Electronic – routing of signals

layoutpcbpcb-designrouting

My doubt relates to a routing style of signals. Speed is not the criteria as the signals are not high speed. Kindly refer the image below please –

PCB tracks.
There are 2 ways to route signals. They are both shown by me vis-avis pins 2 and 3. I feel its more apt to do it ibn the way done in pin 3 (in a more aesthetic sense) than the one done in pin 2. Which is more apt and technically so. Which style is more prevalant. As I mentioned, speed is not a conceern here. I merely dont have more signals crossing diagonally, but this means I might end up with longer signals. Is my approach right ? If not kindly advice the reasons please.

Best Answer

Generally you want to keep the traces as short as possible. The trace coming off of pin 3 is actually slightly longer than the one coming off of pin 2, and thus is not generally preferred. It also takes up more space which means your PCB will likely have to be larger. A larger PCB will cost more in the long run. Usually you'll want to keep the board as small as possible (assuming you have that flexibility) and in order to do that you need to place components and traces as densely as possible (provided you keep interference between them to a minimum). The trace coming off of pin 2 is a much better choice for denser routing which will be cheaper overall.