Wesley - As a suggestion try to break up the PCB design process
(methodology) into what I would consider the 4 major process groups:

I.    INPUT - FRONT END (Schematic Capture) [CHECK]
II.   PLACEMENT - Floorplanning/Approval [CHECK]
III.  ROUTING - Critical/AutoRoute [CHECK]
IV. OUTPUT - Postprocessing, Documentation [CHECK]

Each of these Groups of course needs to be broken down to the process
description for naming conventions, documentation, etc, and this can only
be determined by your company since all companies do things differently. As
was suggested do one at a time as time allows. Also remember that the
process that you document is considered to be alive and as such will
continue to grow and be modified as the need arises. This will only cover
the design methodology for the PCB layout. You must also document other
processes such as the Library Specification which describes how your
libraries for Schematic as well as PCB will be generated consistently.

One bit of advice, I would not suggest that you change each persons
strategy on how they design boards, because this will impede their
creativity. One reason for creating procedures and processes is to be
consistent on documentation, layer usage/naming, library naming/creation,
and things that need to be made consistent. Do not however curb your
designers learned ways of designing. Remember everyone tackles a design
challenge differently. I hope this helps a bit.

Regards . . . BobCAD





My manager has assigned me the task of creating a kind of PCB design
methodology. We currently all have our own way of designing boards and are
looking for ways to capture this information on paper. I've gone to IPCs
web page and printed out anything and everything on PCB design.  Do you
have any suggestion on where I can start?

Shannon Wesley                            email: [log in to unmask]
Systems Engineer                          phone: (619)457-2111 x228
VisiCom Laboratories, Inc.                fax:   (619)457-0888

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