Components: Introduction and Geometric Properties

This page gives a short introduction on Components and their geometric properties. A component is a device that can be placed on either the top or the bottom side of the PCB. The View Options Window provide two separate layers (Top Components, Bottom Components) where the components can be handled with respect of the three characteristics: Color, Visible and Selectable:

A typical component in the Main View looks like the figure below:

The white rectangle shows the size of the component and where it is positioned on the PCB. The two rows of yellow, rectangular pads, seven pads on the upper and the lower side, indicate to the corresponding number and positions of pins - the so called footprint. The components' pins themselves can not be visualized in the Main View.  With the help of its pins the component interacts with the net structures on the PCB and beyond that with other components on the PCB. In order to enable the modeling of these interactions, equivalent circuit models can be assigned to the component. This enables more convenient workflows for the user (see Solver Overview).

Components

All components are stored in Navigation Tree: Components.

Expanding a certain component (by clicking on the + sign) reveals the corresponding pins as it is shown for component C4 in the figure below:

By further expanding the pins the corresponding nets will be displayed as shown in the figure below:

Geometric properties

In general, there are two main characteristics of a component: its geometrical properties and the electrical models that have been assigned to it. How to assign an electrical model to a component is explained in Basic Components Dialogs. In this section the geometrical properties of a component  will be explained.

In order to edit the geometrical properties of a component, the component has to be selected in the Navigation Tree: Components. A right mouse click and choosing Edit from the drop-down menu opens a dialog box as shown in the example below:

Name: This field at the top allows to edit the component's name

Image: Every component refers to a certain image. The image stores the component's shape - the shape that can be seen in the Main View. Furthermore it includes the footprint, which means the number and positions of the pins. There is no image editor that allows the creation of new images. The images are automatically imported during an EDA import and stored in Navigation Tree: Technology Images as can be seen in the figure below. Pressing the button Image inside the dialog box gets the same images list :

By selecting a certain image and expanding it (by clicking on the + sign) the corresponding pin list will be displayed as can be seen for the image C4 in the figure below:

Edit Pins: Pressing this buttons opens a dialog which includes the pin-to-net assignment as shown in the figure below. The assignment is done automatically after the EDA import and it is recommended to avoid any modification inside this dialog box.

Location frame: This frame includes all fields which are necessary to specify the exact position of the component's image on the PCB.

• Side: This drop-down lists determines whether the component is placed at the TOP SIDE (means the Top Component layer in the View Options Window) or the BOTTOM SIDE (means the Bottom Component layer in the View Options Window).

• Position: Defines the lower left corner of the component's image with the help of x- and y- coordinates.

• Units: The units which the x- and y- values represent. Any change of the units does not influence the position of the image.

• Rotation: Defines the rotation of the component's image (in degree units).

Element type: See Basic Components Dialogs

Electrical model: See Basic Components Dialogs

Use electrical model from part reference: See Basic Components Dialogs