PCB layout: route the board and run it
Schematic → layout → simulate. The circuit on the left is the schematic: a 9 V battery, a 470 Ω resistor and a red LED. The board on the right was made from it: the parts are placed as footprints, and the dashed ratsnest shows each connection still to make. Route the traces, and the board runs on the same solver: the LED on the board carries exactly the current of the one in the schematic.
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How it works
Route: drag from a pad to the pad its dashed line points at. The trace goes on the active layer (top = red, bottom = blue) at the board's trace width; pick both on the board's inspector. Drag the middle of a trace to bend it.
Off-board parts (the battery) connect with ordinary wires, the way a real board takes power through a connector.
DRC (design-rule check) on the board's inspector lists unrouted nets, shorts (two nets touching: traces crossing on the same layer, or a trace across another net's pad), clearance under 0.2 mm, and traces too narrow for the current they carry (IPC-2221, +10 °C).
Try it on the bench
- Route R1 → D1 on the top and D1 → the battery on the bottom: both layers work, because through-hole pads go through the board.
- Cross two traces of different nets on the same layer: DRC reports a short and the LED misbehaves. Move one to the other layer.
- Set the trace width to 0.2 mm and the battery to a bench supply at 3 A load: DRC flags the width.
Parts on the bench
- 2 × 9 V battery
- 2 × Resistor
- 2 × LED
- Printed circuit board
In the course
Zen’s Electronics Design Mastery, module “Fabrication — Perfboard & PCB”.