PCB Design & Assembly Design Software & Services

Rick Christian wrote on 7/10/2017 10:58 PM:

You need two packages or one which combines the two. You need a schematic capture package and a PCB layout package. I have used FreePCB to layout boards once I had a schematic and could generate a netlist to feed the layout package. This worked fine. Many others use TinyCAD to draw the schematic and produce the netlist to feed FreePCB, but you can use any schematic program that will generate a PAD netlist.

A package that is popular at the moment is KiCad. I keep telling myself I will learn it, but I have yet to. KiCad combines both schematic captureand layout and is a Unix program.

Oh, I forgot about the Unix thing. FreePCB is a windows only program.

I'll have a similar requirement soon, but as I already use Wine to run aviation-related programs, I have no problem with using it for other programs.

So, does FreePCB run under Wine?

So is TinyCAD.

So, it looks rather like I should go for KiCad, particularly as it is in the standard Fedora repository. Its also a Debian Jessie package, so next time my RPi is running its worth a check to see if its been ported to Raspbian.

Eagle has been cloud-ified, to the extent that you have to login to your Autodesk cloud account to do anything.

AFAICS Kicad now has a pretty good duplicate of Eagle's feature set, so I wouldn't recommend anyone to start with Eagle today.

Theo

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:43:56 -0400, rickman declaimed the following:

Depending on complexity, Fritzing might be a candidate.

It even supports laying out the /breadboard/ and supposedly turning that into both schematic and PCB layout. Don't know if it handles anything more complex than single layer (maybe double layer).

I looked at it a bit earlier, noticed that it has no price, just a rental figure and had already decided its far too expensive for the amount of use I'd make of it - one 30mm x 30mm PCB.

I've just downloaded and installed it. Started it to see if it runs: it does, on Fedora 25 X64, so will RTFM and get stuck in a bit later after I've got a PICAXE doing its stuff on a breadboard and so know what goes onto the project PCB.

Eagle CAD

The free verson cant do large boards.

But that should be OK

My eagle aint cloudified. Downloaded it 6 months ago

I ytried te lot and ended up with eagle CAD which is NOT either cloudified or expensive.

The free version is here

"The free download is a Personal Learning License that may be used by individuals for personal, non-commercial use. Free Autodesk software licenses and/or cloud-based services are subject to acceptance of and compliance with the terms and conditions of the license agreement or terms of service, as applicable, that accompany such software or cloud-based services. Usage is subject to such terms and conditions for as long as you use the software or until such terms and conditions change"

It was streets ahead of kicad etc.

Two problems for trad people such as I.

You have to start by making sure any component you want to use is in a library, including its size etc.

You have to then draw out your schematic in it, so it knows what the board is supposed to do.

Unliess you are going multilayer its pretty useless at deciding how to route stuff, expecially for analogue where paths taken matter.

I ended up doing my layout in a 2D CAD pacakge, then redoing the whole thing into eagle which took 5 times as long.

Just for a single sided board.

Got some made at 'dirty PCBS'. Recommended company interfacing to lord knows what sweat shops in china.

Pompous nonsense.

Use the tools available.

Unless you write your own OS, then you are as much a consumer as any man on the Clapham omnibus.

I should clarify: not 'cloudified' in the sense of Google Docs, but in the sense of Adobe Creative Cloud.

In other words, it's a normal desktop app but you have to create an account and login to make it work, and you pay a monthly subscription. In Eagle's case this mostly affects the pay-tiers (there's a free tier, but it's quite restricted: 2 layers, 80cm2 of board). Previously you paid a one-time fee and gained perpetual access to the version that was current at time of purchase. It's unsurprising that users aren't happy.

Bottom line is, it's not worth the hassle of messing about with logins, internet connections and subscriptions when equivalent packages are open source. If you want to do a really serious design (smartphone motherboard kind of complexity) then Eagle is the wrong tool for the job anyway.

Theo

No. you dont. Its free to hobbyists.

In Eagle's

Think its more than 2 layers.

Previously you paid a one-time fee

Oh well, I guess that makes me pompous too - along with a great many other programmers and users I know. 's OK Rick there're a lot of us about :)

As I said, there's a free tier but with limitation. In particular board capabilities, and no commercial use. AIUI you still need an account and let it phone home occasionally to use the free tier.

They reduced it as part of the Autodesk purchase. It's "2 schematic sheets, 2 signal layers, and 80 cm2 board area."

- it used to be 160x100mm, ie 160cm2.

The trouble with a limitation like that is that many designs can be physically small, but as the complexity rises (tiny SMD parts, high-speed etc) you need more layers. Which aren't that expensive to manufacture these days. Or you can stay 2-layer, but the boards are larger because of routing limitations.

TL;DR: Kicad has come a long way recently. What extra does Eagle give me that makes it worth my while jumping through these hoops?

Theo

In case you hadn't noticed, this is a Raspberry Pi newsgroup, and Linux is what is used around here (plus a bit of BSD).

I have written my own OS, but your comment still makes no sense.

Why not run along now to a nice Windows forum.

---druck

Gareth is a pompous prick who some consider to be a troll.

glad I looked. I was going to say Eagle as well.

Fritzing also has a PCB layout function, as long as the board is not too complex (unlikely if it the prototype is on breadboard)