Schematic Capture and Schematic Entry

Browse our library of resources to learn more about PCB design, Schematic Capture, and Schematic Entry. We cover topics ranging from wiring symbols and electronic diagram to best practices for your next PCB design project.

Properties panel document options in SCH editors

The Properties Panel and Document Options in the Schematic Editor The Properties panel provides access to the properties of documents and objects. The contents of the panel change depending on the active document or the selected object. The set of properties completely covers all the necessary parameters and settings of the object. Summary Document options are used to customize the grid, fonts, sheet format, and more. You can access them in the Properties panel. Document options in a SCH library Document Read Article

Buck Converter Component Sizing An overview of what calculations are required when sizing components for a switching buck converter. Read Article

Try These New Features in Altium Designer 22.9 September 23, 2022 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY What’s New in Altium Designer? The newest enhancements in Altium Designer 22.9 include design reuse updates, a variant update, and an extension of commenting features: Variant improvement in schematics - AD22.9 brings even more improvements to variant creation and management. New tools help streamline creation and management of design variants. Add comments to your BOM - The much-loved commenting feature is Read Article

Altium Designer Quick-Start Tutorial Part 1 Learn how to design a simple, two-layer PCB in Altium Designer all the way from project creation, schematic capture, PCB design, to generating manufacturing files. A great place to start if you haven’t used Altium Designer or any ECAD tool before. Read Article

The Newest Upgrades to Altium Designer 22.7 July 22, 2022 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY New This Month in Altium Designer Altium Designer 22.7 gives users productivity during schematic capture with the newest productivity upgrades in the schematic editor. This month’s announcement focuses on new schematic capture upgrades: Control of Paste Mask Output for Variants - Users can now control Paste Mask outputs for a variant as part of that variant’s definition. When enabled, the paste mask for that Read Article

New Schematic Capture Upgrades in Altium Designer 22.6 July 8, 2022 ONTRACK BI-WEEKLY New This Month in Altium Designer The new release of Altium Designer 22.6 brings important schematic capture improvements that further align Altium Designer with the needs of modern design engineers. This month’s announcement focuses on new schematic capture upgrades: Multi-functional Pins - Many modern integrated circuits have multifunctional pins. Now users can program pin names into parts and select pin Read Article

Transformer Theory Made Simple Transformers used for 50/60 Hz power conversion must be physically larger than those used in wall-warts. Read this article and you will understand why. Read Article

Schematic Design Review Checklist This article is a simple, no-frills checklist to help you check schematics. Read now and avoid schematic design mistakes that could make their way into prototypes or production without a second thought. Read Article

Can You Design a Rotation-Proof Connector Pinout? There are times where your connector pinout needs to be adaptable and reversible. What’s the easiest way to do this? Use a rotation-proof connector in your PCB. Read Article

Which Types of Opto-Isolators Are Right For Your Signal? An optoisolator is an electronic device that can be used to pass information between a diode without passing an electrical current. Because there is no need to directly pass voltage or current between the inputs and outputs in an optoisolator circuit, these components can be used to provide electrical isolation in two regions in a PCB. Opto-isolators act as a protection mechanism, ensuring that harmful electrical currents cannot flow across the Read Article

Does Anyone Still Use DIP Components? DIP components are less-often used in professional PCB design projects for new products, but legacy products may still need these parts. Read Article

Pole-Zero Analysis and Transient Analysis in Circuit Design Here’s how pole-zero analysis as part of transient analysis can help you identify underdamped responses, zero-output frequencies, and much more. Read Article

CP2102 USB to UART Module PCB Design Project See how to use the CP2102 in a new project for a USB to serial converter module. You can use the same steps to place this on a larger PCB. Read Article

Dual ADC Module PCB Design Project ADCs in a PCB are examined in this project, including placement and routing involving an isolated ADC. Read Article

What Are Netlists in PCB Design Projects? Your CAD system should not force you to manually work with netlists. Instead, learn about netlists and how advanced CAD systems automate their usage in PCB design, layout, and testing. Read Article

Getting Started With nRF52 MCU in a PCB See how to get started with the nRF52 in a PCB layout. We’ll show how to use the fine-pitch BGA package version of this component. Read Article

Project creation from OrCad sheet and Mentor Graphics PCB design This article shows an example of a project starting from an existing OrCad schematics project and its relative Mentor Graphics PCB design, ensuring a complete correspondence with the starting documentation. Read Article