PCB design software assistance

There was a thread on this recently. See sci.electronics.cad (Cross posted there for comments).

I only make about 12 a year, so I don't want anything fancy.

Part of an earlier discussion was that it's cheaper to get prototypes made than try to do them yourself nowadays, once you figure in the cost of chemicals and equipment. There are a number of options for that on the web.

And, I need a software which will give me all the required

Just about any standard PCB package will generate those.

Cheers

PeteS

Check out

for a fairly comprehensiive list. I'm in the process of re-installing the free gEDA package (including PCB) on my Linux partition - I've just up-graded from SuSE 9.3 to 10.0 and that is easier if you treat it is as a new installation - but there is plenty of other stuff around.

As has already been mentioned, sci.electronics.cad is the place to go for this sort of question, but when I last looked they mostly seemed to like Protel, which isn't cheap, though it used to be only half as expensive as Orcad.

----------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

If that was the case, it wouldn't have already been asked 1,000 times. . .

Previous threads on this:

Please visit

Try Kicad. It's free. Find it at:

Ian

Many people seem to think that Eagle is a good deal for the money. Does anyone have any experience with it? What I would like to know is whether I can print out the artwork negative to make my own board. I realize that this isn't cost effective, but I teach a class in PCB construction, and it would be pointless to have the students send their boards out.

thanks, Andrew

...and you're not ALREADY familiar with low-cost ECADs??

KiCAD has already been mentioned in this thread. It is open source software (gratis and libre) and is ported to both Linux and Windows. Every student could have his own copy for a grand total of $0 with no limitations on its use.

gEDA is also open source (built for Unix). Ales Hvezda has ported earlier versions to Windoze but it has been some time since he has done a release.

Yup. Properly, it is all capitalized (being an acronym for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor). . .

Yup. If you're NOT going to make any money thru its use, the demo version can be used gratis. Limits:

For a closed source app, it has very good user support: a user-help Usenet group (besides the factory guys' newsgroup); user-generated ULPs (scripts); etc.

Yup. You need

There are also photographic techniques. . .

Maybe. Maybe not. Become familiar with the term "panelize". If etching, be aware that ferric chloride stains things and could spur a visit from the local hazmat folks.

For what it's worth, I downloaded Kicad after a release announcement perhaps a month or so ago, and found it quite easy to use. Like all other tools, it has it's quirks, but there's a decent manual with it, and no more of a learning curve than any of the other tools.

I needed a tool that gave me the complete design flow from schematic through layout (and BOMs, gerbers, assembly etc) for a relatively simple (6 layers) board and it did what I needed.

Cheers

PeteS

It's much easier to make boards with positive resist material, so a positive transparency is required.

EasyPC is arguably the best of the low-cost packages (I used it for years):

Leon

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:4aMoOAMAMzgJ:homepage.ntlworld.com/electricstuff/pcbs.html+Mike-Harrison+Copperset

You mean "loco" don't you?

If you keep using it you might consider joining the user group at:

ian

Hi Robert

email me personally with shipping details. I''ll burn a CD for you and send it (assuming you are somewhere in Europe). Consider it a christmas (your preferred holiday name here) present.

Cheers

PeteS

I e-mailed them asking for a CD and how much for it; downloading is not an option for me as the file is toooooo biggggg.

Thanks; will add to my growing list of "to try".

Go down to your local public library or over to your local community college. Almost all of the computers in these places are on T1 lines and your taxes paid for them.

Jim

I am on the US west coast, however i am willing to compensate you for the trouble. I sent an e-mail query for a CD to snipped-for-privacy@inpq.fr and it bounced back.

And, pray tell, how do i transfer the downloaded file from that computer to mine???

With the 1Gig (and bigger) USB keys that have gotten so cheap.

Robert

Just email it to yourself! :)