Schematic Capture - Schematic Capture Tips

Schematic Capture Tips

To make schematics easier to read there are a few tips that can increase organization and readability.

• Schematics should read left to right, just like a book. Generally, inputs on the left, outputs on the right.
• Naming signals / nets will dramatically increase the readability and traceability of your schematics. It will be a great help during the pcb design phase of your project.
• No 4-way ties. A 4-way tie can cause confusion and should be avoided at all times (This 'tip' is often contended among design professionals).
• Break the schematic into logical building blocks. This is easily accomplished with multiple pages, each having a dedicated functionality.
• Use all capital letters as much as possible, especially for small text such as net names. This improves legibility, and is required by most drafting standards.
• To maximize portability, net names should consist of letters, numbers, and underscores. Use of characters such as spaces, pluses or minuses, or case sensitive names (i.e. two or more names who only differ in case) is discouraged, as it can cause subtle problems when exporting a netlist for simulation or layout. For example, net names in Verilog cannot have spaces; a netlist export tool would have to "escape" these characters to allow a Verilog simulation, which could lead to confusion if there are later errors referencing these nets.