CADSTAR Placement Planner

Every day the rate of change of technology in Electronic design seems to increase, yet project timescales are inevitably reduced to bring products to market faster and achieve higher profits margins.

With each technological advance, whether in the areas of mixed analogue / digital, RF or high speed digital design, electronics design engineers find they are required to spend more time on physical PCB layout, particularly in the placement of critical blocks of circuitry and even individual parts.

Just one of the causes is the rapid growth of on-board power networks with 10 or more supplies on the same PCB that, combined with the increasing demands to manage complex ground returns to optimise signal integrity and power distribution, are driving up the amount of project time that must be dedicated to floor-planning of the layout.

Benefits

• Reduce development time and duplication of resources by providing PCB design engineers with their own planning tools
• Setup core design parameters that constrain electrical and physical design characteristics
• Manage board real estate to maximise design density
• Configure reference planes to improve Signal Integrity and eliminate crosstalk
• Place critical components and blocks of circuitry to optimise the design flow
• View, share, cross-probe and verify data between Schematic  and PCB Layout

Design Fundamentals

DesignRules, Classes and Layer Pairs

Define the Layer Pairs if your layout demands multiple via types (blind, buried, thru), verify the design rules meet your manufacturing constraints, then add any additional net or spacing class settings that can be automatically back-annotated to the Schematic.

Layer Stack Editor

CADSTAR Placement Planner incorporates a spreadsheet-style table that help you quickly specify the layer build and construction materials, displaying a scaled cross-sectional view, essential for planning complex impedance profiles for high speed layouts.

Shape Definitions

Board Profile and Area Definitions

Create a board profile on the fly using CADSTAR’s intuitive suite of drawing and dimensioning tools, or import the shape from your Mechanical CAD tool via ASCII, DXF, IDF* or STEP*. Use CADSTAR’s ‘AutoSnap’ functionality to align placement, routing, track and via keepout areas and special design rules areas, or just to add documentation and construction detail.

Copper Planes with Auto Pour and StarPoints

Definition of multiple planes and copper areas is fast and easy, with the added benefit of an automatic re-pour mode to ensure copper is regenerated after editing tracks inside a template to maintain the maximum area and plane connectivity. CADSTAR’s advanced ‘StarPoint’ functionality allows you to manage multiple ground plane interconnects without DRC errors.

Component Placement

Arrange

Use the Placement Auto-Arrange and Auto-Place routine to logically organise components around the board, check space requirements for each side of the PCB and evaluate alternative rotations for arrays of high pin count devices. Refine the placement at any time with the Manual Move / Rotate / Mirror commands that work on either individual parts or sets of data.

Replicate Placement

Using multiple channels in your PCB designs? Huge time savings can be made by not having to repeat multiple instances of a pre-defined critical placement. Complete the first instance and CADSTAR will automatically select the correct components to complete the rest.

Design Block Reuse

Create a library of matching ‘re-use blocks’ for schematic and PCB, making the best use of existing design elements for future designs. Simply add a sub-circuit block to your Schematic, transfer to PCB and load a predefined layout block including components, tracks, copper and text. Whether you use it for multiple channel designs, critical analogue or RF circuit blocks, or just to replicate a commonly used layout pattern, Design Reuse will save you time and ensure repeatability of design.

System Capabilities

Bi-Directional Cross Probing

Useful as both a placement aid and for diagnostics on a completed PCB, selections of any electrical item(s) within CADSTAR schematic will automatically select the corresponding item in the PCB – or from PCB to the schematic. CADSTAR Placement Planner also supports the use of multiple monitors for maximum flexibility and productivity.

Compatibility

PCB Layout designs and libraries created or edited in CADSTAR Placement Planner are directly compatible with all versions of CADSTAR including Express and Design Viewer.

* IDF and STEP interfaces require additional products