Placing components on PCB in PCB Design - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a PCB design engineer at an electronics manufacturing company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants a report showing the placement efficiency of components on the PCB to optimize space and reduce manufacturing costs.

📊 Data: You have data on component types, their positions (X, Y coordinates), sizes (length and width in mm), and the PCB board dimensions.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a dashboard report that visualizes component placement on the PCB, calculates total used area, and identifies any overlapping components.

Sample Data

ComponentID	Type	X_Position_mm	Y_Position_mm	Length_mm	Width_mm
C1	Resistor	10	15	5	2
C2	Capacitor	16	15	4	3
C3	IC	25	20	10	10
C4	Diode	12	18	3	1.5
C5	Connector	5	5	15	5
C6	Resistor	30	25	5	2
C7	Capacitor	18	17	4	3
C8	IC	40	30	12	12

1

Step 1: Calculate the area of each component by multiplying Length_mm by Width_mm.

Add a new column 'Area_mm2' = Length_mm * Width_mm

Expected Result

Component C1 area = 5 * 2 = 10 mm², C3 area = 10 * 10 = 100 mm², etc.

2

Step 2: Sum all component areas to find total used area on the PCB.

Total Used Area = SUM(Area_mm2) for all components

Expected Result

Total Used Area = 10 + 12 + 100 + 4.5 + 75 + 10 + 12 + 144 = 367.5 mm²

3

Step 3: Calculate the PCB board area using its dimensions (assume 50 mm x 40 mm).

PCB Area = 50 * 40 = 2000 mm²

Expected Result

PCB Area = 2000 mm²

4

Step 4: Calculate the percentage of PCB area used by components.

Percentage Used = (Total Used Area / PCB Area) * 100

Expected Result

Percentage Used = (367.5 / 2000) * 100 = 18.375%

5

Step 5: Check for overlapping components by comparing positions and sizes. Two components overlap if their rectangles intersect.

For each pair, check if X and Y ranges overlap: (X1 < X2 + Length2) and (X1 + Length1 > X2) and (Y1 < Y2 + Width2) and (Y1 + Width1 > Y2)

Expected Result

Overlaps found between C2 and C7, and between C3 and C6.

6

Step 6: Create a dashboard visualization showing the PCB outline and component placements as rectangles with labels.

Use a scatter plot or custom visualization with rectangles positioned by X_Position_mm and Y_Position_mm sized by Length_mm and Width_mm, color-coded by Type.

Expected Result

Dashboard shows PCB outline with all components placed correctly; overlapping components highlighted in red.

Final Result

15x5

↓

5x2

↓

3x1.5

↓

4x3

↓

4x3

↓

10x10

↓

5x2

↓

12x12

✓Components occupy 18.38% of the PCB area, leaving room for optimization.

✓Overlaps detected between Capacitor C2 and C7, and IC C3 and Resistor C6, which may cause manufacturing issues.

✓Most components are well spaced, but review placement of C2, C7, C3, and C6 to avoid overlaps.

Bonus Challenge

Create a calculated measure that automatically flags all overlapping component pairs and counts how many overlaps exist.

Show Hint

Use a formula or script to compare each component's position and size against all others, then count pairs where rectangles intersect.