[sdiy] Schematics Software

[Tom Wiltshire]

Diptrace has this feature that Brian is talking about too, although it depends on how the part was set up. It'd be possible to set up a quad op-amp as one block with 14 legs sticking out if you wanted, but you'd have to be looney. It's much more flexible to have the four op-amps as separate "parts" and the power pins as a fifth "part" (Diptace terminology for the different bits of a single device).

I've also had the situation he describes of trying to lay a circuit out, and then going back to the schematic and juggling the op-amps around to make the layout make more sense. You can right-click on a op-amp, select "Disconnect wires", do the same again on another one, swap them over, and then right-click and select "Connect wires" - simple. Doing that and having to worry about power pins too would be a PITA.

Tom

On 21 May 2017, at 15:14, Quincas Moreira <quincas at gmail.com> wrote:

> Wow, this is great you guys, thanks so much.
> Honestly, I haven't advanced far enough in the diptrace learning curve to want to stick to it if there are better options available. I'm now considering all the options you all have listed and will investigate them not only for the print quality schematics I need but also as PCB design software in general.
> Great sunday to all!
> 
> Q
> 
> On Sun, May 21, 2017 at 4:16 AM, <rsdio at audiobanshee.com> wrote:
> All of those things can be changed. Once I set my defaults colors for layout, I'm actually surprised when I see someone else using the original defaults. For some of my layouts, Eagle even shows the OSHPark purple.
> 
> It is a bit of a hassle to edit the default pin names when Eagle keeps suggesting P$1, etc.
> 
> As for the power pins in separate symbols, that's sometimes good and sometimes bad. For a CPU, it's typically better to have the power pins in a main symbol. But there's generally only one CPU in a chip.
> 
> However, for dual and quad op-amps, the circuit is much more manageable if the power pins are not tied to a specific op-amp, but are separate. This allows you so swap op-amps to make routing easier, since they're all equivalent. Other circuit software doesn't have this feature, and then your schematic has explicit power pins on one out of four or one out of two op-amps, making it painstaking to change if you need to swap op-amps for layout reasons. I recently designed an 8-channel sample-and-hold circuit, only to find out that I got the order of the op-amps wrong in my quads. Eagle made it easy to juggle things with one or two clicks and no real schematic editing to speak of.
> 
> This one feature means that when I build a Device in Eagle that has multiple interchangeable parts inside a single chip, I always create the power pins as a separate symbol.
> 
> Brian Willoughby
> Sound Consulting
> 
> 
> On May 20, 2017, at 9:38 PM, matt holland <matt at mattholland.org> wrote:
> > I also really dislike it's system of storing power pins in separate symbols and the weird generic net and pin names with $ signs everywhere. Horrible default colors as well.
> 
> 
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> -- 
> Quincas Moreira
> Test Pilot at VBrazil Modular
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