Free Unlimited Version of AutoTRAX PCB Design Software

[Iliya]

here is another one

that board was not routed. it is just a collection of orthogonal lines. everything has square pads apart from r4 ? what makes r4 special ?
and then everything was crammed in under the chip on bottom layer creating a wave mess.

The image is too small to see details.
It was routed with Electra.

[Iliya]

a word of friendly advice : please please please remove the horrible pcb layout  you use in the images on your website.
take a moment to grab a properly laid-out board and use that in your marketing material. something medium to high density with surface mounted parts and properly laid out traces.

I second this so much. The software looks good, but you demonstrate it being used to create shite. It's not a very good advertisement

Also, I personally think the slideshow of random PCB images that are clearly not done with your software is a bit dodgy. Doesn't seem right to advertise with layouts done in other packages. Though, that's just me...

Try this ... [url=http://pcb.software/]http://pcb.software/[/url]

Loads of slides at http://pcb-design-software.com/Features/PCBs-Screenshots

[Iliya]

I wish I could run this via Crossover/Wine. Is this anything that could be fixed?

Edit: After I close that dialog, it proceeds to run the splash screen, where the progress bar appears to oscillate forever.

I have uploaded another version that should capture the exception. However, there is already an exception handler inside DEX for this. This could be Wine. What O/S are you using?
The software is looking for a licence text XML file the but wine is stopping it. If DEX does not find it then it run as non-commercial.

http:///pcb.software/Download

[Iliya]

same problem.
i circled the eye-popping stuff.
if you show this kind of 'artwork' to anyone that does PCB design they will walk away from your software without even trying it.

It's like having a Aston Martin dealership, but all cars are covered in mud , the carpet is ratty , the windows haven't been washed in years , the wallpaper is peeling off , the door is hanging crooked in its hinges and the salesguy welcomes you wearing a green suit ( that was originally black ), greasy hair and smelling like wee.

Yes, I could do with a reference design. Do you know of one from a manufacturer's site?
I used TPH resistors as they look more visually appealing than boring miniature SMT resistors

[Iliya]

same problem.
i circled the eye-popping stuff.
if you show this kind of 'artwork' to anyone that does PCB design they will walk away from your software without even trying it.

It's like having a Aston Martin dealership, but all cars are covered in mud , the carpet is ratty , the windows haven't been washed in years , the wallpaper is peeling off , the door is hanging crooked in its hinges and the salesguy welcomes you wearing a green suit ( that was originally black ), greasy hair and smelling like wee.

Can't see anything in the image. Too small to see the eye-popping stuff.
I think this comparison is over the top and I don't smell like wee, have a faded black suit etc.

[Lightages]

Don't be insulted. free_electron is just being blunt about how the provided example board appears, not your software. He is trying to help, not insult you. Simply change the board to something without glaring errors in routing and your software will not have the bad looking design detracting from what the software can actually do.

[Iliya]

Don't be insulted. free_electron is just being blunt about how the provided example board appears, not your software. He is trying to help, not insult you. Simply change the board to something without glaring errors in routing and your software will not have the bad looking design detracting from what the software can actually do.

The PCB was auto-routed with Electra. What's the problem with the routing so I can report it back to Konekt, the author of the router. It is not a manually routed board. Very few AutoTRAX users use Electra (probably the price!) they prefer to manually route the board.
Drawing a comparison to a urine soaked trampy salesman is not the best thing to do. Anyway, that's water under the bridge. 

[c4757p]

The problem is that it's autorouted. It's not a problem with the autorouter, you just aren't supposed to use one to route an entire board all at once - it comes out as complete crap.

[free_electron]

as for this ...
there are so many things wrong with this simple drawing.

the resistors have the wrong aspect ration. cross connectins are a no-no in schematic drafting. only T-junctions are allowed.
since when are resistors polarized ?
you NEVER draw polarized capacitors upside down !
there is a missing dot betweenS1 and R13 at the junction.

