My latest Eagle PCB.

[alm]

just downloaded Kicad, not too bad, libraries are a bit naff, it looks like a nice designed software than expressPCB that I have sworn by so far but still in it's childhood stages of a fully equiped program ?

I think there are converted Eagle libs available. It's quite usable for most work IMO, but obviously no Altium (but neither is Eagle).

Does anyone use it and can advise me ? does it link the schematic to the PCB so that one can see connections between the parts to make manual routing easier ?

Yes. I believe there are some tutorials on the web that take you through a simple board design.

[Zero999]

Thanks for testing the file I uploaded

Here's the board I posted the tracks from: it's a bipolar tracking linear PSU. Unfortunately I couldn't find a wire ended transformer in the library so I just drew it graphically which generates some errors that need to be ignored, if there's a way of doing it properly please let me know. Eagle could do with more off-board components such as batteries, speakers, switches, pots and transformers, in the default libraries, perhaps I'll create some, if I can be bothered.

I've downloaded Kicad and will install it. I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of libraries could be something to do with licensing? Open source developers tend to be very paranoid about copyright violation and making sure that all the material distributed with their software is under a GPL compatible license and is not patented in any way.

[Simon]

well i looked about a bit and there seems to be a decent amount of parts, just need to find how they catalogue them, I often have to make parts for expressPCB anyhow, it's a great freeware program but really it does not evolve much because it is made by a boardmaking company.

I remember KiCad now or what it was once, It used to be a very obscure program that i could never make head or tail of. Obviously it has been completely redesigned

[Zero999]

I often have to make parts for expressPCB anyhow, it's a great freeware program but really it does not evolve much because it is made by a boardmaking company.

I've never used FreePCB but I do question whether it really is an good PCB program. I imagine you like it because it was easy to learn and us (you probably just wanted to get some PCBs done, not faff around learning a program) but that doesn't necessary mean it's actually any good compared to other programs, which might have a much steeper learning curve, i.e. Altium or even Eagle but may have more features. Sometimes the better programs do have a slightly steeper learning curve but end up being easier to use once you know how: user friendlessness isn't always a measure of how quick a program is to learn.

I'll have to give FreePCB a go but I'm not going to be expecting great things.

[Simon]

expresspcb you mean. it's certainly not an industry leading program but is decent and very easy for a first time user, I'm making a start with KiCad, it seems to be a lot like OrCad i used to have a copy of and you can get a free old version of. Moving parts once wired is a bit of a bugger though.