PCB Designing Software

Schematic capture:

PCB layout:

There's no artificial limit on what you can do with these tools, and they've been built on many Unixes and Windows, although building them on Windows isn't as trivial as a click-to-install package. The PCB package can been built on MacOS/X too.

If you can run DOS or WIN95/98/2000 and you don't want to create gerber files then you can DL an old package called Easytrax from here

It works very well, is easy to learn, and is free. Actually you can create gerber files, but it's not a trivial task and I've only got it to partially work.

Mike

------------------------------------------------------------------------ The odds of a single modest length protein randomly forming is approx

1 in 10^260. By comparison the number atoms in the known universe has been estimated at 10^80 atoms. Figues are from the writings of Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick in 1981.

take a look at Kicad, (opensource)

Stef

Google 'PCB Wizard 3', it was $49.00 and well worth it. It's not going to build stuff for the space shuttle but should work find for stuff you are doing at home.

Try EAGLE

--
James T. White

"prateek" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

Prateek,

You didn't say if you wanted to etch your own PCB's or if you wanted to sent the design files out to a board house to be manufactured. If you want to send them out, I've found ExpressPCB very good for small projects. It's free and easy to use. One program lets you create the schematic, the other, the PCB program, links to the schematic and lets you manually place components, traces, and pads. You down load the file to ExpressPCB and they send you the board(s) in about 3 days. They have several levels of service, but I mostly use they're "mini-boards". Three identical 2"x3", two-sided boards with plated thru holes, and 350 holes maximum for $59. I've found the quality very good. Even if I only need one of the boards it's still a good value for me (research support). Also, I often will layout several tiny, unrelated crcuits on a 2x3 board and cut them apart for other projects.

Ken

You'd be surprised...

--DF

If it would compile on freebsd.. Or if one could get the complete set of libs for linux emulation.. ;)

Terry Pinnell's list: http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:TqSgFbRdvUQJ:

*-*-existent+No-demo+GPL+trial+Student+Download-version+Lite+freeware+*-*-send-*-*-orders-*-*-*-*-*+Poor-web-site-no-details

Olimex's list: http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:yhXwPaC3qk0J:

*-*+zz-zz+No-demo-*+qq-qq+Free+ww-ww+uu+free-trial+open-source+pp-pp+GPL+kk-kk+xx+free-download

Kicad appears to be the current darling of the totally-free crowd. EAGLE Lite has long been a favorite for hobbyists.

As Moffett pointed out, it makes a difference whether you are going to etch it yourself.

Seconded. As suggested by Mr Kirk there ;-)

Personally I find the libraries in Eagle a pain to use, as they are sorted by manufacturer, rather than by type. I can work much faster with Circad

For my hobbyist needs the free trial version (without autorouter) is completely sufficient.

Thanks everyone. I tried EAGLE and ExpressPCB. Both are good regards prateek