Getting Started with EasyEDA Part 3: PCB Layout

**Exporting Schematic to PCB** Last week, we finished [creating our schematic][1]. In your schematic, click on the **Convert Project to PCB**… button. ![enter image description here][2] You should be presented with an initial board outline and your components connected by air wires. ![enter image description here][3] Note that we will layout the PCB in mils, even though we created package footprints in mm. **Component Placement** Go ahead and delete the purple board outline. ![enter image description here][4] Drag the components into a nicely packed area. Try and avoid having air wires cross as much as possible (press r to rotate the part). If it helps, I’ve listed the X, Y, and rotation parameters for each component. You don’t need to use my placement, but I found that this arrangement allows for all traces to be placed on the top layer. Part X Y Rotation C1 600 -390 270 C2 600 -200 270 D1 150 -800 90 D2 150 -450 270 D3 750 -350 90 J1 550 -1050 270 P1 100 -100 90 P2 900 -200 270 R1 900 -450 90 R2 900 -650 270 R3 750 -200 270 U1 400 -250 180 ![enter image description here][5] **Draw Board Outline** Select **Track** from the **PCB Tools** box and **BoardOutline** from **Layers**. ![enter image description here][6] Draw a square of 1000 mils by 1000 mils around the components, clicking on each corner to start a new line. Once you click on the final corner, right-click to stop placing track. ![enter image description here][7] **Set Design Rules** Before placing traces, we want to set our design rules. These can often be found from the PCB fab house’s website. For our purposes, we want to make the spacing a bit bigger than the defaults. Select the drop-down list on the far right of the page. From that, select Miscellaneous and **Design Rule Settings**… ![enter image description here][8] Change all the values to 10 (mils), except for “Via Hole Size,” which we’ll change to 20. Realtime DRC offers the ability to show errors on the layout as they occur. This is a very handy feature, so I recommend leaving it enabled. ![enter image description here][9] Click Setting, and close the Design Rule Setting window. **Drawing Traces** Click on **Track** in the **PCB Tools box**, click in the red box of **TopLayer** to draw in the top layer, and change the **Routing Width** in the **Other** category on the right side to **20**. Click on pin 2 of P1 to start drawing a trace. You should see a white dot appear when you have a trace connected to the pin. ![enter image description here][10] You should see the air wire (blue line) move as you draw the trace. It will show you where to connect the trace. When you have reached a correct pin, a white dot will appear. Click to end the trace. ![enter image description here][11] We want to connect the other pads with traces, but we want to leave GND unconnected (we will connect GND with a ground pour later). To turn off the GND air wires, click the Design Manager**strong text** button in the right-side pane, drop down the Nets category, and deselect **GND**. ![enter image description here][12] Go ahead and use the **Track** tool to connect the rest of the pads, as shown by the blue air wires. You should be able to do it on one layer. If you need to switch to another layer, just click on the layer (e.g. BottomLayer) from the **Layers** box. This will automatically drop a via and let you keep routing on that layer. ![enter image description here][13] **Ground Pour** In **PCB Tools**, click the **Copper Area** button. Make sure that **TopLayer** is selected. Draw a box around the board outline (it can be on top of or just outside the purple square). ![enter image description here][14] Right-click to end the outline. The pour will automatically fill in. Press **esc** to exit the tool, and click on the pour’s outline to select it. Change **Net** to **GND**, and make sure **Clearance** is set to **10mil**. Click **Rebuild CopperArea**. ![enter image description here][15] Repeat this whole process for the **BottomLayer**. You can click on the eye icons by the layers to turn the visibility of the top off and on. ![enter image description here][16] **Ground Vias** To reduce inadvertent RF transmissions and reception, we connect our top and bottom pours with vias. Granted, this is a DC board, but it is generally considered good practice to stitch the pours together. Click the **Via** tool in **PCB Tools**. View and edit the **TopLaye**r. Click to place the via in the top-left corner of the board, ensuring that it does not touch a component’s pad or a trace. Press esc to stop placing vias. Select the via you just placed and change its attributes: Diameter: 40mil Hole(D): 20mil Net: GND ![enter image description here][17] Repeat this process to place a few more vias around the board, connecting the ground pours. ![enter image description here][18] **Silk Screen Labels** Click on the individual component reference designators (RefDes), such as **R1**, and move them so that they do not overlap