Best PCB design software?

Didn't we just do this one?

Google groups is your friend.

... and what was the answer?

The answer is to go to google groups and look through the posts and decide which package is best for you.

There were several suggestions and several opinions. I have no idea which would be best for you, but I suspect you could if you look.

Here's a link to the thread on google:

Your question was the equivalent of walking into a crowded bar and yelling out: "Which is the best (cheap) beer?" You won't get one answer, and I'd be surprised if you could even find a consensus. That was the case in the recent thread here in reference to PCB design software.

Mark Borgerson

Mark,

Yes I realise it was an open question but I wanted to hear a few people's opinions. I wasn't aware that there had recently been discussion on the subject.

Thanks.

Rog.

design

Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.

Yes, I was the person who asked the question about a week or so ago. No clear winner came out of it, but I ended up using Eagle from CadSoft, mainly because the provide a free version that you can actually drive and produce a design. Other tools either don't let you use their libraries or you can't save any work. So in other words, you can't really do any real work unless you put some real extra effort into it.

On the other side, the UI of Eagle is old school (pre windows) and is a bit difficult to learn. Much of this is because the tutorial and docs are very lacking. There are some topics that are not even covered in the tutorial such as generating Gerber output files. I did find info on a web site and I got the job done. But the learning was painful.

I tried to contact Number One Systems about their product, Easy-PC. I was told this was a nice program with a very easy to use UI. But their eval does not allow any work to be saved, so any time you spend learning it has to be done without exiting the program or all your work is lost. When I told them this made it very hard to evaluate the product, they said "Most users find it adequate to determine if the software will function to the level that they require." Not being a PCB engineer, I was not willing to work that way.

So I can't say that I recommend Eagle, although there are many who like it a lot and it does grow on you after a while. But it is free to eval. When you have questions about how to use it, give a holler here or in the eagle newsgroups at

server news.cadsoft.de, group eagle.userchat.eng and eagle.support.eng

I couldn't find them until someone in the other thread posted links to them. They are on a cadsoft server rather than the one my ISP provides for regular newsgroups.

You can even ask me directly. Start by emailing snipped-for-privacy@XXyahoo.com without the X's.

Roger wrote:

Hi Roger,

I agree to maxfoo: Eagle4.11 light is freeware and I use it often and gladly. The only restrictions are: - you can only make PCBs with 4x3.2 inch (100x80mm) - you can only use 2 layers (top+bottom) - the schematic editor can only generate one sheet.

I've made a lot PCBs with Eagle and the more I use it the more I like it. Hope it's helpful...Kay

"Roger" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:_FAMb.266$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep1-win.server.ntli.net...

Thanks for your comments everyone. It looks like I need to have a look at Eagle.

I was going to go for Easy-PC but when I looked into defining my own symbols (schematic and footpint), it seemed very cumbersome and slow. That put me off it and led to this search. It's amazing how many there seem to be and how the prices vary so much.

Thanks again,

Rog.

Don't know how you got that impression, it's unbelievably easy, especially with the footprint/ schematic wizards.

Paul Burke