After throwing down all of your parts, crank on the autorouter in Autodesk EAGLE. Not a fan of all the vague ideas of “right” and “wrong”? Here’s a hint to see if you’re on track with your component placement. The symmetry, the part placement, so good! ( Image source) The artistry and elegance of a carefully thought out PCB is a sight to behold. This is why the PCB layout process is viewed as an artistic process. Give a schematic to 100 different engineers, and you’ll likely get 100 different layouts back. Make sense? Here’s the real kicker – there’s no universally “right” way to do it. Let’s face it, as engineers we love symmetry and precision, and there’s nothing more unsettling than seeing a board that wasn’t given some proper love and care during its component placement. Next thing you know you might get a board back, that doesn’t work because your parts weren’t soldered correctly (more on this later). Let’s say you do manage to place down some components and traces and ship your files off to your manufacturer. The worst component placement jobs can lead to an entire board that needs to be started again from scratch. You’ll likely create a nightmare for yourself when you find out that some of your parts don’t even have enough space to be routed because you packed them too close together. But what happen if you just slap your components down without care? Taking the time to precisely place your components will make your life a whole lot easier when it comes time to route everything, while also giving your board its best electrical performance. There’s a common saying that goes something like this – PCB design is 90% placement and 10% routing. What’s So Important About Component Placement? There’s still the humbling reality that the digital design you create needs to be manufacturable in its physical form, which is why you’ll want to follow the 10 tips below to make the most of your component placement flow. That’s not to say that you can do whatever you want. It’s all up to you and what you want to design. The truth is, there is no “right” way to place components, and this freedom is ultimately what makes the PCB layout process so dang fulfilling and creative. But then you get to the artistic side of PCB design with component placement, and this is where things get interesting. There’s a ton of technical know-how and measurements to consider when dealing with trace widths, layer stackups, schematics, etc. The Top 10 PCB Component Placement Tips for the PCB Beginner