8 ways to make your schematic more readable

• Clean up the text.

First thing is to avoid overlapping texts, it’s very common to see the designators and values text overlap. Next when writing values such as 2.2uF use 2u2F. It’s better to avoid the dot. This is old advice from when printers had lower fidelity but I still use it.

• Write net name once.

Copy it everywhere else, don’t retype it, if you make a slip it would show up as errors in ERC. It’s always better to copy the net label instead of writing it for all connected nets.

• Connector Pinout.

Be aware of where pin one is on the symbol and pin one on the footprint. This error is very subtle to catch especially when working with a board with high component count.

• Name the schematic meaningfully.

When working with multiple sheets, call them with something that describes the function, not as sheet 1, sheet 2, etc.

• Power nets.

Most of the designs use positive voltage, its advisable to use the ‘+’ sign in front of the power rail. Next should be the volt the power net that it should be at. And at the end of the net name, you should write the purpose of the power net or what it is powering example +12_FAN or +3V_SYS

• Design the schematic in a flow.

Try to put the block in a way that the design has a left to right and top to down flow. It is very easy to read.

• Don’t fill all the corners of the schematic sheet.

The schematic sheet is not the PCB file. It’s okay to leave breathing room in the schematic.

• Dot connects wires, crossing don’t.

You should not cross the wires, at most connect 3 wires in place.

Use this to make your next design more readable for yourself and your peers.