Guidelines #
Good schematics show you the circuit. Bad schematics make you decipher them. Here you can find a bunch of guidelines we set up to get consistent schematics along the project.
Schematics #
Clean Text placement #
- After placing a symbol make sure the designator is close to the symbol and does not overlap other text or tracks
- Make some space and move parts if they are too close
- Do not place text verticaly
Layout flow #
- Logical flow from left to right
- Power connectioncs should go up to positive voltages and down to negative voltages
- Rotate common symbols the same way to find similarities faster in a schematics
Schematic Symbols #
- Show pins of an IC in a position relevant to their function, not how they happen to stick out of the chip.
- Positive pins top the top
- Negative pins to the bottom
- Inputs to the left
- Outputs to the right
Direct connections, within reason #
- reduce wire crossing and alike as much as possible for clarity
- draw dots on junctions if your tool does not do it for you (if not you should use a better one)
NETs and Labels #
- Give your NETs nicely readable names
- But keep them reasonably short
- Always try to use your tool to select a NET instead of writing it by hand to avoind spelling mistakes
- Use upper case for NET Labels
- See this ANSI/IEEE standard for recommended pin name abbreviations.