DesignSpark PCB - Version 12 release highlights

DesignSpark PCB software is just one of the comprehensive tools in our free, and low-cost monthly plans, which provide students, pro-creators and design engineers with CAD software, design services, and training and support worth over £1000.

Version 12 aims to make DSPCB an even more reliable and productive tool for you. An exhaustive list of features with descriptions is available in the update notes (access from the program Help menu > Online Manuals). Here are some exciting highlights from the new release:

Pre-plot checks for correct layer selection:

Available in: Explorer, Creator and Engineer plans.

This new feature provides an additional Manufacturing Output plots check. When running plots from the Plotting and Printing dialog, the layers selected for each plot will be checked, and any layers that appear in more than one plot will be highlighted for you to confirm before carrying on with processing. This is to help avoid accidentally selecting the wrong layers when setting up the plots. For more information see the Tutorial.

New Edit component options in Library Manager:

Available in: Explorer, Creator and Engineer plans.

When creating multiple named pins in the component editor dialog, it is now possible to use simple name ranges and add a prefix for such ranges. Previously, all pins had to be defined explicitly. This is a useful enhancement for your high pin footprints like BGAs. A comma will be used for externally connected pins, but if you want to specify internally connected pins instead, you will have to add the plus (+) sign as a suffix to the pin number string: 1-9+.

In the below image, you can see a prefix string 'Vdd' is used to represent the list of pin numbers '9-13'.

For more information on this option see the Tutorial.

Measure tool - Dual Units and Angular Precision:

Available in: Creator and Engineer plans.

The Measure Tool can now display measurements in two units which is desirable when using mixed units from datasheets and enclosure dimensions. As part of this enhancement, the angular precision has been increased to 3 digits throughout DSPCB. For more information see the Tutorial.

Segment Mode for Shape/Track Editing:

Available in: Creator and Engineer plans.

New 'Fixed Angle' Segment Mode has been added for use when editing Shapes or Tracks. This allows more customisation for laying tracks when manual routing. When editing a shape/track, from the context menu option Segment Mode>, you can now select the new modes and its contextual options:

Translate to PCB with additional options:

Available in: Creator and Engineer plans.

When choosing Translate To PCB from a Schematic or Project, you now have three options for creating your new PCB design: based on technology file, an existing PCB design, or using the new PCB wizard.

Using an existing PCB design is very useful for situations when a family of PCBs such as creating various daughter boards (shields) are required with the same board outline, mounting holes, connector positions etc. The new PCB will also inherit a copy of the technology used along with free copper areas, text etc., of the original design. For more information see the Tutorial.

Design rule check within current view :

Available in: Engineer plan.

In the DRC dialog, there is a new option to allow checking within current view. This can be very useful when working on a complicated design as you can check a small local area quickly.

Save project-specific libraries :

Available in: Engineer plan.

There is a new command on the File menu named Save Project Libraries. This is very useful if you want to create a Project or ‘design’ based library set. It will be available from the menu when a Project file is selected. For more information see the Tutorial.

New Component bin selection options :

Available in: Engineer plan.

This new option available to the Engineer subscription provides simple selection and sorting tools for the component bin. The key benefit is you can now filter and select components (as you require) for efficient placement and subsequent routing on the PCB editor.

The full set of options is as shown, the lower four will only be shown if a component is selected and the option is appropriate for that component. For more information see the Tutorial.

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