Which PCB layout software should I use?

Community PCB Design
1

Hello,

I was thinking to try and do my own PCB layouts myself

And then generate the gerber files so I can

Give them to my PCB manufacturer.

But I never used such a software and I would like

to ask this forum which one I should use?

It should allow me to design layouts from the smallest

To the biggest pitch sized electronic components for example 0402 components up to normal sized ones and

Chip pitches from 2.54mm to 0.5 mm.

I also need a software that is simple and popular to use with Plenty of tutorials on YouTube and that can allow

Me to design multi layered PCB with ground planes.

A support line would be nice also.

All suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

2

Anyone

Anyone at aalll???

:flushed:

3

I use KiCad; other popular ones are Eagle (though they have recently changed their licensing and have limitations), and Diptrace. I would stay away from ones that lock you into a specific vendor (ie. ExpressPCB). I haven’t used the free Eagle or Diptrace so I don’t know how well they work for multilayer. KiCad can handle up to 32 layers with planes or pours on any of them.

/mike

4

If you are running Linux, there is an excellent program called “PCB”. There is also a design suite called gEDA.

5

Sparkfun supports libraries for KiCad and Eagle, so if SFE is one of your preferred sources for components you may want to stick with one of those. Adafruit and Pololu favor those as well.

6

I’d go with Eagle given your requirements.

Mainly because there is lots of help with it.

7

I am using Eagle and I am really satisfied!! Another great option is Altium and KiCad.

8

I use pcb-rnd and sch-rnd. These are part of the Ringdove EDA suite. A lot of ex-gEDA users are migrating to Ringdove these days, now that gEDA is dead.