Placement and area adjustment for hierarchical groups in printed circuit board design

摘要

Aspects of the invention are directed towards placing components within a layout design for a PCB. More specifically, various implementations of the invention provide methods and apparatuses that can dynamically adjust the shape or placement of component groups during an HGP process. With some implementations of the invention, an HGP process for planning the layout of a PCB is provided. Furthermore, component groups, which conflict, geographically, with either another component group or some other object within the layout design are allowed to be placed during the planning process. Subsequently, the placement locations for one or both of the conflicting component groups are adjusted to resolve the conflict. In some implementations, the geometric boundary, or footprint, of one or both of the component groups is adjusted to resolve the conflict.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
identifying, from a printed circuit board design, a plurality of components for placing within a layout of the printed circuit board design; grouping the plurality of components into at least a first component group and a second component group, wherein the first component group includes a first subset of the plurality of components and the second component group includes a second subset of the plurality of components; identifying a first footprint for the first component group within the layout, wherein a location of each component in the first subset is unassigned within the first footprint; identifying a second footprint for the second component group within the layout, wherein a location of each component in the second subset is unassigned within the second footprint; determining, by one or more computing devices, that the first footprints conflicts with the second footprint within the layout; and adjusting, by the one or more computer devices, the first footprint or the second footprint to resolve the conflict.