Is there a simple answer?

[Agemay]

Right,I've got all the equipment,components,scehematic and my blank circuit board.

So how on Earth do I begin to lay out the 'board!?

It is literally the only thing that is stopping me right now.
I can't afford a PCB so though it would be easy to populate it
myself,utterly wrong. I just need someone to tell me how to layout it
all out so I can begin to solder.
Any help would be magnificent.

[Meanderthal]

 Perfboard?

Imagine the schematic as a picture of the circuit, minus offboard components of course, and duplicate it on the perf. Bend the legs of the components under the board, cut to fit,  and solder . Check and recheck the schematic as you go. Oh, and pick a simple one for first try...

Just dive in and do it, consider it a puzzle...

[petemoore]

  depends what it looks like.
  Perfboard, to redraft, it gets obvious where to de-scrunch and make a layout that raises the question..
  Whats it need to fit into ?
   Parts can be stood on end, and partial 'floating' [though not necessarily recommended]..part of the circuit might cling to pot lugs or otherwise connect without having pad connections, re-orienting [especially with opamps] a second or third time might further 'reduce size or 'ease construction [sometimes kind of a trade off there.

[Agemay]

Yeah to the perfboard question.
Just your basic sheet bought from the local electronics store.

[petemoore]

  I marked paper taped over perfboard with side of pencil lead to make grid-templates before printing ROG's perfboard templates.
   Darn good excersize drawing up templates a few times, that and a chunk of perf and keeping in mind what it'd be like when soldering generally makes very workable design. Go over the final design numerous times to correct every node/polarity connections.
   A few grid dot to dot fill ins which connect the corrected nodes, then drawn very carefully [in pencil..] expect a second drafting to look neater, follow the schematic and first draw [good way to double check for errors]...soon it boils down so far as possible and shows itself as easier to 'manipulate' when spread out a little...opamp inputs have a way of getting overstuffed when actually populating the tightly laid out board.

[Agemay]

Cheers for the help guys,greatly appreciated.

I certainly feel one project with a step-by-step guide would sort me totally for the future.
There is blatantly a difference between theory and practice to say the least.

[Derringer]

graph paper and a pencil with an eraser make awesome tools for designing layouts

[R.G.]

The first chapter or so of "PCB Layout for Musical Effects" goes into how to start with putting parts down relative to each other, and then moving them around to connect. If you just quit when you have the parts fairly compactly laid out and wire them by bending their leads, you have a perfboard layout. Vero is much the same, but there are already fixed wires running in one direction. It's much like swinging on parallel bars. 

[iccaros]

The first chapter or so of "PCB Layout for Musical Effects" goes into how to start with putting parts down relative to each other, and then moving them around to connect. If you just quit when you have the parts fairly compactly laid out and wire them by bending their leads, you have a perfboard layout. Vero is much the same, but there are already fixed wires running in one direction. It's much like swinging on parallel bars. 

http://www.geofex.com/bookpages/bookblurb.htm

[LucifersTrip]

Right,I've got all the equipment,components,scehematic and my blank circuit board.

So how on Earth do I begin to lay out the 'board!?
I just need someone to tell me how to layout it
all out so I can begin to solder.
Any help would be magnificent.

I would definitely work from a schematic and probably work from left to right, input to output.

Remember, you can put the components in the board without soldering, so you can test out different positions before you make the final decision to solder....and +1 on starting with a relatively simple circuit, one with 5-20 components.

...and try to leave spots where you need to wire near the edges of the board.

good luck

[artifus]

have a look at diy layout creator. discussion here: http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=44838.0

you can import image files of your schematic and component pin outs for reference whilst arranging virtual components on a virtual stripboard all on the one screen. for example here's a screen shot of quick layout of frequency central's wind machine unverified - just to give you an idea: screenshot

[jdub]

For perf layouts, I've found it helpful to use DIYLC, start a new perfboard project, increase the size of the board (to, say, 20 holes by 20 holes or whatever) and export a .png of the blank perf board (before adding any components).  Then print out some copies of the blank board & use these to try different arrangements of components with pencil & eraser.  Same principle as graph paper, I guess; in fact, graph paper is probably easier and cheaper, I just prefer using the "pad per hole" look. 

[Agemay]

you can import image files of your schematic and component pin outs for reference whilst arranging virtual components on a virtual stripboard all on the one screen. for example here's a screen shot of quick layout of frequency central's wind machine unverified - just to give you an idea: screenshot

That small section to the bottom left of the layout,how does that relate to the overall building of the piece?
i.e I don't understand because it's not connected (yet) 

[artifus]

*edit*

see if you can work it out from the component values and connections, referencing the stripboard against the schematic.

or zoom in for the answer:

*edit*

it is to provide vref for the non inverting inputs of the op amps. the schematic shows connections to positive, vref and grounds. the components are c6, c7, r7 and r8 on the stripboard layout.