I've been looking hard. I need a decent schematic and PCB package under$1000. Don't need autorouter or a zillion layers. Do want backannotation and ease of use. I've downloaded a dozen demo packages. Thesoftware all seems to be written by people with exceptional eyesight, nofingers, a poor grasp of the English language, little understanding ofWindows conventions, and have never actually designed a PC board. Theymostly have 300 little tiny unreadable icons and no clue that clickingthe left mouse button should select something and the right buttonshould offer a list of things to do with it. A good few do not use themouse buttons at all. Pretty much without exception the software isexpensive and very poorly written. I can draw schematics and boardsfaster and easier in Autocad, which is what I do now.Is there ANYTHING out there that: actually correctly uses the mouse, hasworking popup help on the buttons, is written in American English (no"colours" please), is readable by somebody without super-human eyesightand does 95% of everything with only the mouse buttons like it should. Double-click to change properties, right-click to rotate, mirror, swap,delete, add, cut, etc. I don't want something I have to fight with. Under $1,000.

I use an old version of Eagle, as it meets most of these requirements. Ihave purchased and installed the Linux and newer Windows versions, buthave found them too slow, hard to read and require too many movements toget anything done.See if you can find a copy of Eagle 3.5 or so. It will do most of what youwant.Robert Hoffman writes:-- Steven D. Swift, INSTRUMENTS, INC. P.O. Box 55997206.301.8986, fax 206.363.4367 Seattle, Washington 98155 USA

World's worst software. What's decent?

Oct 17, 2004 81 Replies

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Charles Edmondson 21 years ago

Yeah, and of course, you have to know that Memphis is pronounced as 4 syllables... Me-em-phy-es

8-)

Charlie -- Edmondson Engineering Unique Solutions to Unusual Problems

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Kevin Aylward 21 years ago

Oh dear. Look, dude, when someone says "where are *you* from?", the answer is "I was born in []". Insert country of birth for the brackets. Not, well, I have a great great grand papa that came from Switzerland. Jesus wept. Contrast this with the *other* question "where does your family ancestry derive from?"

People who don't realise this are seriously in need of help.

Kevin Aylward snipped-for-privacy@anasoft.co.uk

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SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture, Waveform Display, FFT's and Filter Design.

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