PROTEUS For Electronic Design Automation

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Go the manual way… The one thing layout designers have a tough time getting right is congestion release—tight spaces with too many wires that can neither be re-routed easily nor done without. It is a matter of trial and error, a process that is eased a bit in Proteus by letting you add via connections to pads, aka surface mount technology.

Manual routing can also create curved tracks by holding down ctrl key, and thick tracks are automatically necked to fit in with the set rules. You can also logically or globally control the size and diameter of teardrops, as required. To make sure you do not violate rules, a live status for connectivity and design rules can be found at the bottom of the screen.

… Or exploit the auto feature. What the auto-router gives you is flexibility. How is that? Because auto-routing is shape based. A quick and an easy fix to your design rule violations! Using advanced cost based conflict-reduction algorithms proven to maximise completion rates on even the most densely-packed boards, the router gives you the best routing possible under given circumstances. Advanced-level users also drive the router either by writing custom routing scripts or by directly entering routing commands interactively, to route particular areas or specify fan-out criteria.

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Handling large numbers of pins

Schematic Capture is designed to aid a high degree of control over the drawing appearance, be it line widths, fill styles or fonts; extending this to the layout graphics, too. Dealing with a ball-grid array or a high pin count device can be tricky. The sheer volume complicates everything from connection to routing.

To handle this easily, Proteus lets you first bring in the component definition directly from the manufacturer’s boundary scan description language file. You can then split these into smaller, more manageable elements using a component separator option, or even re-arranging the pins, while preserving boundary scan description language file as it is.

PCB layout uses LPC standard footprint, but you can create your own custom footprint using tools like PCB Library Export and import the pad’s ASCII format into Proteus. If being used in a field-programmable gate array, change in pin-mapping can be loaded into the package tool and then used to update Proteus with the latest details. The only requirement is that the PCB net classes and design rules should be set up before starting with the layout, so as to keep the tool informed of the next alpha traces and aid manoeuvring between high pin devices.

Design rules can also be custom-generated according to the entire design for net classes, trace and via styles, clearances and more. At pre-production stage, the PCB tool runs a quality-assurance check, checks for power plane geometry and integrity, and tests to spot common design errors.

The bombarded view and the BOM

A 3D viewer lets you see your PCB in all its fullness. Apart from simply looking at your board from a 3D viewpoint, this feature can strip down the design to a bare board, letting you inspect tracks and vias or zoom in on a specific part. With built-in standard for the exchange of product model data and initial graphics exchange specification support, you can import these models to view your components in 3D and export your whole board at the end, to use with any mechanical computer-aided design tool.

The thing about bill of materials (BOM) in Proteus is the fact that it is fully customisable. You can work with multiple components at once and, more importantly, generate it in the style used by the company in question.

Kicking grounds backstage

Proteus has been put to good use in various industry segments, right from design to verification. Electronic airfield ground equipment, underground pipeline corrosion engineering, vehicle dashboards, musical instrument digital interface converters and Hi-Z USB audio interfaces, truck braking systems and industrial elevators are some of the areas Proteus has found its way into.

With features and flexible licensing, Proteus is also an in-demand tool at colleges to aid courses dealing with electronics, microcontrollers and PCB designing.

Proteus Lite is a shareware-licensed tear-down version of the original, providing limited but meaningful functionality. Built for Windows, Proteus 8.5 is the latest release from the team that is making a presence at major conferences.

Commercial licences for tool usage can be obtained at www.labcenter.com/purchasing. Get an instant online quotation according to the level of advancement you require, and take it from there; have the kit delivered at your doorstep.

For more information, visit their official website

Priya Ravindran is M.Sc (electronics) from VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu. She loves to explore new avenues and is passionate about writing