Best practice for multiple boards in one project

[thomasR]

Hi,
I'm building a larger circit with Proteus. To keep the overview I want to keep the whole circuit in one project. The PCB has to be divided into several boards (2) for space reasons.
My first approach is to label the networks separated by a connector separately (e.g.: GND_A - GND_B). In this way I created two boards, but now I have the problem that the "Power Plane Generator" only creates a plane in one board.
Is there a better way to create multiple boards? Or how can I use the "Power Plane Generator" on both boards?

Best Regards
Thomas

[Tom S]

The power plane generator picks the largest complete board as Proteus is designed for single board projects only. That said, you can just manually place a zone on the appropriate net over each of the other board edges of suitable size to enclose each of them. The zones will then exclude the board edges so only render within the boards.

[thomasR]

Cool, this works fine!
But I have another issue: When I make a pre-production check I get for every component an error, because the component is outside the board. Can this be avoided?
Thanks
Thomas

[David]

Hi Thomas,

This will be due to you having multiple Board edges on the layout. Set them to be Mech1 and re-run the Preproduction check. If all comes back good, you can either set Mech1 to be your routing / slotting layer in the Gerber output form (and check the layer to be outputted), or change them back to being on the board edge layer.

Regards,
Dave.

[Tom S]

If you do temporarily change the board edge graphics to a mechanical layer for running the pre-production checker you must put them back to board edge before generating Gerbers to ensure power planes are clipped by the board edges. I suspect you are better off accepting the component outside board edge errors.

If you need to document that the components are within their alternative board edge you would need to temporarily move all other board edges to a mech layer and run pre-production checker, but only to note that the specific outside board errors in the original report are now gone, then put the board edges back in.

Just to re-iterate for anyone else reading this that Proteus does not currently support multiple boards from one schematic project.

[thomasR]

Thanks for your answers.
In the end, I split my design into two projects. This was done quite simply by copying and renaming the project files, and then removing the unneeded components from each project.

Best Regards
Thomas

[BeauWebber]

May I ask if there are any updates re etch & assemble for multiple designs on one PCB job ?
From the above it does not really look practical, given the need for a pick and place file.
Or have I mis-read ?
I have a number of designs I need to print, some boards that are down to 12 mm x 24 mm in size, and I don't want lots of them, certainly until they are tested in use.
They are all 2 sided, with a ground plane on the bottom and covering part of the top. I have bounded them both with a mech layer and a board edge, that could be moved around all the boards.
cheers,
Beau

[Iain]

There is some work underway at the moment to support multiple boards in a project. There will be top level schematic modules corresponding to a board and then switchable boards on the layout. This will hopefully resolve a lot of the problems with stackups, drill ranges, power planes etc.

Currently expecting this to complete for v8.12.

[BeauWebber]

Thanks indeed Ian, That will be very useful.
I have also been pointed to "Project Clips" as a way of saving boards, and then adding them as sub-boards.
VIdeo :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb2roIq1lzo

This seems to work very well, I appear to be making good progress with a combined board.
Thanks for an excellent product; the new component import seems to be working well, too.
cheers,
Beau