OrCAD

1. Introduction
OrCAD is a suite of tools from Cadence for the design and layout of printed circuit boards (PCBs). We are
currently using version 10.5 of the OrCAD suite. This document will give you a crash course in designing
an entire circuit board from start to finish. This will be a very small and simple circuit, but it will
demonstrate the major concepts and introduce the tools behind completing a PCB design. After you
have completed this tutorial, you will know all the steps needed to make PCBs using OrCAD. This is not,
however, a guide to the inner workings of the OrCAD interface. You should use this document in
conjunction with the online OrCAD help and tutorials.

The circuit you will design is shown in the figure below. The main component is a programmable logic
device (PLD) from Xilinx. PLDs, as the name implies, are programmable devices that can be used for a
variety of useful tasks, and it is useful to be familiar with using them. In this circuit, we will use the PLD
to light up a 7-segment LED display that will be used as a counter. Also in the circuit: a power connector
for a 9-volt battery, a header for general purpose IO, a pushbutton switch, a programming interface for
the PLD, and some miscellaneous resistors and capacitors.

OrCAD really consists of two tools. Capture is used for design entry in schematic form. You will
probably be already familiar with looking at circuits in this form from working with other tools
at Rice. Layout is a tool for designing the physical layout of components and circuits on a PCB.
During the design process, you will move back and forth between these two tools.
It is helpful to be very organized when you are designing. OrCAD will create many files and if
you keep all of them in the same directory, it can quickly become very confusing. I like to make
a directory hierarchy and put associated files into subdirectories. Before beginning, navigate to
the directory in which you will keep your project and create the following subdirectories:

sch for your schematics.

lib for symbol and footprint libraries.
board for your board files.
comps for component datasheets.
assy for assembly related documents.

For larger designs, more subdirectories would be desirable, but these will be sufficient for this
project.

Starting a New Schematic Project

To create a new project, first start OrCAD Capture and click File->New->Project. You will see the
following dialog box.

Schematic Entry
Open page 1 of your schematics by double-clicking it in the project window. This will bring up a
blank page. Before we place parts, lets do a couple of things. First, I like to make the page size a
bit bigger than the default. You can fit a lot more onto the page and it will still look nice when
printed. To do this select Options->Schematic Page Properties Click the Custom radio
button and use the following values (width=15.2, height=11.5). Second, there is a title block in
the lower right corner. We are going to replace this with our own, so highlight the title block and
delete it. We add a new title block by selecting Place->Title Block You will see the following
dialog box.

The title block is in your library, so we need to add that to the list of libraries. Click the Add
Library button to browse to and select the library you created for the tutorial. Once you have
added the library, you will be able to choose the RiceTitleBlock to add it to your design. Place
the title block in the lower right corner of your schematic page. The title block has fields to put
information for each page of schematics. Double-click the text to edit each field and change the
information on each page so that it looks something like this.

6.2 Placing Parts & Making Connections - You are now ready to start placing the electrical
components for your design. Open the first page of your schematics and click the Place Part icon on the
toolbar on the right side of the screen. You will then get a dialog for choosing which part you want to
place on your schematics.

Select the part CONN JACK PWR and click OK. Place the part on the left side of your
schematic page. Now place the remaining parts on both pages using the attached completed
schematics as a guide.

A small hint for moving around in OrCAD: use I and O to zoom in and out, respectively. C
will center the design at your cursor. R will rotate a part. You can do these actions while in the
middle of another action (e.g. while placing a part). You will also notice that each part has a
value associated with it. You can change this by double-clicking the current value. In this
manner you can give all your capacitors, resistors, etc. the appropriate values. When you are
done, the first page of your schematics should look something like this.

Now we need to draw nets to make electrical connections between components. To do this, click
the Place Wire icon and connect the components as shown in the attached schematics. Use the
Place Bus and Place Bus Entry icons to place busses and bus connections (you dont need to do
this in these schematics). When you are done, the first page of your schematics should look like
this.

Now you need to add power and ground connections to some of the parts. OrCAD has several
built-in symbols for power and ground. I like to use a symbol that explicitly names the nets, as
shown in the picture below. I do this because many designs will have multiple power and ground
nets. Explicitly naming them helps prevent shorts and other errors. It also makes your schematics
easier to read. Add power and ground to your schematics now.

6.3 CONNECTING PAGES AND NAMING NETS - Since some of these connections go to the PLD, we need to a
way to connect the two schematic pages together. We can do this by using off-page connectors. To
place these click the Place Off-Page Connector icon. Then select the connector called OFFPAGELEFT-L or
OFFPAGELEFT-R, it doesnt really matter which one, they are functionally the same. You can place this
on your schematic just like a part and then connect to it with a net. Off-page connectors are linked by a
common name. For example, two off-page connectors on separate pages with the name CLK will be
considered by OrCAD to be one net. To name a connector, just double click it to get a naming dialog box.
Name your connectors now using the attached completed schematics as a guide.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For reasons that will become clear later, I like to place my off page
connectors as close to the edge of the page (right or left) as possible. This makes clear
which nets go off page and which dont. It will also help you find mistakes on naming
nets across pages.

