Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1509257
OCTOBER 2023 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 31 complex, but even so, it should be intuitive and easy to use as it is. Ease of use is an area where less expensive, open-source soware tends to lag behind. If price is an important factor in the decision- making process, the result can be a balancing act between price and usability. Help and Documentation ere will come a time when expert help is needed to move a PCB from design to manu- facture. Make sure that the CAD tool provider offers user support early in the process. If there is a phone number for support, call and ask some questions about the product. Live sup- port can come in very handy with more com- plex designs. CAD tool soware providers should make their documentation available online. Quality documentation can be a huge help to designers who need questions answered in a hurry. Even YouTube tutorials and user forums can offer solutions to common issues with a CAD tool. Checking the tool's documentation and look- ing for video tutorials can also help you evalu- ate a CAD tool when deciding what to use. If there are too many people reporting problems, that might mean the tool is too difficult to use. Likewise, a YouTube tutorial that takes the viewer through too many convoluted steps can be a red flag toward usability. Additional Considerations CAD soware is almost always highly cus- tomizable with design rules, favorite libraries, shortcuts, and modules to increase productiv- ity and make the design process personalized and special. Pay attention to limitations, such as board size, and the number of pins or layers a tool can support. Watch for limits on minimum compo- nent pitch and the supported sizes for traces, spacing, and vias. Once you have narrowed the field, download the CAD tools that look the most promising and try them out. Fieen min- utes or so should be enough to tell whether the tool is intuitive and will fit your PCB project. CAD Tools Must Be Easy to Use e most important part about choosing a CAD tool, though, is that it shouldn't make designing too much of a chore. You want designing to be productive and efficient and, in the end, maybe that's the most important ele- ment to evaluate when you're trying out differ- ent tools. DESIGN007 Matt Stevenson is vice presi- dent at Sunstone Circuits, a division of American Standard Circuits, and the author of The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to… Designing for Reality. To read past columns, click here.