Make Sure the PCB Layout Software You Use has All the Tools You Need When I was learning to fly part of my training included a long cross-country trip to practice the fine art of aerial navigation. Being a student pilot I, unfortunately, got a little lost, and before I got myself headed in the right direction again it was much later in the day than it should have been. Here I was; a student pilot that was lost flying an airplane and it was getting dark. I have never felt so alone in all of my life. Since I’m Read Article 2:18 How to Setup and Use PCB Courtyard Layers, Assembly and Other Component Layer Pairs in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video How to Search Filter and Find The Right Part For Your Design in Altium Designer 19 To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Read Article How to Calculate Impedance for Single and Differential Transmission Line in Altium Designer 19 Learn how to configure, define, and use your design’s impedance requirements for single-sided and differential on each layer, with Altium Designer’s Layer Stack Manager. To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Read Article 52 Reference Plane Definition for Impedance Calculation in Altium Designer 19 Learn how to define reference planes for your design’s impedance calculations. To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Watch Video How to Set Up and Use Buried and Blind Vias in Altium Designer 19 Learn how to define, setup, and use blind and buried vias in your designs. To learn more about Altium Designer 19, listen to Altium Engineer David Marrakchi discuss this latest Altium Designer release with Judy Warner on the OnTrack Podcast. Or follow us on the Altium Designer Youtube Channel to stay up to date with the latest. Read Article Altium Designer 19 Has Arrived Rather than to tell you about Altium Designer 19, we thought you’d prefer to see it with your own eyes through a series of brief videos that will allow you to explore all the new and enhanced features in Altium Designer 19. Some of the key features represented in the latest release are: Advanced Layer Stack Manager Routing Improvements Pad/via driven polygon thermal connections uVia Support Unlimited Mechanical Layers Draftsman Improvements BOM Read Article Is IPC CID Training Important for Your Design Career? Stephen Chavez is the lead electrical engineer that oversees a global design team for a well known military aerospace company in the greater Phoenix, AZ area. He is a highly skilled engineer and PCB designer whose passion for board design goes beyond his day-to-day work. He is a member of the IPC Designers Council Executive Board, is CID, CID+, and CIT certified, a CID trainer for Eptac, and a columnist for the PCB007 magazine. In this article Read Article Project Release Management within PCB Design Software You’ve worked night and day to get your PCB design done and finally, the last trace has been connected, the last silkscreen reference has been tweaked, and the final DRC has passed. It’s time to call it a weekend, right? Wrong. You’ve still got a boatload of work to do to get all of your output files created for your manufacturers. A lot of PCB release design tool vendors provide different mechanisms for making the creation of output files easier Read Article 1:05 Customize Draftsman Sheet Template - How-To:ADSCvid Watch Video Are You Ready for the Cloud? Are you ready for the cloud? I know. I agree. I’m with you. We’ve heard that question way too many times already. Every time we turn around, one solution provider or another is making grand pronouncements about moving to the cloud and what it means for engineering. “It’s revolutionary,” they say. “It’ll save your business,” they say. “Companies without it will go out of business,” they say. Well, like many, I’m hyperbole-fatigued. I’m an industry Read Article SPICE Simulator Online Adaptation to Your Expertise Some of us have a habit of trying to be experts at everything. The one thing I have had to learn time and again, whether in software or hardware, is that there is no need to constantly reinvent the wheel. When you need to get an idea of how your device operates, you don’t need to build a simulation program from scratch. Thankfully, there are a number of tools that make it easy to simulate the behavior of your circuit, and you don’t need to be an Read Article Manufacturing and Online Gerber Viewers: Manufacturing with Browser Based Design Watching your design come together in a layout program is hugely satisfying. But when it comes to manufacturing, preparing your designs for fabrication is a different beast. If you don’t have a ton of experience in this area, compiling information that fabricators need to build your device may seem tedious and unnecessary. You might be wondering, “why can’t my manufacturer just look at my CAD files and figure it out themselves?” While they Read Article Free Bill of Materials Software vs. Integrated Design Software The first time I prepared functional requirements for a web platform, I thought the document was massively complex. I forget the number of youtube tutorials I watched on preparing this document. Now that I have prepared several of these documents for a number of startups, I could probably write functional requirements in my sleep. A bill of materials might also seem like a complex document if you have never prepared one in the past. When it comes Read Article When Should You Use an Online Circuit Calculator? Even if you’re an experienced engineer, you probably haven’t perfectly memorized every single formula you need to design PCBs and electronic devices. If this is true for experienced engineers, then what is a weekend warrior to do? Thankfully, there are many online calculators available that can help even novice designers build devices that meet industry standards. As you venture down the rabbit hole of designing a new electronic product, it Read Article Circuit Breakers in Your PCB and Your Bill of Materials Circuit breakers are not required in every system, but in some environments they are the main source of protection against overvoltage/high current, as well as any damage that can result from power surges. Circuit breakers are best known for use in residential circuit protection, but they can be used in any environment (such as power systems and industrial systems) that require circuit protection. Some circuit breakers can be mounted on a PCB Read Article Don’t Let Unmanageable Tools Deny You the Joy of Designing a PCB There are a lot of “firsts” in our lives; the first time we drove alone after getting our driver’s license, going out on our first real date, buying our first home. These moments, and millions of others like them, are supposed to bring a feeling of joy when we remember them. Another moment of joy for me was the first PCB design that I worked on. I remember routing traces on a design that a co-worker opened up for me the first time I sat in front Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page116 Current page117 Page118 Page119 Page120 Page121 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More