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Starting a New Schematic Entry in OrCAD

Module by: Patrick Frantz. E-mail the author

Summary: Starting a schematic entry in OrCAD.

Warning:

The Connexions version of the OrCAD tutorial is still in development. Please click here for the original and complete tutorial. You may also browse this complete tutorial within Connexions by using the Mozilla browser and accessing the main Connexions page at http://cnx.rice.edu. Click on the 'Contents' tab and select Rice University ELEC 424/427 under the 'Courses' tab.

Before You Begin

It is helpful to be very organized when you are designing. OrCAD will create many files and if you keep all of them in the same directory, it can quickly become very confusing. I like to make a directory hierarchy and put associated files into subdirectories. Before beginning, navigate to the directory in which you will keep your project and create the following subdirectories:

  • sch - for your schematics.
  • lib - for symbol and footprint libraries.
  • board - for your board files.
  • comps - for component datasheets.
  • assy - for assembly related documents.
For larger designs, more subdirectories would be desirable, but these will be sufficient for this project.

Starting a New Schematic Entry

To create a new project, first start OrCAD Capture and click File-->New-->Project. You will see the following dialog box.

Figure 1: New project dialog
Figure 1 (NewProjectDialog.gif)

Browse to the sch directory that you created and name the project Elec424Tutorial. You now have an empty project workspace. You should see an empty schematic page and a project window like the following.

Figure 2: The project workspace
Figure 2 (ProjectWorkspace.gif)

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