There are drafting standard you know.
you may find some of my remarks above silly , like the aspect ratio of the resistor , but there is an actual ISO standard that defines it as having a 1:3 aspect ration. these are internationally accepted drafting standards.
People who do this kind of stuff for a living will look at this simple drawing and go 'crap'.  yes, the drawing is crap. unfortunately that rubs off on your software. the software may be great but the produced artwork is not up to par.

[c4757p]

since when are resistors polarized ?

I suspect that's just a marking in the software to indicate which pin it considers pin '1' - which I really like, actually. Assuming that little red + doesn't show up in graphical exports of the schematic, that's quite lovely.

The resistors do look funny. Interesting about the standard aspect ratio - which standard is that? I wonder if I'd want to make my custom KiCad library conform to that.

[free_electron]

It's like having a Aston Martin dealership, but all cars are covered in mud , the carpet is ratty , the windows haven't been washed in years , the wallpaper is peeling off , the door is hanging crooked in its hinges and the salesguy welcomes you wearing a green suit ( that was originally black ), greasy hair and smelling like wee.

you misunderstand. let me clarify

Autotrax is the nice aston martin car that you try to sell.

but your dealership that does try to show the product off does it in such a way there is no chance anyone serious will even look at the car
because the marketing material (the example board) smells like wee...

Please get someone to produce a nice reference board that is visually pleasing.

That new link you posted is even more horrendous . acute angles, wrong breakouts , track pooling , serpentines , snaking , looping back on it's own of pad to via ( which is absurd , connect straight to pad ! )  that router is total crap. please do NOT promote it on your website. it makes your product look very bad ! )

i want to buy your beautiful aston martin , but not if you can only show it to me covered in mud in  a shoddy dealership.
get someone to make a real board. ask your existing customers if you can have some of their designs to show off.

[free_electron]

since when are resistors polarized ?

I suspect that's just a marking in the software to indicate which pin it considers pin '1' - which I really like, actually. Assuming that little red + doesn't show up in graphical exports of the schematic, that's quite lovely.

The resistors do look funny. Interesting about the standard aspect ratio - which standard is that? I wonder if I'd want to make my custom KiCad library conform to that.

IEC60617

i actually found my altium library the aspect ratio for a resistor is slightly off. i am correcting them.
there will be a big overhaul in the coming weeks. i have generator scripts to create linked pools of resistors. ( with digikey links directly in em )

i go to digikey , go 0805 1% yageo. save as excel file.
run the script and plnk there is a library with all of em including footprint and part links.

[abaxas]

Horrible website... please pay someone some money to get it at least looking professional.

[Iliya]

a word of friendly advice : please please please remove the horrible pcb layout  you use in the images on your website.
take a moment to grab a properly laid-out board and use that in your marketing material. something medium to high density with surface mounted parts and properly laid out traces.

I second this so much. The software looks good, but you demonstrate it being used to create shite. It's not a very good advertisement

Also, I personally think the slideshow of random PCB images that are clearly not done with your software is a bit dodgy. Doesn't seem right to advertise with layouts done in other packages. Though, that's just me...

I have changed the slide show images. All from AutoTRAX except the first, that's from ShutterStock (stock pictures) I just like that one  : You may need to refresh to overwrite cached images. Thanks for telling me.

[Rigby]

there will be a big overhaul in the coming weeks. i have generator scripts to create linked pools of resistors. ( with digikey links directly in em )

i go to digikey , go 0805 1% yageo. save as excel file.
run the script and plnk there is a library with all of em including footprint and part links.

Sweet.

[Iliya]

since when are resistors polarized ?

I suspect that's just a marking in the software to indicate which pin it considers pin '1' - which I really like, actually. Assuming that little red + doesn't show up in graphical exports of the schematic, that's quite lovely.

The resistors do look funny. Interesting about the standard aspect ratio - which standard is that? I wonder if I'd want to make my custom KiCad library conform to that.

IEC60617

i actually found my altium library the aspect ratio for a resistor is slightly off. i am correcting them.
there will be a big overhaul in the coming weeks. i have generator scripts to create linked pools of resistors. ( with digikey links directly in em )

i go to digikey , go 0805 1% yageo. save as excel file.
run the script and plnk there is a library with all of em including footprint and part links.

i go to digikey , go 0805 1% yageo. save as excel file.

