Today’s complex designs often require groups of design engineers to work on a board, making efficient communication and seamless team collaboration more important than ever. Manual methods, like taking a screenshot of an issue on a board and sending an email, can be confusing and doesn’t guarantee the issue is fixed correctly. OrCAD PCB Designer now supports the ability to add comments directly to the board to efficiently review PCB designs with markup.
This quick how-to will provide step-by-step instructions on how to use markup to efficiently review PBC designs in OrCAD PCB Editor.
Step 1: Open a design in OrCAD PCB Designer Professional.
Step 2: Select Tools > Markup from the menu. A new Comments panel opens. This panel can be docked or undocked, like any other panel in OrCAD.
Step 3: Select New Comment.
Step 4: Zoom into the desired portion of the PCB to comment.
Activating the Markup Tool
Step 5: Select Draw Rectangle.
Drawing a Rectangle
Step 6: Click and drag to draw a rectangle over the desired area.
Step 7: Enter the desired comment into the text field.
Note: This text can be bolded, italicized, or underlined.
Step 8: Select Submit to finalize the comment.
Step 9: Zoom into another section of the board to add another comment.
Step 10: Select Draw Rectangle. Click and drag to draw a rectangle over the area.
Step 11: Enter the desired comment into the text field.
Step 12: Click Submit. When finished commenting, right-click and select Done.
Viewing Comments
Step 13: Zoom out to view the entire board. Numbers are visible on the board where each comment was placed.
Step 14: Select the PCB symbol next to one of the comments. A snapshot of the commented area opens.
Resolving a Comment
Step 15: To reply to a comment, enter the desired reply into the text field under the comment itself and click Submit.
Resolving Comments in OrCAD
Step 16: Select the ellipsis in the upper-right corner of the comment and select Resolve from the menu.
Note: Additional options are available to Edit or Delete a comment from this menu.
Wrap Up & Next Steps
Quickly and easily communicate potential issues and effectively review PCB designs with markup in OrCAD PCB Designer. Upgrade to 23.1 to test out this and other new features in OrCAD.
Tags: Comments, Markup, OrCAD, PCB Design
Steve Adams
Steve is an Applications Engineer with Parallel Systems for 13 years specializing in Schematic capture and PCB Layout. Prior to this, Steve worked as a Mechanical Engineer for Tyco Electronics (formerly Lucent Technologies) designing Power Supplies using the Cadence DE-HDL and Allegro PCB Designer as well as Pro Engineer. He has a variety of experience using various ECAD and MCAD tools over the years designing both Printed Circuit Boards and Mechanical enclosures. Steve is qualified locally to BTEC National level in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering with 35 years of experience in Design / PCB Layout.
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Home > EMA Academy > How-Tos > How to Efficiently Review PCB Designs with OrCAD
How to Efficiently Review PCB Designs with OrCAD
Today’s complex designs often require groups of design engineers to work on a board, making efficient communication and seamless team collaboration more important than ever. Manual methods, like taking a screenshot of an issue on a board and sending an email, can be confusing and doesn’t guarantee the issue is fixed correctly. OrCAD PCB Designer now supports the ability to add comments directly to the board to efficiently review PCB designs with markup.
This quick how-to will provide step-by-step instructions on how to use markup to efficiently review PBC designs in OrCAD PCB Editor.
How-To Video
Review PCB Designs
Step 1: Open a design in OrCAD PCB Designer Professional.
Step 2: Select Tools > Markup from the menu. A new Comments panel opens. This panel can be docked or undocked, like any other panel in OrCAD.
Step 3: Select New Comment.
Step 4: Zoom into the desired portion of the PCB to comment.
Step 5: Select Draw Rectangle.
Step 6: Click and drag to draw a rectangle over the desired area.
Step 7: Enter the desired comment into the text field.
Note: This text can be bolded, italicized, or underlined.
Step 8: Select Submit to finalize the comment.
Step 9: Zoom into another section of the board to add another comment.
Step 10: Select Draw Rectangle. Click and drag to draw a rectangle over the area.
Step 11: Enter the desired comment into the text field.
Step 12: Click Submit. When finished commenting, right-click and select Done.
Viewing Comments
Step 13: Zoom out to view the entire board. Numbers are visible on the board where each comment was placed.
Step 14: Select the PCB symbol next to one of the comments. A snapshot of the commented area opens.
Resolving a Comment
Step 15: To reply to a comment, enter the desired reply into the text field under the comment itself and click Submit.
Step 16: Select the ellipsis in the upper-right corner of the comment and select Resolve from the menu.
Note: Additional options are available to Edit or Delete a comment from this menu.
Wrap Up & Next Steps
Quickly and easily communicate potential issues and effectively review PCB designs with markup in OrCAD PCB Designer. Upgrade to 23.1 to test out this and other new features in OrCAD.
Steve Adams
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