Data Sheet

PCB Layout
107
If you are placing components in a high density area where routing space is at a
premium you can hide the part reference via the edit component dialogue form
(right click on the part and select edit properties from the resulting dialogue form).
Generally speaking you have two options for placement of the board. You can either manually
place the components in their positions or, if you have the Advanced Features Set (Proteus
PCB Design Level 2, Level 2+ or Level 3), you can use the Auto-placement feature to get all the
components on the board and then move them into the desired locations. In either case, you
may find it useful to temporarily disable the ratsnest lines during placement; remember that this
is controlled from the Layers dialogue form as discussed earlier.
The auto-placer can be invoked from the Tools Menu in the PCB layout and for our purposes all
the default options will suffice.
Selecting the Auto-Placer from the Tools menu
Whichever route you follow the task is to lay out all the components on the layout, using the
previous layout as a reference. Try to leave some space at the bottom of the board so that we
can run traces down and along from connector J2.
The following points are useful to bear in mind as you continue placement: