AutoCAD for PCB Artwork

Steve DiBartolomeo
Applications Manager
Artwork Conversion Software, Inc.
1995 Artwork Conversion Software, Inc.

Introduction
This document explains how to use AutoCAD to draw printed circuit board
artwork. The methods described here are not the only ones that work,
but have been successfully applied to both simple and complex boards.
The drawings are converted to Gerber using Artwork Conversion
Software's ASM 500. Two types of boards will be discussed:

z A two-sided PCB
z A multi-layer board with power and ground planes

The Two-Sided Board

The two sided board requires several photo tooling films. AutoCAD
layers that should be defined are:

z Padmaster (PADM): pads for component and vias

z Solder side traces (SOLD): circuit traces on the solder side of
the PCB
z Component side traces (COMP): circuit traces on the component side
of the PCB
z Silkscreen (SILK): component outlines, part numbers and the board
identification
z Targets (TARGET): alignment targets for all layers
Why Organize This Way?

This organization was developed so that board fabrication information

can be extracted from the drawing database. The padmaster layer
contains information required to create:

Solder Masks

Defines openings in a protective plastic coating. Pads are exposed and

traces are covered. If the drawing is properly organized, the solder
masks can be derived from the padmaster layer.

The board fabrication shop increases the pad dimensions slightly and
replots the data to get the required clearance value between the pads
and mask.

Drill Data

A hole is drilled through

the center of each pad to
accommodate either a
component pin or via. The
drill information does not
need to be drawn in AutoCAD,
but can be extracted from
the padmaster layer.
Bare Board Test Points
Test point locations for
building the bed of nails and
for generating bare board test
programs can be derived from
the padmaster Gerber file.

Setting Up Your Drawing

Use a grid snap if possible. An

exception would be round test boards
and some flex boards which do not
conform to a rectangular grid. Most
PCB fabrication equipment runs on
grid based rules. Ask your board
fabricator what grid size is
supported. Depending on the density
of the design, the grid snap may
vary from 0.010 inch to 0.001 inch. Use grid snap whenever
Once advantage of using AutoCAD is possible.
that you can set any grid size you Your drawings will be
want. If you are working with metric easier to fabricate.
parts you can draw directly in
millimeters or set up a grid in
inches equal to the proper metric
 grid.

Use Blocks for Flashes

The typical PCB has hundreds of heads for
component pins and vias. While you could draw
each pad on AutoCAD as a donut or circle, there
is a more efficient way to photoplot pads. The
trick is to use a Gerber flash for each pad.

The closest AutoCAD entity to a flash is a block.

One drawing approach will be to define a block
for each flash type.

First determine the size and shape of your pads.

In our two-sided example we will have .050 round
pas for vias, an .060 square pad for pin 1 on
components, a .060 round pad for component pins,
a .250 x 0.050 rectangular pad for the edge
connector, and an alignment target. Although a
target is not really a pad, it should always be
flashed so that reference coordinates can be
extracted for drill data.

Next assign a unique and descriptive block name

for each pad. Each block will later be assigned
to a Gerber D-code. The block name should be
short but descriptive of the flash.

Pad Dimensions Shape Block Name

.060 circle RND60

.060 square SQ60

.050 circle RND50

.150 target TARGET

.250 x 0.050 rectangle RE250X50

How to Create Flash Blocks

Set PADM to the current layer. Draw the representation of your pads.
What you draw is only symbolic of what will show up on the film.

For this example draw a .060 diameter circle, a .050 diameter circle,
a .060 square, and a rectangle .250 long by 0.050 wide on a layer PADM.

Define each figure as a block. Use the center of the figure as the
reference point of the block. Give each block a short name. When the
time comes to use the translator, you will assign each of these blocks
to a unique D-code. The descriptive name will help in building the
aperture list.

Defining blocks for flashes

Inserting Flashes

Set the current layer to PADM. Using the block insert command, insert
the block RND 060 for component pins. You may wish to create a macro or
an AutoLisp routine to speed things up. Repeat this for each pad type
you use in the design.

Inserting blocks for flashes

Building Libraries

It often makes sense to build a block containing all of the required

pads for a part and the outline of a part. To create a library element,
first set the current layer to padm. Insert the blocks required for
each pad. Change the current layer to SILK and draw the part outline.

Then define a new block using a name that represents the part. This
block will contain blocks such as RND60 and SQ60 and will also contain
the part outline on the layer SILK.
 Building libraries using flash
blocks. Do not set the block
DIP8 to a flash

Do not insert flashes or blocks

containing flashes or rotation

By building your own library of blocks, time can be saved. Flash blocks
should be inserted on layer PADM. Part outlines should be drawn on the
silkscreen layer.

Drawing Circuit Traces

Circuit traces are drawn using AutoCAD's POLYLINE entity. The polyline
can be assigned a width and can have many vertices. Don't use AutoCAD's
trace entity; although it may sound like a good entity to use, it
actually consists of separate polygons and is not efficiently
converted.

Polylines are translated to a Gerber stroke of the same width. To draw

circuit traces on the solder side of the board, set the current layer
to SOLD. Using polylines of the width chosen for your traces, connect
the pads.

Polylines can be adjusted using the PEDIT command to move vertices or

change the width. Polyline arc sections may also be used, especially of
flex circuit boards. Each Gerber stroke will have a 1/2W round
extension at the ends of the stroke because it is created by a pen with
diameter W.

