The reference designators will also aid any hand assembly tasks, manual inspection, debugging, and testing procedures as specific components in the BOM can be spotted visually in the PCB layout. Reference designators are useful for many tasks beyond schematic design and component placement in a PCB layout. This reference designation and all other markings in the silkscreen layer will be screen printed onto the solder mask on the PCB as one of the final fabrication steps. Once Gerber data is generated for your printed circuit layout, the Gerber file with the silkscreen layer data will also include the PCB reference designators for each component. Each reference designator in the schematic editor will appear in the silkscreen layer in the PCB layout. The reference designator for a specific component can be seen in your schematic design documents, PCB layout, and bill of materials as you create the database for your design. Each component gets its own reference designator, meaning reference designators are never repeated. The reference designator for a component is a letter and number combination assigned to a specific component. Altium Designer is the best software you can use to ensure your design will have synchronized PCB refdes throughout your circuit diagram and schematic diagram sheets, as well as your PCB layout and fabrication documentation.Īll PCB reference designators appear on the surface layers of a PCB on the silkscreen layers (top and bottom overlay). As you work through your printed circuit project documents, there is the possibility for your schematics, PCB layout, bill of materials, and final manufacturing outputs to become desynchronized.

If you’re using the best PCB layout software with an integrated schematic editor, it’s easy to keep reference designation synchronized between schematic sheets and the PCB layout. The reference designator that appears on the PCB will be assigned to a specific component in your design documentation by your ECAD software, or the user can customize the reference designation to have a specific format that is necessary for the current project. PCB design software with advanced CAD tools for creating components and placing your PCB reference designator list.Įvery component you place in your schematics, circuit board layout, bill of materials, and many other design documents will have a corresponding reference designator.

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