TABLE OF CONTENTS Footprints provide a means of physically attaching components to your PCB, and they provide electrical connectivity as defined by the netlist generated in Capture. Footprints in PCB Editor are known by several names, including symbols, components, and packages. The PCB Editor library has over 400 symbols, but there will be occasions when you will need to make your own. This purpose of this chapter is to
Introduce PCB Editor's symbol libraries.
Discuss the composition of a footprint.
Provide a detailed explanation of padstacks.
Demonstrate how to create a padstack using the Padstack Designer.
Provide footprint design examples.
Provide design examples for mechanical symbols and flash symbols.
The footprints are located in the OrCAD_16.0\share\pcb\pcb_lib folder. In that folder are two more folders: a devices folder and a symbols folder. The devices folder contains text files that define logic information for certain component types, which are not discussed here. The symbols folder contains eight types of files. Table 8-1 lists the files and explanations of their functions.
| File extension | File type |
|---|---|
| name .bsm | A mechanical symbol file (derived from the .dra file with the same name) |
| name. dra | A PCB Editor drawing file |
| name .fsm | A flash symbol file (derived from the .dra file with the same name) |
| name .log | A text file containing the date and time the symbol or padstack name was last modified... |
