Component values and references in PCB Design - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a PCB design analyst working with the engineering team.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report showing the count of each component type and their reference designators used in the latest PCB design.

📊 Data: You have a list of components with their reference designators (like R1, C2) and their values (like 10k, 100nF).

🎯 Deliverable: Create a summary report that groups components by their value and lists all their reference designators, along with the total count per value.

Sample Data

Reference	Value
R1	10k
R2	10k
R3	1k
C1	100nF
C2	100nF
C3	10uF
L1	10uH
U1	MCU
U2	MCU
D1	LED

1

Step 1: Load the component list into your BI tool or spreadsheet.

Import the table with columns Reference and Value.

Expected Result

Data table with 10 rows showing Reference and Value.

2

Step 2: Group the data by the Value column to aggregate components with the same value.

Group by Value; aggregate Reference by concatenating all references separated by commas; count the number of references per group.

Expected Result

Groups like 10k with references R1,R2 and count 2; 100nF with C1,C2 count 2; etc.

3

Step 3: Create a summary table showing Value, Count of components, and list of Reference designators.

Create columns: Value, Count = COUNT(Reference), References = CONCATENATE(Reference list with commas).

Expected Result

Summary table with rows like: Value=10k, Count=2, References=R1,R2.

4

Step 4: Visualize the summary in a table or matrix visualization for easy reading.

Use a table visual with columns: Value, Count, References.

Expected Result

A clear table showing each component value, how many components have that value, and their reference designators.

Final Result

-----------------------------------------
| Value  | Count | References            |
-----------------------------------------
| 10k    | 2     | R1, R2               |
| 1k     | 1     | R3                   |
| 100nF  | 2     | C1, C2               |
| 10uF   | 1     | C3                   |
| 10uH   | 1     | L1                   |
| MCU    | 2     | U1, U2               |
| LED    | 1     | D1                   |
-----------------------------------------

✓The most common component values are 10k resistors and 100nF capacitors, each with 2 components.

✓Microcontroller units (MCU) appear twice in the design.

✓Each unique value groups multiple references, simplifying component tracking.

Bonus Challenge

Create a visualization that shows the distribution of component counts by value using a bar chart.

Show Hint

Use the summary table and plot Value on the x-axis and Count on the y-axis.