where can I find....

Question

Dear All,I hope that someone will be able to advise me where I can find some software that will turn my circuit diagram into a fully fledged board ready to got to the manufacturers with. I am just starting out in business for myself and do not want to spend any money on this if that's at all possible.Many Thanks

kmaryan · Accepted Answer

There is no package that will automatically go from schematic to PCB, but there are plenty that will make the process of designing a PCB easier. Google for the word "EDA" (electronic design automation). There's hundreds of tools out there, unfortunately, most cost thousands of dollars. However, a number of cheap and free ones are pretty good. For strictly PCB design, Eagle is the choice of many, the light version is free and lets you work with PCBs up to 10cm x 8cm.

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Cheers,

Chris

Chris · Answer

softwaregot toand doHi, Mr. Rhodes.  Terry Pinnel (a frequent contributor) has a pagelisting low cost or free CAD packages available.­errypin/The feature you think you want is called an autorouter.There is so much more to going from a circuit design to a good-to-goboard than just using an autorouting utility.  The software youactually need hasn't been written yet, and probably never will.  Youmay want to avail yourself of the services of an engineer who willguarantee that you will get from design through manufacture, and whowill be able to prove that your design works and has been implementedproperly (the fully fledged part).Good luckChris

learning · Answer

Yahoo has a group called FreePCB where you can get good help and a pretty fair PCB layout package for no charge.

Tinycad at sourceforge.net has a schematic capture program to go along with FreePCB.

Eagle PCB has products that are free with a limited number of pins and nets.

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You can use one of several dedicated packages whereing the vendor gives you the sch and pcb software which outputs files that are non-standard that you send to them and they return you 3 or 4 PCBs, limits on the size, and stuff like that.

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and even PCBexpress.com/nv are two companies who provide this.

Good luck,

JB

JeffM · Answer

EAGLE (limited version) is free--but not to a biz.There are some free fab-house-specific appsthat lock you into a particular board house.If you want free and full-function without vendor lock-in,it's an open source app (Linux, Windows + wine, or Windoze):

Paul Rhodes · Answer

Dear All,I hope that someone will be able to advise me where I can find some software that will turn my circuit diagram into a fully fledged board ready to got to the manufacturers with. I am just starting out in business for myself and do not want to spend any money on this if that's at all possible.Many Thanks

JeffM · Answer

OK. Apt for his use.Wrong on both counts.The Cadsoft freeware licence does not cover commercial use.The free version is limited, but not by the parameters you noted.Correction to my previous post:  Should be**Linux, Windows + CygWin, or Windoze**.                   ^^^^^^JB has itemized the Windoze stuff.

learning · Answer

I guess I missed the part where the request was for commercial use. Wheredid that happen?Call a cop....

where can I find....

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