Documentation

Auto Place Overview

8 min read

The Auto Place option provides full automatic component placement, with a set of features that allow you to control how the placement is carried out. When placing components, the placement functions will consider pre-placed parts (often connectors, LEDs, etc.), keepout areas and automatic surface mount device recognition

Shortcuts

Default Keys: None

Default Menu: Tools

Command: Auto Place All

Default Keys: None

Default Menu: Tools

Command: Auto Place Selected

Both of these options will open the Autoplace dialog as shown below. When using Auto Place Selected the dialog will be ‘primed’ to place only the selected items; this option can also be used in Latched Mode allowing components to be automatically placed simply by clicking on them.

Default Keys: None

Default Menu: None

Command: Auto Place Parameters

This option allows you to set up the Placement parameters in a Technology file. The Autoplace dialog is displayed, but with the Autoplace button greyed out to indicate that it is only being used to set up placement parameters.

Locating this option

Available from: Tools menu > Auto Place option >

Choosing What to Place and Where

This section of the dialog allows you to choose which components are to be considered for placement, and where you want them to go. These buttons can be used in various combinations, enabling you to carry out complex placement operations in ‘stages’ to produce the desired results.

The settings in this section of the dialog are remembered on your system, and are applied independently of the currently loaded design (they are not saved in the technology).

Components To Place

This section controls which components in the design will be considered for selection. Note that this only defines a ‘starting set’ of components to be considered; if components do not fit with other criteria selected further down the dialog (for example, they are surface mount and you only select to place through-hole components), they will not be placed.

  • Outside Board: consider all components which are fully outside all board outlines
  • Inside Board: consider all components which are fully or partly inside a board outline
  • From Bin: consider components currently in the Component Bin
  • Checking all three of the above (if available) will give you all the components in the design.

From the subsets above you can further refine the components to consider.

  • Selected Only: consider components currently selected on the design.
  • Include Locked Components: include components which are locked.
  • In Group Only: consider only components from the named group.

Where To Place

This section defines what regions of the design should be considered as valid places to place the components. Using a combination of selecting the appropriate items in the design, together with settings on this part of the dialog, will allow you to control exactly where each ‘phase’ of placement will be done.

  • Component Bin: move components off the design into the Component Bin

  • Board: inside any board

    Check the Selected Board Only to only consider components in boards which are selected. Check the Place Around The Outside box to stack components around the board outline, rather than inside.

  • Area: place the components into the selected area. Note that the components should still be inside a board outline and obey any other placement restrictions. Use the dropdown list to select which named area or all Selected Areas to use. When using Area, the rules defined in your Technology Component Rules dialog will also be applied.

    Check the Place Around The Outside box to stack components around the area, rather than inside.

Placement Rules

This section of the dialog defines the rules on how each type of component is to be treated when carrying out the placement. The settings in this part of the dialog are stored along with the other technology information for a design or technology file.

Component Types

There are four main rows of information, one for each of the component ‘types’. Autoplace knows how to distinguish between Through-Hole and Surface Mount devices, and will also separate small components from the rest using the pin count you specify. For each row, that type of component is ‘enabled’ for placement by setting the checkbox alongside its name. Also, there are settings for each row for the component to component gap, placement grid, allowed orientations, and allowed sides.

The ‘columns’ in this section (Gap, Grid, etc) are in turn controlled by check boxes at the top of each column:

  • Gap : if checked, enables the gap to be individually specified for each type of component. If unchecked, the Optimum component to component spacing from the Technology Spacing Rules will be used, and the controls for the individual settings will be greyed out.
  • Grid : if checked, enables the placement grid to be individually specified for each type of component. If unchecked, the general Component Grid will be used, and the controls for the individual settings will be greyed out.
  • Orientation : if checked, the allowed rotations for each type of component can be individually specified. If unchecked, the current orientation of components will be left unchanged.
  • Side : if checked, the allowed side for each type of component can be individually specified. If unchecked, the current side of components will be left unchanged.

The controls in this section allow you to choose how each type of component is to be placed. For example, you could place your larger components on a larger grid (which will allow placement to run quicker), whilst allowing the gaps between the large components to be filled with smaller ones by giving those a smaller grid and/or gap, and perhaps allowing the smaller ones to be rotated.

You can override the general orientation settings for individual components by adding the <Autoplace Rules> attribute to them. Set the allowed orientations by including some of 0, 90, 180 and 270 in the value, with a comma separator. You can also specify that the component is to be placed near to specific edges of the board by including some of ‘t’, ‘b’, ‘l’ and ‘r’ in the value. These correspond to the top, bottom, left and right edges of the board.

Other Settings

Also within this Placement Rules section of the dialog are some additional settings:

  • Small : this allows you to define which components should be treated as ‘small’ for the purposes of splitting them into separate placement ‘passes’.
  • Comp to Board : this is the Optimum Component To Board setting from the Technology Spacing Rules.

Other Controls

The buttons at the foot of this section of the dialog allow you to ‘manipulate’ sets of rules.

  • Default Rules : resets the dialog to the inbuilt default settings.
  • Load Rules : allows rules to be loaded from an “Autoplace Rules File”.
  • Save Rules : allows the current rules to be saved to an “Autoplace Rules File”.
  • Advanced : opens the Advanced Settings dialog, where you can view and change certain rule settings that are not needed very often. Note that although they are on a separate dialog they are still considered part of the Rules so will be saved/loaded in Autoplace Rules Files.

Settings

This section of the dialog allows you to choose various settings that affect how Autoplace operates. As with the section on choosing what to place, these are saved on your system so the settings are remembered for next time.

  • View Placement : check this box to see the components as they are being placed.
  • Return to Dialog After Placing : check this box to re-display the dialog when the current placement operation is finished. This allows you to autoplace using one set of rules, then return to the dialog and load another Rules File to carry out another placement operation.
  • Put ‘Failed’ Components in Component Bin : check this box to place any components that cannot be placed (for example if there is not enough room for them) into the Component Bin. Clear this box to have these failed components arranged around the outside of the board outline.
  • Lock Placed Components : check this box to have components set as Locked once they have been successfully placed. Clear the box to prevent them from being set Locked.

Using Autoplace Rule Files

Autoplace Rule Files allow you to save and re-use ‘standard’ placement operations independent of any particular design. This works in the same way as Colour Files, allowing the current dialog settings to be saved to a file, or ‘primed’ by reloading a file.

To create an Autoplace Rules File, set up the dialog with the settings and values you want to keep, then click Save Rules. A standard file browser dialog will appear, allowing you to enter a name for the file.

To use a previously saved Autoplace Rules File, click Load Rules, which will then display a standard file browser dialog for you to select the desired file.

The default location for these Rules Files is in the default Technology folder, which is the top most enabled folder in the list on the Technology Files page of the Folders dialog.

Saved in Technology

The parameters defined in this dialog are saved to both the design and as part of the technology. As such, they can be exported using Save Technology and loaded into new designs as part of a Technology file.

Technology Overview | Save Technology | Placing The Design | Place Around Board | Component Bin | Component Rules | Grids

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