PCB tools

I have not used freepcb.com, it looks nice. I have been using PCB for layout for years for layout and have recently started using gEDA for schematics capture, which seems to work nicely. I have also used Xcircuit, which is good for drawing schematics, but little awkward for doing design. All under Linux. These tools can probably be build for Windows using Cygwin, but I haven't tried. Well, I know PCB can be build.

PCB works well for thruhole and SMT parts. I have not done BGA with it, but don't see a reason that it wouldn't work, if you generate the appropriate footprints. I have generated many real 2-4 boards with it, without serious problems, that weren't operator error.

See ya, -ingo

Thanks for the input. I've been using gEDA for schematic capture also. I've been using a rather old Windows port of it, but it works quite well so I haven't upgraded.

I have considered PCB, but am unfortunately bound to a windows platform for a variety of hard to justify reasons. Not being versed in Cygwin ports, I haven't made the effort. The FreePCB tool is a native windows application.

Anybody out there done a Cygwin port of PCB that can shed some light on how easy/hard it is to do?

I believe PCB is reasonably well-supported under cygwin. I know I have it running. I believe I built it from source, with no patches or anything, but I have fairly recent versions of cygwin and PCB. (Less than a year old, I think). It couldn't hurt you to try building PCB. If it won't build, just delete the whole build directory and move on.

I haven't put cygwin-PCB through its paces, but I did verify that it started up and could read a few layouts and so on.

HTH

--Mac