Step 8: Complete Your Project

Complete your design in Autodesk Eagle

Before proceeding with component placement on the PCB board, ensure that all the CUBO™ connections in your Design Canvas project are established between the components in your PCB Schematics.

1. Open Autodesk Eagle

Once you have downloaded the files, double-click on the desired Eagle Schematic file to open the file in Autodesk Eagle or go to Eagle’s Control panel, then click on File > Open > Schematic

 

Select the desired file and press Open. It will open Schematic file in Eagle

 

2. Build your project

Once you have opened the Schematic file, you will see one CUBO™ design per Schematic sheet. 

 

Eagle Schematic: 1) The schematic sheets from the project 2) The list of Components from the project

 

To start designing a new PCB board for your project, click Generate/switch to board in the top Tool Bar.

 

Swtich to board

 

A warning window pops up asking you to confirm the creation of Eagle PCB board (.brd) from the Schematic. Click Yes to proceed.

 

Warning Window to confirm the PCB board creation

 

Once you approve creation of new PCB board, a PCB board file opens with the components outside the board layout area.

 

Eagle PCB: 1) Component Footprints 2) Board layout area

 

Now it is time for you to place components on the PCB board, do the routing and finish the layout. Don’t forget to save!

 

Complete your design in Altium Designer

Before proceeding with component placement on the PCB board, ensure that all the CUBO™ connections in your Design Canvas project are established between the components in your PCB Schematics.

To open the downloaded project , you have two options: either double-click the project_name.PrjPCB file or open it directly in Altium Designer. If you choose the first method, proceed to How to Sync between Schematic and Layout section.

files

The files you have downloaded are compressed into a zip file format. Please make sure to extract (unzip) them before attempting to open them. After extracting the files, you will gain access to the desired project files.

1. Open Altium Designer

Open the Altium Designer's home page. Click File from main menu and then click Open Project.

 

Open new project in Altium Designer

 

An Open project window will appear. In the LOCATIONS section on the left, select your Workspace. The central area will display all projects within that Workspace. Choose the project you wish to work on, then click Open in the lower-right corner.

If the files are not found in any predefined locations, you can click the Browse button in the bottom left corner to search for and select the desired project location.

 

Browse for the desired project file

 

Locate the project file and open

 

Upon opening the project, you can access the schematic and board files.

 

Project file and associated documents

 

2. How to Sync between Schematic and Layout

The following steps outline how to synchronize the schematic with the layout. This synchronization is necessary to ensure that any connection changes are accurately reflected in the PCB layout.

First Select Update PCB Document from the Design menu

 

Update PCB Document

 

A Comparator Results dialog will appear, prompting you to confirm whether to continue and create an Engineering Change Order (ECO).  

 

Comparator Results Dialog

 

Once you click Yes and continue, an Information dialog will pop up, displaying the modified Component links. Click OK to proceed.

 

Information dialog on modified Component Links

 

Next, the Engineering Change Order (ECO) dialog will appear, asking you to execute the changes

 

Execute changes from Schematic to PCB Layout

After completing these steps, your PCB schematics and layout will be synchronized.

Now it is time for you to place components on the PCB board, do the routing and finish the layout. Don’t forget to save! 

 

Complete your design in KiCAD

 

 

Before proceeding with component placement on the PCB board, ensure that all the CUBO™ connections in your Design Canvas project are established between the components in your PCB Schematics.

After you have downloaded the output files from Design Canvas, you can open the Zip file containing the project file (.kicad_pro), schematic files (.kicad_sch), layout file (.kicad_pcb) and frame page (.kicad_wks).

 

Output Project files

 

Unzip the compressed folder and open the project file (.kicad_pro) and you will see the KiCAD project.

 

KiCAD Project

 

1. How to Sync between Schematic and Layout

When you open the Schematic file (.kicad_sch), you'll see the project structure as hierarchical blocks and each block represents a CUBO™

 

Schematic Preview: 1) Schematic Sheets from the project 2) Hierarchical blocks representing the project

 

Now you can switch to PCB editor.

 

PCB editor icon

 

When you open the PCB layout for first time, will see the layout without the Ratsnet. It happens because the layout isn’t synchronized with the Schematic.

 

PCB layout before synchronization

 

Before snychronizing the schematic and layout, ensure that the Ratsnest feature is enabled.

So first, enable the Ratsnet button  on the left toolbar

 

Ratsnet Enabled

 

To synchronize the Layout with Schematic you have to follow these steps:

 

Step 1: Click Tools from the Top ribbon. Then Select Update PCB from Schematic

 

Update PCB from Schematic

 

Step 2: Select the Option 1. Then click on Update PCB

 

Update PCB from Schematic: 1) Re-link footprints to schematic symbols based on their reference designators 2) Click on Update PCB

 

Step 3: Click Close button.

 

Your Layout is successfully synced now. To verify the synchronization, check whether you see the Ratsnet on Layout.

 

Ratsnet on the Layout after synchronization

 

Now it is time for you to place components on the PCB board, do the routing and finish the layout. Don’t forget to save your project.