To eliminate some of the skilled human effort in arranging the layout of the components of a microcircuit on a substrate, it is proposed that the process should be aided by a digital computer. A fully automated system does not seem possible at present. The method which has been suggested, and partially developed relies on the automatic production of a rough layout which is unconstrained in size. This is then rearranged by human intervention, to a suitable electrical and geometrical form, the designer communicating with the machine using a simple drawing language and viewing the progress of the work using an on-line graphical display. The process does not permit changes in topography and this still remains a major problem.