When I first started out I tried every PCB CAD package I could get my hands on, ranging in price from free up through stuff that would cost many thousands of dollars to actually buy. I concluded that they are all terrible in one way or another, they're all buggy and kludgey, they all have quirks, but they all work more or less the same way and if you can learn one you can learn another. I ended up settling on KiCAD and have never regretted it, it's completely free and has no artificial limitations. The process is always something along the lines of create your schematic, create a netlist from that, import the netlist into the PCB side of things, draw the board outline, arrange the components then start routing the traces. There are lots of tutorials on youtube for all sorts of different software but if you are just starting out and intending to do this as a hobby (ie you don't want to spend thousands on something like Altium) then there are few reasons to go with anything other than KiCAD, it has the lion's share of the hobbyists.
I gave up on "EasyEDA" - what a mess of a program.
They're all a mess of a program, even the high priced professional stuff. It's all crap, you just have to persevere and learn to work around the quirks.
I would also suggest EasyEDA because the grunt boring work is done for you and all you need to do is plonk things down and join them up. Think of it as the Arduino of PCBs, that let you get a taste so you know what you want in the product you'll end up with.
All of them will seem to be rubbish in some way, just like trying to build software by typing weird shit into the command line is a pain when you don't know what compilers and linkers and build tools are meant to do or when. Once you're over that little hurdle, the stupid rubbish on that first tool you used might start to make sense.
From EasyEDA the normal destination would seem to be Kicad now. You might be tempted to make that jump at the start, but I think it has a few too many interface issues that would get in the way of using it for learning PCB stuff.
Generally a Net problem with component pads assigned to different/wrong Nets.
In the image above it could also be a Clearance rule issue too with the trace too close to both pads.
Generally a Net problem with component pads assigned to different/wrong Nets.
In the image above it could also be a Clearance rule issue too with the trace too close to both pads.
Thanks! It won't let me specify traces < 0.2mm... is that why?
Generally a Net problem with component pads assigned to different/wrong Nets.
In the image above it could also be a Clearance rule issue too with the trace too close to both pads.
Thanks! It won't let me specify traces < 0.2mm... is that why?No, it definitely is a problem in your schematic.
For trace widths: You have to setup minimum clearances and trace widths to match the abilities of the PCB manufacturer. But leave those untouched for now; 0.2mm width & clearance is producable by any PCB manufacturer. It is better not to push the limits anyway. When I create a PCB I usually do this for a .15mm width / 0.15mm clearance manufacturing process but the traces I use are often 0.25mm.
Generally a Net problem with component pads assigned to different/wrong Nets.
In the image above it could also be a Clearance rule issue too with the trace too close to both pads.
Thanks! It won't let me specify traces < 0.2mm... is that why?No, it definitely is a problem in your schematic.
For trace widths: You have to setup minimum clearances and trace widths to match the abilities of the PCB manufacturer. But leave those untouched for now; 0.2mm width & clearance is producable by any PCB manufacturer. It is better not to push the limits anyway. When I create a PCB I usually do this for a .15mm width / 0.15mm clearance manufacturing process but the traces I use are often 0.25mm.
I think I have worked it out now, and it's pretty obvious when I consider it. Connecting pads between components which are not connected on the schematic, ergo the nets are not connected, won't work, else that would be changing the circuit, wouldn't it...
After having sussed this out myself, I saw confirmation of it here, not that it was needed tbh: https://forum.kicad.info/t/how-to-connect-pin-on-pcb-that-was-not-connected-on-the-schematic/23812/4