any components or vias. Adjust their rotation to 0 or 90 so that they all face one of two directions. ![enter image description here][19] Using the **Text** tool and **TopSilkLayer**, denote IN vs. OUT. Also, add + and – markers to the appropriate pins. Change the text attributes so that the **Height** is **45mil**. ![enter image description here][20] Add some text to show what the input and output voltages are. Note that we changed the **Height** parameter to **35mil**. ![enter image description here][21] Add the name of our board (e.g. “5V Power Supply”) to the **BottomSilkLayer**. Note that we changed the **Height** to 70mil**strong text**. ![enter image description here][22] **Design Rules Check** We’re done! Well, almost. Before we send out the board for fabrication, we should run a Design Rules Check (DRC) to make sure we’ve connected everything, there are no touching traces, etc. In the right-side pane, click the **Design Manager** button. Next to **DRC Errors**, click **Refresh**. If there are any errors, you will see them appear. ![enter image description here][23] For example, if we move the top trace down so it touches the barrel jack footprint and refresh DRC, we will see actual errors appear. ![enter image description here][24] Make sure you fix all your DRC errors. Click on each error to highlight the problem area. Once you have everything fixed, select **File** > **Save As**. Give it an appropriate name and description. ![enter image description here][25] **Send Your Board out for Production** In the toolbar, click on the **Fabrication Output**… button. ![enter image description here][26] This will open up a new browser window. Ensure the board parameters are to your liking. The defaults are good for prototyping–just note that the basic HASL finish has lead in it, so choose “HASL (lead-free)” if you don’t want that. ![enter image description here][27] If you want to use a different fab house, you can click **Download Gerber Files**. This will download a .zip file containing the files needed by most production facilities. You can verify the files with a free viewer like [gerbv][28]. If you decide to buy through EasyEDA, click **Save to Cart**, and follow the rest of the instructions to fill out the shipping and billing data. ![enter image description here][29] Once you have placed your order, wait a few weeks, and your boards should arrive at your doorstep! **Conclusion** You’ve just created a complete board with EasyEDA! Certainly, these tutorials did not cover all the features within EasyEDA, but at least you have an idea of what’s needed to create a PCB from start to finish. For example, one tool we did not cover was EasyEDA’s built-in SPICE program. This lets you simulate circuits without needing to build them. A video about PCB design will helpful to you by [https://easyeda.com/Doc/Tutorial/PCB.htm#PCB-Design-Editor][30] To view EasyEDA’s official documentation and tutorials, see [https://easyeda.com/Doc/Tutorial/][31] [1]: https://easyeda.com/feather/Getting_Started_with_EasyEDA_Part_2_Schematic_Capture-GuoFzRL3l [2]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_42.png [3]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_43.png [4]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_44.png [5]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_45.png [6]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_46.png [7]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_47.png [8]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_48a.png [9]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_49.png [10]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_50.png [11]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_51.png [12]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_53.png [13]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_54.png [14]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_55.png [15]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_56b.png [16]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_57.png [17]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_58b.png [18]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_59.png [19]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_60a.png [20]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_61a.png [21]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_62.png [22]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_63.png [23]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_64.png [24]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_65.png [25]: http://i1.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_66.png [26]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_67.png [27]: http://i2.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_68.png [28]: http://gerbv.geda-project.org/ [29]: http://i0.wp.com/shawnhymel.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EasyEDA_69.png [30]: https://easyeda.com/Doc/Tutorial/PCB.htm#PCB-Design-Editor [31]: https://easyeda.com/Doc/Tutorial/