Why are circles and rectangles on my schematic menu and where are resistors and capacitors?
Posted by mrbi11 at
Ok, I actually know I can search the library and find a resistor, but why do I have to do that for such a common part?
I am trying this because I tried Eagle, only to find the most prominant thing on the schematic menu is a bunch or geometric shapes that have nothing to do with schematics. And to add a resistor I have to pick the physical size of the resistor from a huge library.
And while this is less bizarre than eagle, the main question remains. To build a schematic I have to search thousands of parts for even the most common things. And basics to schematics, like Ground and Power are missing. The "demo" schematic that comes up when you download "analog Circuit" has multiple places which clearly must be power, but they are not connected, and nothing is labeled ground or power. From a netlist point of view, so what? but if you actually want to read and understand the schematic, pretty basic.
More than just an gripe, when stuff is buried in libraries, you can't use them till you know whats there means to do the simplest thing a switch and a light and a resistor, you start diving into literally thousands of lines of library stuff.
So, please educate me, what am I missing? How do I get fast access to resistor, capacitor, ground, Vcc, switch, connector symbols? Can I get RID of the circle rectangle and drawing stuff? Maybe thats useful to add to the library, but how does it come into play on a schematic? (The "demo" schematic is all electrical symbols. No one doodled on it with shapes.)
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And side question, why do some parts have an X on their connections (see demo schematic) and some do not?
Replies
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About finding generic parts such as resistors and capacitors.
When grabbing parts from the library you can easily find smd caps and resistors from the "resistor" and "capacitor" libraries, the resistor one also contains a number of through hole sizes as well. This program as well as many others ( I do think that Eagle is an exception ) has a individual part for each resistor/capacitor value. So you will need to decide whether or not to use the correct values in you schematic or do as I most often do. I grab resistors and capacitors of the sizes I intend to use and deactivate the value information in the schematic. This way I can just copy that component when I expand the schematic.
This of course makes it neccessary for you to write values on a printed out schematic instead of inputting in your DS schematic, a matter of taste.
Regarding ground and power symbols, they are found in the "schema" library containing parts that only have schematic representation ( they fill a function but is not represented by a physical part ). There you can find an array of Vdd like symbols for joining power nets.
Regarding fast access to connectors/switches I think this will not happen. Partly because there are too many types of switches and connectors available for them all to be included in the libraries and also because the way the standard libraries are constructed the part names are the manufacturer part names which most often are quite uninformative.
The "doodle" things.. well they are just there as they are a part of the standard toolset. If you do not need them do not use them.
The X marks for components are a part of the family of CAD tools that DS belongs to. You can change it in the settings for you schematic but it is just a cosmetic thing used to signify connection points.
Hope this answers your questions. //Tobias -
Thanks for taking the time to explain.
In part, this tells me this isn't a program to use to make schematics. For example, a given schematic can be filled by many physical sizes of parts. Schematics are about electrical characteristics. One might even need to change resistor wattage (size) rating based on resistor value.
That its easier to make a literally useless doodle on my schematic than place a resistor says it needs a LOT of work in adapting the human interface to the task. Since I posted, I took a quick scan of lots of free and not free programs out there, and most have a way to quickly customize preferred parts list. Yes, zillions of connector choices, but if I anly use 6, a pretty short list on my favorites list. FreePCB is a very fast layout program. I created a hand schematic with ExpressSch, manually made a net list, and had a pcb board in about 1 or 2 hours. gerber files and all. I don't think I'd get a schematic by itself done on this system in the same time.
In general, a good HI makes the most frequent operations obvious and easy, and leaves the almost never done but occasionally needed stuff like doodling tucked away in a couple layers of menus. Allow user customization to rearrange things for faster use, but start from an interface taylored to the task. This is not close to be taylored to make schematics or PCB layouts. It appears taylored for drawing.
I came across Artist PCB, which from the demo videos would have cut my time in half, if I had found it first. The learning curve on this is very steep, and even after learning it, the usability is never going to match the other free and not free products out there.
I hope my comments will be taken as encouragement to improve the usability, not disparaging. There is clearly a lot of substance to this product, but its really taylored to doing things from a perspective of old Electrical Cad programs decades behind the state of the art. Make an intuitive, efficient human interface, and this could be amazing.
Best wishes.
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From my perspective DS PCB is excellent as a free schematic and PCB layout tool with some features exceeding what is available on purchased products. Compared to other free products it amazing to have multi-layer and no minimalist PCB board layout restriction.
Yes, there could be improvements as there could to some multi thousand pound products I have used. A key area of improvement in DS would be the library, but for the rest of the package it is very usable and capable once you invest a little time.
The short cuts and properties are most useful and allow very rapid precise layouts. Most pakages that you understand quickly often fall over when you push them for advanced requirements because they simply are not there!
What many people do is build up a library of their frequently used parts and there own creations for easy and speed access. This again is common approach to many packages. There is a good library to start with and customise from Sparkfun, for the basics (as used in Eagle).
There are lots of packages out there and if you go to their associated forums, you will find lots of 'moans and praise', but it all comes down to what you want to achieve and its requirements. If you need something simple, keep simple or move on up towards the expensive packages, stopping where your needs are met.
For really simple, inuitive, fast PCB projects where I want to process the manufacture myself I BOUGHT and use Sprint Layout which meets that need, but for professionally manufactured products I use the FREE DS PCB.