Electronics > PCB/EDA/CAD

Choosing hobbyist PCB software in 2023

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baylf2000:
I realise this may be a contentious topic for my first post, but I'm going to give it a go anyway.

I'm a hobbyist shopping for a new Schematic/PCB package. I bought and used Eagle for many years, but after a few years away I see they are no more. I'm a little sad as I really enjoyed Eagle and used it to make many PCBs, both professionally produced and home made.

So now I'm hunting for a new product to use. A lot of videos on YouTube I've seen are now pushing Altium, but their prices are so far away from anything a hobbyist would or should spend on a piece of software that they're a non-starter. I see that CircuitMaker and CircuitStudio have been abandoned, which rules them out. It's sad to see Altium are still taking online payments for CircuitStudio too.

I had a play with KiCad and was surprised at how modern and relatively simple to use it was. I also looked at DipTrace, which seems reasonably easy to use, but the interface looks like something from the 80's, which doesn't fill me with confidence. Their pricing flexibility is great though. They seem to have really picked the right spot for hobbyists. I also like the look of their features for high speed signals, as that's something I want to get into.

So are there any serious recommendations for products for hobbyists that have good community support, good parts libraries and reasonable pricing that won't be abandoned a year after purchase?

Karel:
KiCad

voltsandjolts:
KiCad

Doctorandus_P:
KiCad  :)


--- Quote from: baylf2000 on August 26, 2023, 10:43:30 am ---So are there any serious recommendations for products for hobbyists that have good community support,

--- End quote ---
KiCad has a very active user forum. 20 to 30 questions a day and answers between a few minutes to hours. It seems rare that a topic can't get solved quickly on the KiCad user forum. https://forum.kicad.info/


--- Quote from: baylf2000 on August 26, 2023, 10:43:30 am ---good parts libraries

--- End quote ---
Check!
KiCad is also getting noticed by EDA library websites such as PCB Libraries, SnapEDA, Ultra Librarian and more.


--- Quote from: baylf2000 on August 26, 2023, 10:43:30 am ---and reasonable pricing

--- End quote ---
Check!
You decide what's reasonable :)


--- Quote from: baylf2000 on August 26, 2023, 10:43:30 am --- that won't be abandoned a year after purchase?

--- End quote ---
Check!
KiCad has been growing quite rapidly over the last few years. Lot's of extra functions, old annoyances get removed, libraries and library management gets improved.

It sure has it's own set of flaws and limitations. The biggest limitation at the moment is that the project may be growing a bit too fast. I'm guessing that in the near future when KiCad is "mostly feature complete" more emphasis shifts to stability instead of fixing old annoyances and introducing new features. Users helping a bit with the development by finding and reporting bugs is part of the nature of Open Source software. When KiCad V6 was released, (after 3 years of development) this worked quite well, and when a lot more users started using it and reporting bugs, nearly all of them were fixed within a month or two. And now with KiCad V7 (released last February) the going has unfortunately been a bit rougher. Overall it works quite well (and better than V6) but fixing the small annoying things seem to go a bit slower with V7. Bugs do get fixed, and quite fast (over 60 in each monthly point release) but due to the stormy development, they keep coming too. But don't be discouraged, It's mostly small stuff, and when important bugs are found they get a high priority and are usually fixed within hours to a few days.

And users are working on KiCad development too. KiCad has a "Plugin and content manager" that has now already over 50 plugins, including several written by (or at least for) PCB manufacturers to set up their rules and/or help with ordernig (Aisler, PCBWay, JLCpcb, NextPCB, Sierra, PCBGoGo,) And although I prefer to work with Gerbers myself, it's also getting more common that PCB manufacturers support uploading KiCad projects for manufacturing directly.

And other fun things, such as this link below, which indexes over 19.000  KiCad (related) projects on Github:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/kicad-project-explorer/44440

I've also seen the growing number of advertisements for altium, I guess they are waking up and slowly starting to see KiCad as a thread to their business.

--- Quote from: baylf2000 on August 26, 2023, 10:43:30 am ---It's sad to see Altium are still taking online payments for CircuitStudio too.

--- End quote ---
Yes, if there is anything I've learned about that company is that they like money very much.

About Diptrace, peaple who use it, seem to like it. I have never used it myself. I started using KiCad about 10 years ago, when it was quite rough, but I saw potential in it and that is now flourishing.

You also wrote you already gave KiCad a test drive and you liked it. Are there further concerns why you are doubting to adapt KiCad?

nctnico:
Definitely Kicad for hobby use. If you gow out of that, skip Altium and go for a 'big boys' package like Orcad (which is also more affordable compared to Altium).

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