| PCB
Wizard 1 Review |
| 'Technotes' magazine
for Hertfordshire LEA, Summer 1997 |
| |
When the history of software comes to be written
we will all have a bundle of nominations for the Chamber of
Horrors. Most software is OK if you persevere in the fight to
get on top of it. Just occasionally a program turns up which
is head and shoulders above the mob. You still have to learn
to use it but that's no hardship because you feel the writer
has got it right, even designed it just for you. For me, at
any rate, PCB Wizard is in this class. |
|
| What do I like about
it? You can customise it to suit a range of users, from beginner
to experienced. It has a comprehensive component library which
is easy to explore. Picking, placing, orientating, moving and
labelling of components is simple. Drawing the tracks is a click
and drag job with the mouse. |
|
| If you move a component
after tracks are drawn to it, the tracks stay attached and move
and stretch with the component. This means that initial placing
of components does not need to be that precise. You can plonk
things down, join them with tracks and tidy the layout when
all the connections have been made. |
|
| You can switch between
component outlines and drawings of the real things. Any of the
drawings can be copied into other Windows applications. |
|
| As you place components,
a list of parts with prices and other supplier details is compiled,
spreadsheet style. The list can be imported into Excel or Word. |
|
All good stuff. But
the real prize cherry on the cake is the way PCB Wizard links
with that other "head and shoulders above the mob"
program, Crocodile Clips. Circuits modelled and saved in Crocodile
Clips can be imported into PCB Wizard which translates them
into a printed circuit board layout. True, you have to tidy
the layout but this seems to be the case with all modelling-to-layout
transfers. The crucial thing for schools is that the two programs
link to make a smooth path from designing, modelling and testing
to product making.
|
| |
| Peter Patient |
| Adviser for Hertfordshire
D&T |
| |
