PCB design software

[Harry Pfeifer]

I have been using an old MSDOS based printed circuit board layout program
for many years, and the time has come to upgrade to something more up to
date and windows based. I am a retired professional in electronics and want
this for my own private use, hence I am looking for something of reasonable
standard, but not costing so much that it will break the budget. It has to
be capable of creating PCB's at least 200 mm wide so as to cater for a small
ongoing development project which I am working on, and as I do not have a
photoplotter, it must be capable of good quality output to a laser printer

I would welcome any suggestions as to programs which are available at
present
Thanks

Harry Pfeifer

 

[Baz]

I have been using an old MSDOS based printed circuit board layout program
for many years, and the time has come to upgrade to something more up to
date and windows based. I am a retired professional in electronics and
want this for my own private use, hence I am looking for something of
reasonable standard, but not costing so much that it will break the budget.
It has to be capable of creating PCB's at least 200 mm wide so as to cater
for a small ongoing development project which I am working on, and as I do
not have a photoplotter, it must be capable of good quality output to a
laser printer

I would welcome any suggestions as to programs which are available at
present
Thanks

Harry Pfeifer

Hi Harry,

have a look at ExpressPCB at http://www.expresspcb.com/ . It might do what
you want, and it's free.

regards
Barry

 

[Joe G \(Home\)]

I have been using an old MSDOS based printed circuit board layout program
for many years, and the time has come to upgrade to something more up to
date and windows based. I am a retired professional in electronics and
want this for my own private use, hence I am looking for something of
reasonable standard, but not costing so much that it will break the budget.
It has to be capable of creating PCB's at least 200 mm wide so as to cater
for a small ongoing development project which I am working on, and as I do
not have a photoplotter, it must be capable of good quality output to a
laser printer

I would welcome any suggestions as to programs which are available at
present
Thanks

Harry Pfeifer

1. he EAGLE Light Edition can be used for free!
Limitations

The following limitations apply to the EAGLE Light Edition in general:

a.. The useable board area is limited to 100 x 80 mm (4 x 3.2 inches).
b.. Only two signal layers can be used (Top and Bottom).
c.. The schematic editor can only create one sheet.
http://www.cadsoft.de/freeware.htm

2. Kicad - Open source (free)

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

3. gEDA Opensource (free)

http://www.gpleda.org/

Joe

 

[James]

I have been using an old MSDOS based printed circuit board layout program
for many years, and the time has come to upgrade to something more up to
date and windows based. I am a retired professional in electronics and
want this for my own private use, hence I am looking for something of
reasonable standard, but not costing so much that it will break the budget.
It has to be capable of creating PCB's at least 200 mm wide so as to cater
for a small ongoing development project which I am working on, and as I do
not have a photoplotter, it must be capable of good quality output to a
laser printer

I would welcome any suggestions as to programs which are available at
present
Thanks

Harry Pfeifer

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The ones mentioned, plus I'll add Novarm Diptrace. Versatile, easy to use,
freeware (not for profit) edition available limited to 2 layers / 250 pins
but no limit on board size. Higher layer / pin count versions relatively
inexpensive. Even freeware edition has full support for Gerber export (and
other formats).

Of course it's all a matter of personal preference, download the trial /
freeware edition of a selection and have a play.

Regards
James



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