pcb design software and services

I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for PCB design software. This would be for low volume prototyping, nothing fancy, maybe one step above hobbyist level. Any suggestions?

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scot
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Proteus?

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No connection with the company. just a very satisfied user of many years.

JB

Reply to
JB

would be for low volume prototyping, nothing fancy, maybe one step above hobbyist level. Any suggestions?

Take a look at

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I've got gEDA and PCB on the Linux partition of my computer, but I've barely used gEDA and not used PCB at all.

One of our regulars is active in the gEDA development - which has been going on for quite a few years now - but he hasn't managed to convert all that many of the rest of us. I got onto gEDA not long after I started posting here. It's got a lot easier to install in recent years.

My last installation - into SuSE 11.4 - was completely painless. I'm about due to up-grade to SuSE 12.2.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
Reply to
Bill Sloman

I use Eagle. I can't say it's the best -- but it's good enough for me.

The last time I looked at open source stuff I wasn't impressed, but it was long enough ago that things may have changed.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

would be for low volume prototyping, nothing fancy, maybe one step above hobbyist level. Any suggestions?

I have used FreePCB professionally, but I have read forums for geda and some other tools. FreePCB has a basic UI that is not hard to learn. There are two or three concepts you need to learn to use it effectively, but that is not really hard. Best of all, there is a very supportive user community which you can rely on.

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Be sure to read the forum post for new users before starting. It will help get over the initial rough spots.

What do you plan to use for schematic capture?

Rick

Reply to
rickman

would be for low volume prototyping, nothing fancy, maybe one step above hobbyist level. Any suggestions?

I recently used KiCAD for a small project. Before retirement, I used Protel/Altium for many years, and didn't have too much problems converting to KiCAD.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI  
peterbb (at) telus.net
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca
Reply to
Peter Bennett

would be for low volume prototyping, nothing fancy, maybe one step above hobbyist level. Any suggestions?

I haven't tried yet, but Farnell (element14) is now offering PCB boards in 1-2 days via EuroCircuits

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Anyone has some input on their service?

Pere

Reply to
o pere o

IMHO, it's still pretty hard to beat OrCad. Not the new Cadence stuff, the old DOS OrCad, which runs very well under Win XP, or DOSbox or DOSemu under Linux. It's available for download from the "OldDOSOrCAD" group at Yahoo Groups. John Durbetaki, OrCAD founder is a member there,along with many other users loyal to this day.

-peter

Reply to
Peter McMullin

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