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how to correctly match pins?

PNO3

Hello, I am fairly new to PCB design and am currently trying to make my own PCB. I am having trouble figuring out how to tell which pin is which on OrCAD Capture 16.6.

Above is a capacitor that is in my circuit, and the second picture the PIN tab for this capacitor. How should I read this? should I use the first column as the pin number, so pin 1 is positive? or should I use order, so it would call the first pin 0, and it is positive? The footprint shown was designed by me.

Above is another part in my circuit. On this part, the "Number" column has numbers in it instead of the polarity like the CAP...? The footprint shown was created by me, I am trying to match the footprint pins to those in the circuit. The simulation uses BD140 instead of MJE15034 because I do not have MJE15034 in my parts library, on the actual PCB however, MJE15034 will be used.

Above is a third part from my circuit. On this part, both the number and order start with zero. On the PCB editor, when you place a pin/(pad?) it starts at 1, does this mean the first column is all I need? Or do I use one of the other columns and re-number the pins in PCB editor to start at 0?which Column is used to identify the pin number? The simulation uses MJL21194 but the real part will be MJL4281, which I do not have in my parts library. Both MJL4281 and MJL4302 appear to have the same pinout, so I was planning on using the same footprint for both components, to same some time and not have to design another footprint.

  • oldmouldy
    Only the Pin Number property matters. The Pin Order is the order that the Pins were added, "0" for the first Pin added, "1" for the second added and so on. If you delete and add bunches of pins, you may no longer have a Pin Order of "0" in the list. In the specific case of your capacitor, the schematic Part has Pins P and N and the footprint has Pins 1 and 2, this won't pass through the Capture to PCB Editor netlist without errors, "<blah, blah> missing Pins P and N, extra Pins 1 and 2" will be reported. You might want to display Pin Numbers in Capture Parts so that you can see Pin Numbers in both views. Pin Number 0 won't pass through to PCB Editor, the "Pin Number 0 parts" are specifically for PSpice, you can either copy the Part to your own library and edit the Pin Numbers, or edit the Part in the schematic for a temporary solution, to match the Pin Numbers between both parts. You could name the Pins B C E for the schematic part and footprint but, since footprints may apply to a number of different parts, this is not something that many folks do. Cadence R&D are aware of the Pin Number 0 library issue with the PSpice libraries but, since most users make their own "unified" libraries, this isn't that much of a problem in practice.
  • PNO3
    Thank you so much for the reply! I was 100% lost on what to do at this point. If I am understanding you correctly, there is a way to be able to see pin numbers in Capture without having to double click on the part? That would make life much easier, how would I go about turning on/enabling such a feature? It appears that changing the pin numbers on the part is not as simple as double clicking the part, going to the pin tab, right clicking on the pin and hitting edit, like I had hoped it would be. I might just update the footprints themselves to match the Capture part pin number as this, I mostly somewhat know how to do. From the sounds of it however, I cannot use pin zero, (however it does sound like I can use any other pin letter or number, possibly even symbols?) so how can I update the parts In capture to not use pin zero?
  • oldmouldy
    You need to Edit the Part, in the schematic, left-click the Part and then right-click>Edit Part, this will edit the Part locally within the DSN file, and then Update All when closing. Or modify the library, File>Open>Library and edit the parts within it - make a copy of the provided libraries, or copy the parts from them before editing. You can then Replace the Parts in the Design Cache of the DSN file from the new Library. Pin Numbers should contain characters from "A-Z" and "0-9", nothing more adventurous, and not "just" 0.
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