Recommended PCB design s/w?

Archive New Product Ideas
1

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend some PCB design software? (Of course, the ideal pie-in-the-sky thing would be free and 100% functional)… I’m using AutoCad to do line-by-line drawing and it’s a pian… Just curious if anyone has had good luck with a free one.

Thanks,

Jeff

2

Eagle (cadsoft.de) is great, it has a lot of PIC parts, an autorouter, and is supported in the community. It’s a commercial product, the free version lets you work on boards under a certain size (3"x5" comes to mind).

Sean

3

Altium Protel DXP all the way baby. It’s $8k :shock: but there is nothing more powerful.

Also, Tsvetan at Olimex has put together a tremendous list of PCB software here: http://www.olimex.com/pcb/dtools.html

-Nathan

4

Hi Jeff,

If you want to do simulation of analog circuits, OR to just have a program to draw production-quality schematics, LT SwitcherCAD is VERY good.

Best of all: it is completely FREE, easy to use, and unlimited. You can download it from Linear Technology’s website (http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp)

  • Marco

PS: no I don’t have LT shares :wink: