What is Protel PCB?
Protel PCB is software that electronic engineers use to design PCB layouts. Generally, engineering companies use Protel PCB to develop PCB by confirming schematic circuit designs, retrieving previously used board designs from PCB archives, and designing.What is Protel PCB Used for?
Protel PCB provides PCB designers with efficient and accurate software for designing PCBs. The software has years of innovation and development attributed to its current version (Altium Designer) since its inception in the 1990s.
(Altium designer)
Functionally, the software works by testing, verifying, and completing PCB design concepts. Unfortunately, being an older version, you will need to operate it using a virtualization tool. Also, Protel is an easy-to-use, highly reliable, features-loaded, high-performing, and cost-effective software, thus achieving high accuracy.What are the characteristics of Protel PCB?
Some of the main features and characteristics of Protel PCB design software are;-
Advanced route and place tools

(electronic components)
-
Improved utilities and functionality
-
Unified Interface
-
3D visualization

(PCB 3D illustration)
You can adjust your placement against a piece of imported mechanical information and further see the PCB design in a 3D format.-
Customer interaction use case
What are the advantages of Protel PCB?
The Protel PCB software has several advantages listed below.- User-friendly
- Reduces design complexity
- Saves costs on production

(electrical PCB board chip)
Therefore, the engineers shift their focus to virtual prototyping. They also dedicate labor and resources to building a cost-efficient final product.- Reduces Errors
- Generates new ideas
What is the Design Process of Protel PCB?
The process uses a digital twin to comprehensively depict the entire PCB system with substrates and multiple devices. Moreover, the digital twin helps you automatically verify heterogeneous assemblies via;- Substrate-level design rule checking (DRC),
- LVS (Layout versus schematic)
- LVL (Layout versus layout)
- Parasitic extraction,
- Thermal and stress analysis, and
- Testing.
How do you avoid Common Mistakes in Protel PCB Design?
A Protel circuit design software should always have quality layout circuit designs to ensure the PCB components function efficiently. Unfortunately, most engineers have a hard time picking the best layout. A poor structure often results in ineffective functionality, especially when the device has a smaller pitch and higher pin counts. Fortunately, the challenge is solvable. For instance, manufacturers should opt for PCBs with a smaller number of components. The closeness of the elements reduces PCB footprints hence improving functionality.A row of through-holes acting as pin header footprint
Source; WikipediaHow to Convert the PCB Protel into a PCB Gerber File?
The steps comprise the following;- Begin by opening your PCB design on the Protel PCB software, then check the files' integrity.
- Then, go to the file menu and select the ‘new’ option.
- Thirdly, choose the default options on the 'New document’ page.
- Afterward, select the Gerber (Generates Gerber files) and press Next on the Output Wizard page.
A Gerber format file
Source; Wikipedia- Name your File and choose default options for the two pages that follow.
- When you get to the Menu of Plot layers, select the option ‘used on.’
- You can also set a default option for the following three pages.
- You’ll get to the last page, where you'll click the ‘Finish’ option. Here, you’ll have finished all Gerber files except the drill file.
- Next, follow the steps, cam page blank to Insert NC drill to Suppress, then the leading zero option.
- If you press F9, all cam files become export files.
- Finally, export the Gerber files to your folder by left-clicking CAM for PCB and then right-clicking it. Identify the export option, then move files to a specific folder that's viewable on an online Gerber viewer website.