Normal nets can also be named. This is extremely useful and can help tremendously in the layout
process. I encourage you to use the Place Net Alias icon to name any important nets such as
clocks, address and data bus lines, and other specific signals you are interested in. To name a net,
first highlight the net you want to name and then click the icon, you will be given a dialog box to
enter the name of the net. You can position the text anywhere you like. If you have already
attached an off-page connector to a net, then that net already has the same name as the connector.
You dont need to give the net an alias unless it will make your schematics more readable.
If you have any pins on parts that are left unconnected, use the Place No Connect icon to mark it in your
schematics.

Getting Started with Layout

Open Orcad Capture under Engineering
Software
Under FILE, choose NEW, PROJECT
The following box should appear
To create a the circuit for your PCB,
choose PC Board Wizard.
Choose where you will save it and
what you will call it.
Click OK

In the next box, choose if you want to

enable project simulation or not.
Click Next.
The next box allows you to choose
which

libraries to include in the design. If

you do not choose the right ones now,
they always can be added from the
schematic.
Click Finish.

 A blank schematic page will appear.

This is where you will draw your schematic that your PCB will be modeled after.
Important: Notice that there is a PSpice menu on the menu bar. If this is not there, you
will not be able to simulate your circuit.

Draw your circuit and simulate it to make sure it does what you want it to.
VDD

RBIAS
20k

RC1
10k

RC2
10k
C1

out1
V

RS1

V1

Q3
Q2N2222

out2
5p

Q4
Q2N2222

RS2

1k

1k

0
Q1
Q2N2222

V2

Q2
Q2N2222

VDD
12V
V3
VEE
-12V

VEE

 Once you have done this, return to the project window.

The next step requires that the design file be
highlighted.

For Layout to create a netlist file that Layout can use,

Still with the design file highlighted select the following:
Under the Tools menu:
Annotateclick OK,
Design Rules Checkclick OK,
Create Netlist
Under the first tab called Allegro, click off Create Allegro Netlist,
(Allegro is not installed on the computer at Calvin)
Go to the Layout tab, check Run ECO to Layout. This allows continual
update between each program when changes are made.
Click OK.
This completes everything that Layout will need to implement your circuit onto a PCB

 You can also create a bill of materials to see each part and
how many you will need to
construct
the circuit.
Again, with the design highlighted, under the Tools
menu, choose Bill of Materials.
You can check View Output File to see it.
These last steps have created many output files that can all
be selected and viewed from the
project manager
widow under Outputs.

You are now ready to open Layout and implement your circuit into PCB.
Open the program Layout Plus under the Engineering Software menu, PSpice, Cadence.
Under File, choose New. The following window will appear.
This is where you choose
what template you will
put your circuit on. Ask
your professor for the
Layout Footprint Book
that will show you what
each template is. If
you want to implement
on a blank board,
choose DEFAULT.TCH.

 If you have the Layout Footprint Book and you know what shape and size the component will
be, you can find one in the book and link it to the
component by choosing Link existing
footprint to component.

The following window will appear

where you can
select from various libraries, the
component shape
that you want the component
to look like

 Next you need to choose which layers you will have on your board. If you are making this
board at Calvin, you will probably only be using one side for traces. These means
that all other layers need to be removed.
Go to Tool, Layer, Select from Spreadsheet
Double click on the layers that you want to modify. In the window that pops up,
click off the layers that you will not use (Choose Unused Routing).

Once you have your board outline or boundary defined, you are ready to place parts.
Placement settings can be modified under
Options, Place Settings.
You can choose to place the board manually,
or you can have the program do it is self.
To do it yourself, just make sure that
the component tool on the toolbar is
selected. Then you can move the
parts yourself and place them where
you want.
To have the program do it for you,
under Auto, go to Place, Board. The
program will place each part within

the boundary. If your boundary is too small, errors will appear when you run
the Design Rules Check from the toolbar. (Important: Always make sure to
check your
design rules after each modification
to the board.)
If at anytime, you want to only view certain layers of the board, you have to make the layers
that
you dont want to see invisible. To do this, choose the layer that you dont
want to see in the
toolbar

Also, make sure that the Reconnect button is not selected (this allows you to see
routing.)

the

Highlight the wire that you wish to route. The program will not let you route the
through critical areas Once you have routed the wire in an ok place, it will turn
to a
wide, red wire.
You can unroute the board or a component under Auto, by choosing Unroute, Board
(or Component).