After you set up your board, you can begin placing components. Whether you are placing components manually, or using the autoplacement feature in Layout Plus, you can place components individually or in groups, and can take advantage of a variety of powerful placement commands. The steps involved in the component placement process are listed below.

· Optimize the board for component placement

· Load a placement strategy file

· Place the components on the board

· Optimize placement using various placement commands

Preparing the board for component placement

Before you begin placing components manually, it is important to set up the board properly. Use the list below as a preplacement checklist.

· Check the board, place, and insertion outlines

· Check the place grid

· Check mirror layer or library layer settings

· Weight and color-code nets

· Check gate and pin data

· Check preplaced components and secure them on the board using the Lock or Fix commands

· Create component height keepins and keepouts, or group keepins and keepouts