The terms defined below are commonly used in Electronics and the Help.

Airwire

Unrouted connection on a board, displayed in the unrouted layer (= rubber band).

Annular ring

Setting that determines the width of the copper ring around a plated-through hole of a pad or via. Formerly known as Restring.

BGA

Ball Grid Array, a surface mount component with round soldering pads beneath the case.

Blind via

A plated-through hole for changing the layer of a track which has not been drilled through all layers in the production process of a multilayer board.

Buried via

A plated-through hole, which has been drilled through the current layer stack in the production process, like a normal (through) via, but does not connect all layers of the board.

Core

Two copper layers applied to a solid substrate.

Design Rule Check (DRC)

A process in Electronics of checking for and reporting any violations of specified Design Rules on a circuit board (e.g. if two different tracks overlap or are too close).

Component

A fully defined element in a library, consisting of one or more symbols, a footprint, and optionally a 3D package. See related terms Footprint, Package, and Symbol.

Component set

Consists of components that use the same Symbols for the Schematic but have different Package variants or attribute sets.

Differential pair

A pair of signals that is routed together on a circuit board, to improve noise immunity. The pair is routed as close together as possible, and either the same length or as close as possible to it. The pair is defined in the schematic with net names that are same except with suffixes _p and _n.

Drill

Plated-through drilling in the layout (in pads and vias).

Electrical Rule Check (ERC)

Electronics can identify the violation of certain electrical rules (e.g. if two outputs are connected) with the ERC. It also checks the consistency of the schematic and the layout.

Footprint

The 2D representation of an electronic component, as used on the circuit board. See related terms Component, Package, and Symbol.

Forward&Back annotation

Transforms all the actions one makes in a schematic online into the layout (and with limitations from layout into schematic). Both files are consistent all the time.

Gate

The part of a component that can be individually placed on a schematic. This can be one Gate of a TTL component, one contact pair in a relay, or an individual resistor from a resistor array.

Hole

Non plated-through drilling in the layout (e.g. a mounting hole).

Layer stack

Current number and order of copper and isolation layers which are used to build up a printed circuit board.

Micro via

A plated-through hole (like Blind via) with a relatively small drill diameter, which connects an outer layer with the next reachable inner layer.

Module

A subunit of the hierarchical schematic that contains a smaller part of the schematic.

Module instance

A simple symbol in a superior level in the hierarchical schematic that represents the usage of a module.

Net

Electrical connection represented virtually in a schematic.

Obstacle avoidance

A manual routing mode that takes care on Design Rule settings. In this mode you can be sure that all Design Rules and Net Class settings will be taken into consideration.

Package

3D physical representation of a component stored in a library. See related terms Component, Footprint, and Symbol.

Pad

Through-hole pad associated with a Package.

Pin

Connection point on a Schematic Symbol.

Port

Similar to a pin, the port connects module instances in the hierarchical diagram with nets.

Polygon Cutout

A Polygon that defines a clearing of copper as a void/hole for all same-Layer Polygon Pour objects that overlap it.

Polygon Pour

A solid or hatched Polygon placed in the board editor. A Polygon Pour is always a signal member and resides on a routing layer. It automatically isolates its copper from non-same-signal objects and connects to same-signal objects.

Polygon Shape

A simple solid Polygon figure placed in any editor, and on any layer. Polygon Shape is most useful for defining annex pad shapes in a component's footprint.

Prepreg

Used in a compound of inner and outer layers for multilayer boards.

Rack

Configuration table for a drilling machine. Needed for generating drill data.

Ratsnest

Command for calculating the shortest airwires and for hiding or displaying certain airwires for a better overview.

Restring

Pronunciation: rest-ring. More commonly known as annular ring. Setting that determines the width of the copper ring around a plated-through hole of a pad or via.

Signal

Electrical connection in a board.

Supply symbol

Represents a supply signal in the schematic. Causes the ERC to run special checks.

Symbol

Schematic representation of a component, stored in a Library. See related terms Component, Footprint, and Package.

User language

Freely programmable, C-like language for data import and export.

Via

Plated-through hole for changing the layer of a track. See also Micro via, Blind via, and Buried via.

Wheel

Aperture configuration file. Generated with Gerber data for board manufacturing.

Wire

Electrical connection in a board, or a line (since lines are drawn with the LINE command).