School of Engineering
ES174: Design for Function
Electronic Computer Aided Design (E-CAD)
Laboratory Session 1: The Electronic Die
Version 4.0 (13/14)

Introduction
Within the following three laboratories you will be introduced to the commercial E-CAD package, National
Instruments Circuit Design Suite 13.0. In these sessions you will be familiarised with schematic capture, circuit simulation and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) design. Being able to create a circuit schematic is vital in the PCB design and will help you to test your circuit and detect errors before a PCB is manufactured.
The aims of these sessions are:

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To become familiar with the Circuit Design Suite E-CAD package
To be able to layout a simple electronic circuit as a schematic
To be able to perform basic simulations and analysis of a circuit
To be able to route a simple PCB
To emphasise the steps required to produce a functional design
Understand the link between schematic and the final PCB

It is very likely that you will be using Circuit Design Suite throughout your course, so you should try and learn as much as possible about its operation within these laboratories.

1. Circuit Design Suite: Multisim
Familiarisation with the Circuit Design Suite E-CAD package and layout of a simple electronic circuit as a schematic
First, you will be introduced to the Multisim (version 13.0) electronic circuit design and simulation package.
Here you will be creating the schematic of an electronic die (note: die is singular of dice), shown in figure 1.1.
The circuit gives a random whole number, from 1 to 6, as shown in LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) in a die configuration. Version 4.0 (13/14) Dr. S. J. Leigh

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Figure 1.1. Electronic die circuit

Version 4.0 (13/14) Dr. S. J. Leigh

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1.1

Getting started with Multisim

To start Multisim, press Start and find Multisim 13 under the National Instruments/Circuit Design Suite 13.0 directory. When the software is loaded you will be presented with a blank design sheet with a series of buttons on the top and right. As a starting point, a file containing the LEDs we are going to use has been prepared in advance. Copy the file
‘Electronic
Die
Session
1.ms11’ from the
Public\CourseFiles\ES174\ECad\Session 1 directory and place it in your Home drive. Proceed to open the file using the File/Open menu within Multisim. You should then be presented with a screen similar to that in
Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2. Changing size of the worksheet
At the top left of the screen is a toolbar (Figure 1.3), which has buttons for the different groups of electronic components. We will refer to these as containers. Hover the mouse pointer over the first button and observe that Multisim gives you the name of the container. We will be using these container names throughout this laboratory session.

Figure 1.3. The components toolbar
Let us now place the first component onto our design. Click the Source container and observe the window that appears. The window (Figure 1.4) presents all of the power sources available to us. These power sources are categorised into different families.

Figure 1.4. The Sources container window

Version 4.0 (13/14) Dr. S. J. Leigh

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For this first component we are using an element from the POWER_SOURCES family. Click on the VCC component and note the symbol that the window gives you. Click the OK button and the window will disappear. The mouse pointer will now be accompanied by a copy of the VCC symbol. Hover the mouse over to the A6 grid box on the design sheet and left-click (to determine the A6 grid box, look at the edges of the design sheet). You will notice that the component window reappears to allow for rapid circuit design. For now, click the close button to dismiss the window.

Placing & wiring components
We have now placed our first electrical component (a DC power source) on the