Working with components¶
CPCB ships with a small library of predefined components and it is very easy to add your own to the library.
Placing library components onto a PCB¶
Press “Control”+“Shift”+“O” to show the library (or select “Open library” from the Tools menu). CPCB components are saved as SVG files, so in some operating systems the Filer window will show previews. Components may be placed on the PCB simply by dragging them in from a Filer window. Please note that CPCB cannot handle arbitrary SVG files, only the special SVG files that it creates itself, so do not draw components in an external SVG editor and expect CPCB to import them into your layout.
Creating new components¶
To create a new component from scratch, simply place holes, pads, and outlines onto a PCB. It may be helpful to use “incremental” coordinates to place features of the component relative to each other. Be sure to assign pin numbers to all holes and pads. When done, use “Control”+“G” or the menu to group the features together. A default “reference” text will appear, which you could edit. For instance, if you drew a new symbol for a diode, you might want to replace the “X?” with “D?”. To save a copy of the component for use in future layouts, press “Control”+“Shift”+“I” or select “Save component…” from the “Tools” menu.
Editing components¶
To edit a component, the easiest thing to do is to double click on its outline on the board. This will “enter the group” of the component, hiding all PCB elements that are not part of the component. You can now add, remove, or modify elements of the component at will. Double click on the background to “leave” the group. At this point you may want to press “Control”+“Shift”+“I” (or select “Save component…” from the “Tools” menu) to save the component, either replacing the old version if you are simply fixing a mistake, or as a copy if you are creating a new component based on an older one.
If all you need to do is renumber some pins of a component, it is even easier to just double click on those pins and type the new numbers in the popup box.
Using the components panel¶
The components pane serves as a placeholder for components that are part of a linked schematic but that have not yet been placed on the PCB. On first use, it simply shows a list of those components, identified by their “Reference” text, their “part/value” text (if defined) and their number of pins. If you have used a similar component before, CPCB may display a default outline package instead. The following actions are available in the components pane:
You can drag a component outline from the pane to the PCB.
You can drag a component outline from a Filer window to the pane.
You can drag a component outline from one tile in the pane to another to conveniently apply the same outline to multiple components.
You can rotate or flip an outline by pressing “R”, “Shift”+“R”, or “F” after clicking it.
You can copy a component outline from the PCB into the pane by selecting (only) that component on the PCB and clicking on the target tile with the middle mouse button or with “Control” and the left mouse button.
Instead of dragging component outlines directly onto the PCB from a Filer window, it is often convenient to first drag them onto the “components panel,” copy them to all like items, and then drag those onto the PCB.