Basic Circuit Organization

I recommend that for all circuits you start by placing all of the inputs across the top left side of your schematic. Place a NOT gate pointing down, just to the side of the switch so that you can draw vertical lines down without bumping into the NOT gate. If a group of signals go together (i.e. A3, A2, A1, A0) then group these together an leave a little extra space between groups.

Usually you will be working with sum-of-product equations, in which case start with a layer of AND gates followed by a layer of OR gates as shown below.

If you have intermediate signals that you need to compute, work across, then down, then across, then down...

When you are finished building and testing your circuit, go back and label your parts. Each physical chip that is used is assigned a U-number. The first chip will be denoted with U1 then U2 and so on. Within a chip are discrete gates that may be used. These are lettered alphabetically for each gate available. For example, if I use a two gates on a 74x32 and and one on a 74x08 I will have U1A, U1B, U2A labeled on each of the gates respectively. This is shown above in the examples provided.