| PCB
Wizard 1 Review |
| IEE 'Electronics
Education' magazine, Autumn 1997 |
| |
Creating artwork for the production of printed circuit
boards (PCB) used to be a laborious and time consuming chore.
Over recent years the electronics industry has produced a number
of professional software packages which have revolutionised
PCB design. New Wave Concepts, a newly formed company of software
engineers, has focused especially on the educational world.
The result is PCB Wizard, a well thought-out PCB design package
with several innovative additional features. |
|
| Students designing their
own PCB layout drag ready-made component pads out of a parts
bin and place them on screen. Values and identifiers can be
added and follow the component if it is moved later. Adding
and editing tracks is straightforward and intuitive. Finally
the student prints out the PCB mask, the component silk-screen,
etc. Hidden behind the apparent simplicity is detail and versatility.
Compared with some professional packages where choice gets in
the way of getting started, the PCB Wizard parts bin and other
default decisions are well orientated towards the educational
world. Nevertheless, new components can be added and the whole
system personalised by the teacher to suit various ages and
abilities. |
|
| So far, readers may
say, it sounds like just another good PCB design package. However,
the authors have found out what teachers would like but didn’t
know was possible! At the click of an icon button the component
symbols are converted into coloured 3-D shapes resembling real-world
components. Being able to toggle to and fro between the PCB
layouts and these graphical representations will do much to
link them together in students minds, particularly those further
down the learning curve. The off-board components, such as switches
and batteries, also look tremendous and could be useful for
incorporating into worksheets. |
|
| But there'’s more! Hands
up those teachers who struggle to get their students to add
up the cost of components in their projects. Well PCB Wizard
does it automatically in its Bill of Materials section. |
|
| And there's still more!
Circuits already drawn and simulated in Crocodile Clips can
be imported at the click of an icon button. The circuit symbols
are analysed and converted into component layouts and tracks
which can be dragged to arrive at an optimum board layout. |
|
| And still more! Recognising
that many students have their own computers, PCB Wizard comes
with a freely copiable student version. Projects can be worked
on at home, then brought in for printing. This innovative break
with restrictive licensing is a definite first to our knowledge. |
|
| Our overall impression
is very favourable. The package is very user-friendly and blissfully
simple to use. There are nice extras such as video clip tutorials
and a tip-of-the-day! As it runs in Windows the screen layout
and icons are familiar. PCB layouts, real-world component drawings,
and costings can be cut and pasted into other packages to provide
exciting additions to usually tedious report writing. The speed
is near instantaneous on a standard 486. The Users Guide and
book of Tutorials are well set out with plenty of screen shots
and useful tips. |
|
| The technical telephone
support is responsive and genuinely good. The authors are keen
to have feedback and to listen to teachers views. They took
onboard our plea (to writers of all instruction booklets) for
short-form prompt sheets to be photocopied as handouts. We felt
the ability to import from Crocodile Clips was particularly
exciting but untangling a rats-nest from a complex circuit could
be daunting. Perhaps if component and track placement could
be successfully automated then students would never know of
the bad old days with pencil and grid paper! |
|
We think the authors
have done a very promising job of PCB Wizard which hopefully
will make teachers jobs not only easier but also more effective.
After all, Information Technology is at its best when, to use
Bill Gates' expression, it lowers the friction of getting mundane
or complex tasks done. Schools and colleges who are searching
for a PCB designing package tailored for the educational world
will want to consider PCB Wizard.
 |
| |
| Dr. Rowland Dye and
Phil Norman, Filton College, Bristol |
| Dave Walker, Downend
School, Bristol |
| |