Can you please explain more? Is there a way of getting a CSV file of digikey parts?

[Iliya]

Horrible website... please pay someone some money to get it at least looking professional.

What's wrong with it? It looks great on your mobile phone. Try resizing the browser window to see what happens.
I created it using Visual Studio 2013, MVC5 and HTML5,SVG,WebGL and CSS3.

Like all things artistic, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think Lowry pictures are just childish sketches but other pay big $$$ ( though they may really think they are just childish sketches, but well there's fashion ).
The point is to get the information across without loads of noise.
Take http://www.altium.com/  Try to find the buy button, price button or download the software without giving a DNA sample 

http://gtmetrix.com/analyze.html analysis.

kov.com 1.05 seconds
altium.com 7.98 seconds

[free_electron]

Take http://www.altium.com/  Try to find the buy button, price button or download the software without giving a DNA sample 

ah. you are comparing fishes to nails ...
altium is in the league : if you need to ask you can't afford it. so no they don't publish prices.
as for downloads : none of that stuff either. you need ot get in touch with em and if they like you they may give you a 30 day trial.

[free_electron]

digikey csv access :

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?pv17=103&FV=ffec3741%2Cfff40001%2Cfff800e9%2C80003%2Cc0001%2C1c0002%2C2b80016%2C142c040d&k=0805+yageo+1%25&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25

then look top right above and bottom right below table : download table

that saves it in csv format.

set the number of lines to a large number and you get it all in one shot.

[Iliya]

Take http://www.altium.com/  Try to find the buy button, price button or download the software without giving a DNA sample 

ah. you are comparing fishes to nails ...
altium is in the league : if you need to ask you can't afford it. so no they don't publish prices.
as for downloads : none of that stuff either. you need ot get in touch with em and if they like you they may give you a 30 day trial.

Umm... My wallets 10cm thick and weights in at 2 Killograms, would that help . However, it don't explain CircuitMaker... Is there really such a thing? 
I went to visit a local 2D CAD company to visit the software development team. Had to first pass through a room with about 30 people busy on the phones. I asked what did they do? Answer: Sales... Very cold sales...
It the old days of trade shows, I used to like to go up to stands that had 'great' new stuff, get my wallet out and say, How much and can I take it home now 

[Iliya]

digikey csv access :

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?pv17=103&FV=ffec3741%2Cfff40001%2Cfff800e9%2C80003%2Cc0001%2C1c0002%2C2b80016%2C142c040d&k=0805+yageo+1%25&mnonly=0&newproducts=0&ColumnSort=0&page=1&stock=1&quantity=0&ptm=0&fid=0&pageSize=25

then look top right above and bottom right below table : download table

that saves it in csv format.

set the number of lines to a large number and you get it all in one shot.

Thanks.

[DIPLover]

My only suggestion to Ilya would be :

Could you PLEASE drop the stupid "hurry now price will double in 3 days", which is always 3 days from today?

That's bullshit. And you seem like such a "no-bullshit" person the rest of the time...

[Iliya]

My only suggestion to Ilya would be :

Could you PLEASE drop the stupid "hurry now price will double in 3 days", which is always 3 days from today?

That's bullshit. And you seem like such a "no-bullshit" person the rest of the time...

Good point.
It's gone. now its stuck at $49. 

[ludzinc]

I downloaded a trial of Autotrax back in the day, and then the hurry up and buy emails rolled in

I had not managed to install the software, and after the barrage of buy now emails, I have up even trying it.

Now that its free, and assuming I won't get hassled by email, I might actually give this a go.

Do you do right click copy / paste? Well that alone kicks the snot out of KiCAD!!

[mswhin63]

Horrible website... please pay someone some money to get it at least looking professional.

You can always pay for the website. I find the website fine for me, I prefer looking past the garb and simply download the product and try it out, I have Eagle Pro and Autotrax paid edition and I prefer Autotrax hands-down. I also hate the Eagle Website. Confusing nightmare the navigate.

Anyway if he paid for a site developer then there would be no true free edition.