Solids Ground Planes

For certain designs you may
desire that some polylines are
treated as boundaries (i.e.,the
square end is preserved) and
others are treated as circuit
traces. The simplest approach
is to use AutoCAD's "SOLID"
entity for all rectangular
pads. Use polylines to
interconnect the SOLID's. The
How best to draw the ground
plane area depends both on the
complexity of the ground plane
you wish to create, and on the
capabilities of your translator
and phototherapy. It may be
difficult to visualize your
ground plane area because
AutoCAD lacks the ability to
display an irregular filled
 SOLIDS will be filled so that area. Several strategies are
the edges remain square. The outlined below.
polylines will be plotted using
a single aperture.

Hatching

Very simple ground planes can be hatched using AutoCAD's hatch command.
A simple translator such as ASM 501, which does not fill closed areas
can still be used for ground planes. Hatching quickly becomes
ineffective because:

z AutoCAD stores th hatch information as a block of lines. This

increases the fill size and slows down redraw and regeneration.
z It is not easy to compensate the end of the hatch lines resulting
in leaks past it's boundary.

AutoCAD's Hatch can be used to

fill simple ground planes

Closed Area Fill

Translators such as ASM 502 and ASM 500/386 will fill closed zero-width
polylines during the conversion. With these translators, you can create
your ground plane using a zero width closed polyline. The post
processor will stroke the interior, automatically compensating for
aperture diameter.

Translators such as ASM 502 and

ASM 500 fill closed areas. These
translators also compensate for
aperture diameter.

It's very easy to draw, and drawing file size remains small. However,
AutoCAD will not display the fill on-screen. If you have areas inside
the ground plane that need to be cleared, the auto fill will not take
these into consideration.

These translators do not take in

account areas the designer wishes
to remain clear.

Fill-on-the-Fly Photoplotters
Even better, use a photoplotter that can fill areas during
rasterization. Both the drawing file and the Gerber file stays very
small. Photoplotters that can do this include model 9825 from Gerber
Scientific, the FIRE 9000 family from Cymbolic Sciences, and the
photoplotter from Mivatec.

Negative Plot

Some layers are almost all ground plane. In this case it is best to
draw only the clearances. This data can be reversed on the photoplotter
and merged with a trace or pad layer if necessary.

Film can be easily

reversed on the plotter
Sometimes it is easier to
draw just the clear areas.

The Silkscreen Layer A thickness of 0.008 to 0.015

The silkscreen layer usually
contains component outlines,
text, and perhaps a company
logo. ASM 500 reproduces text by
using the same SHX font files as
AutoCAD. The font strokes are
converted to Gerber draw
commands after the appropriate
scaling, rotation, and
mirroring. You will need a copy
of the SHX file available to the
translator when running the
conversation.
Logos can be drawn by outlining
the border and then hatching the
inside.
Set the current layer to SILK.
Construct the outlines for IC's,
resistors, capacitors, etc. Make
a note as to how thick you want
inch is recommended. Check with
the board fabricator for the
optimum width.
You may, if you wish, define
each outline as a block or
incorporate it into a library
component. This will enable you
to place a large number of
outlines quickly. When the
postprocessor encounters an
inserted block, and does not
find the name in the aperture
table, the post-processor
explodes the block and then
processes the entities found
outside of the block.
The entity data must be located
on the layer under
consideration. You should not
draw your component outlines on
layer 0 and then expect to find
these lines to be. them in layer SILK, even if you
insert the block in layer SILK.

Silkscreen text should not be so

thin that it does not produce a
clean screen, nor should it be so
thick that it blocks up. As a
rule, make the text thickness
about 1/7 the height.

For the font panel work, custom

fonts can be obtained that use
multiple strokes to emulate well
known typefaces such as Helvetica.

Logo's can be drawn using lines

and arcs and the filed by
hatching

Pad Clearance

It is considered bad practice to run

silkscreen ink over pads. While board
fabricators now have CAM programs that
can remove lines that cross over pads,
it is better if the designer avoids
this practice.

Block Attributes

AutoCAD's Block attribute is a useful tool for those building part

libraries. The attribute is a piece of text that can be attached to
the block. The beauty of the attribute is that the text string can be
set up to be a variable - at the time you insert the block, the
designer is prompted to enter the desired string of text.

This is ideal for adding reference designators such as U1, R11, C5, as
well as component values. Unfortunately, on dense boards you can not
always locate the part number or reference designator in the same
position relative to the block insertion point.

Multilayer Boards
Multilayer Boards include multiple
signal layers, ground layers, and power
plane layers. In this example, we will
use a board that has a top and a bottom
signal layer, one ground layer, and one
VCC layer.

Ground and power plane layers do not normally contain traces. They
contain either clearances or connections to the metal in the plane.
The connections to the plane are made via a "thermal", for the purpose
of keeping heat away from the flowing copper during soldering.

Pad Stacks

Unless you have a very complex board with inner layer vias, you can
set up a family of road stacks to ease your design. First determine
the different flashes you will require. In this example we need:

Description Block Name Purpose

Round.150 RND150 Screw Holes

Round.190 RND190 Clearance of screw holes

Thermal.150 THM150 Thermal for screw holes

Round.030 RND030 Signal pad

Thermal.030 THM030 Thermal for VCC or GND

Round.050 RND050 Clearance for VCC or GND

Target.150 TAR150 Targets for alignment

Then build a block stack

consisting of the correct flash
blocks on each layer. See the
table below. Now insert the
correct stack as needed. Once all
the stacks are inserted you can
interconnect them with polylines.