULP command in the command toolbar.
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5.Select “export-protelpcb.ulp” in the directory of the pop-up
dialog box and click to open.
6.Choose a suitable path and save the converted PCBfile.
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7.After clicking save, the following dialog box will pop up in the
Eagle software, click OK.
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8.At this point, the conversion of the PCB diagram has been
completed. Double-click the saved file to open the file with Altium
Designer, as shown in the figure:
8 Ways to Restore PCB Schematic Diagram According
to PCB Board
When encountering some small objects, or
encountering electronic products without drawings, you need to
draw the circuit schematic according to the real thing.
There are the following points:
1. Select electronic components such as integrated circuits,
transformers, transistors, etc., which are bulky, have many pins
and play a major role in the circuit, and then draw from the
selected reference pins to reduce errors.
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2. If the component number (such as VD870, R330, C466, etc.) is
marked on the PCB, since these serial numbers have specific rules,
the components with the same Arabic numerals after the English
alphabet are the same functional unit, so the drawing should be
used. Correctly distinguishing the components of the same
functional unit is the basis of the drawing pcb layout.
3. If the serial number of the component is not marked on the
printed board, it is best to number the component yourself for
easy analysis and proofreading. When designing printed circuit
board components, the manufacturer generally arranges the
components of the same functional unit relatively in order to
minimize the copper foil routing. Once you find a device that has a
core function, you can find other components of the same
functional unit as long as you can find it.
4. Correctly distinguish the ground, power and signal lines of the
printed board. Taking the power supply circuit as an example, the
negative terminal of the rectifier connected to the secondary of
the power transformer is the positive pole of the power supply,
and a large-capacity filter capacitor is generally connected
between the ground and the ground, and the capacitor casing has
a polarity mark.
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The power and ground lines can also be found from the
three-terminal regulator pins. When the factory is wiring the
printed circuit board, in order to prevent self-excitation and
anti-interference, the ground copper foil is generally set to the
widest (high-frequency circuits often have large-area grounded
copper foil), the power supply copper foil is second, and the signal
copper is used.
The foil is the narrowest. In addition, in electronic products with
both analog and digital circuits, the printed boards often separate
their ground lines to form an independent grounding grid, which
can also be used as a basis for identification and judgment.
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