Cadence OrCAD PCB Designer

• Select an Analog or Mixed A/D project. This choice is essential or you will not be
able to simulate the circuit.
• Give the project a meaningful name.
• Click on the Browse key, select your H drive and navigate to a suitable location.
Click the Create Directory button if you haven’t already made a new directory for
the design and enter a suitable name. Click OK.
• Select this new directory and click OK. The path and directory now show in the
location box (if you can see them – they are usually too long). Click on OK in the
New Project dialog box.
• Click Next.
3. Select the Create a blank project button in the small dialog box that appears and click
OK.
4. Your project will now be created. The Project Manager window (headed name.opj)
shows the files associated with your design and the resources that will be used, such
as library files. Check that the File tab is selected if the view looks unfamiliar.
5. Open the window SCHEMATIC1: PAGE1 for your design. There is a Title box in the
lower right-hand corner. Double-click on the placeholders, which are in angle brackets
, and replace them with a descriptive title and so on.
3.2 Draw the circuit
Lay out the circuit in figure 1 on page 4. The method is exactly the same as last year, but here
are a few tips in case you have forgotten. The names of the components are listed in table 1
on page 12. The capacitor C 2
is an electrolytic type, which must be installed with the correct
polarity or it will explode. Its parameter CMAX is the maximum working voltage, which is not
needed for simulation. I’ve renamed some of the components to make their functions clearer.
• All circuits must have a ground node called 0 (zero) for simulation. You will get confusing
messages about unconnected nodes if you forget this. Get it from the ground button
on the right.
• PSpice is unhelpful about notation. Usage like 10ˆ6 doesn’t work but it won’t tell you!
(It will just stop at the caret and take the value as 10.) Use 1e6 or 1Meg instead – not 1M
because a single m or M means milli, not mega.
• Libraries must be chosen from the pspice folder, otherwise the components will not have
PSpice models and you will not be able to simulate them.
• Simple components like resistors are in the analog library, sources such as VDC are
in source and the param block is in special. Use Search if you can’t guess where a
component is located. You will probably need to do this for the transistor.
• Always join components with wires, not by placing them so close that their pins overlap.
This can cause strange errors.
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