Dave in your travels what would you consider the best PCB drafting software to be. currently I'm useing WinQcad but i find it quite annoying especially how the program automatically defines the dimensions of the PCB for you and you can't change it.
for pcb drafing I've been using the software available for free from expresspcb.com its quite good very easy to use and the pcb bit can interface with the schematics bit so if you click on a pad it highlights the other pads it connects too, very handy in manual routing, I'm also looking into diptrace that there is a free ware version of, this has an autorouter but I think the learning curve is a bit steeper
Eagle is most likely the best free software for creating PCBs and schematics.
I found it mind boggling and just gave up, a program can be the best on the planet but if its hard to work with because its interface was not thought out well enough its a non starter
Without a doubt Altium Designer. But of course quite a few people know I'm contractually obligated to say that because of a slight vested interest ;-)
But I've been using Protel/Altium Designer for 20 years, and have swayed only to dabble occasionally. So it's really a matter of what you are used too.
But I have always found it quite "intuitive" in terms of how it works. That does have a lot to do with familiarity, but I've always thought most of the basic user interface and functionality would be how I'd design a PCB package myself if I did.
But it probably comes down to how much you want to spend. To get PCB in Altium (it does many other things too) you have buy the full version for $2K+
I agree that Eagle is probably the most well known and popular lower priced "hobby/ semi professional" free/product these days. But I haven't tried it myself. It has just been bought out by Farnell.
Dave.
Without a doubt Altium Designer. But of course quite a few people know I'm contractually obligated to say that because of a slight vested interest ;-)
But I've been using Protel/Altium Designer for 20 years, and have swayed only to dabble occasionally. So it's really a matter of what you are used too.
But I have always found it quite "intuitive" in terms of how it works. That does have a lot to do with familiarity, but I've always thought most of the basic user interface and functionality would be how I'd design a PCB package myself if I did.
But it probably comes down to how much you want to spend. To get PCB in Altium (it does many other things too) you have buy the full version for $2K+
I agree that Eagle is probably the most well known and popular lower priced "hobby/ semi professional" free/product these days. But I haven't tried it myself. It has just been bought out by Farnell.
Dave.
I watched the product demo videos for Altium and have been drooling ever since just can't figure out how to get it working.
Hi,
I've used Kicad up to now
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/I'm going to use Altium designer from now on after spending £5K for a perpetual license. Some may consider me crazy but I think it's a good investment. I certainly hope so.
David.
Not to put any PCB design package down! (Really PCB's are a non-trivial exercise!)
1) For A lot of parts schematics one always has to enter any non-generic parts.
2) For most PCB parts one should expect to enter any parts you have not used before.
3) One should never trust the on-board libraries until you have verified them.
This is in the same line as for example David saying on the blog "read the errata" ICD port X on silicon step X does not work. (And that is Microchip who actually to their credit publish these errata more or less straight. Unlike a particular Austin based company. Who did not publish. "The LCD refresh stops at the end of each frame with indeterminate clock and data before the next frame." And then on the next stepping of the series has LVDS fully implemented and imply that it should work on the previous processor.)
Altium is more closely coupled by the data base between schematic and PCB modules so one has to at least futz with the pad stacks / shapes to make it happy. As good design practice you have to really examine the shapes to make sure they met up to your board and production design rules.
Our company uses protel/altium but i use eagle, I found eagle a lot easier to get to grips with than protel though. But i like the command line, and scripting in Eagle.
Eagle definitely has some major annoyances that slow my workflow down a lot though, some of them may be my lack of knowledge of eagle, they have a fairly active feedback group that the developer does q&a on too, which is nice.
As for making parts that it doesn't have, look into "ultimate librarian", even if it doesn't have the part it has a really nice generator tool that you basiclaly just type in the dimensions from the datasheet.
Here in Finland, Mentor Graphics PADS is pretty much a standard schematics/PCB design package among the industry I work with. Perhaps one of the most nicest features in it, is the OLE link, which makes it possible to write your own extensions to it. I have actually made a
component database application, which makes it easy to maintain component data independent of the PADS library. That particular application is actually used by my company and everybody seems to like it very much (at least I don't get much hatemail
). A proper SQL database is a must when there are dozen designers on several sites entering/editing the part data. The reason why we don't have a dedicated person for the library management is a historical choice. Sometimes that is a bless (you can make what you need pretty easily and quickly) and sometimes it is a curse (you have to do it by yourself).
As for the custom parts, I have made most of my parts myself. That is simply because that is only way to ensure that they are graphically compatible and look nice on the schematic (grids, text alignments etc.). Of course, entering a 800-pin component by hand is a tedious and error prone process, but I have done some of those too at work. Surprisingly, one of the most difficult parts seem to be 3-pin components, like diodes with a SOT-23 package to get right.
I like to follow IPC-7351 rules for PCB land patterns.
PCB Matrix has a nice calculator for many of the standard packages.
Regards,
Janne
I find that a lot of people complain that Eagle has a large learning curve, it really doesn't it's just a matter of designing your PCB in the correct manner (for Eagle anyway). At school and college I was taught to use a program called Easy-PC. For a beginner it made sense, you've already drawn out your circuit on paper and chosen your components so all you add to do was pick the footprints you need and route the traces, GREAT but it's really a very very bad method.
When I first tried Eagle I couldn't figure out why I couldn't just pick my footprints and start making traces, it annoyed me. But I soon realised I needed to spend the time drafting the circuit diagram and either picking out the parts I need from libraries or creating my own from scratch. This annoyed me too as I felt like I was wasting time, far from it. When it came to designing the PCB itself all the effort I'd put into the schematic came to light. I couldn't make a routing mistake unless I made the mistake on the schematic, I could check that I've routed every trace I needed to, the design rule checker is a god send, the list goes on. Because of Eagle's work flow method it's really easy to make a change to your schematic and apply it to the PCB design.
Seriously give it a try, it really is the best hobby PCB package you're gonna find (imo anyway). Once you get the hang of it you can create some really awesome boards (I just finished this in an hour
http://openairsoft.net/sites/default/files/hardwirefrontv1.png)
I use KiCad, mostly because its free/open source (and don't have limits like free fersion of Eagle) but it's interface is a bit, well "unpolished" ;]
I find that a lot of people complain that Eagle has a large learning curve, it really doesn't it's just a matter of designing your PCB in the correct manner (for Eagle anyway). At school and college I was taught to use a program called Easy-PC. For a beginner it made sense, you've already drawn out your circuit on paper and chosen your components so all you add to do was pick the footprints you need and route the traces, GREAT but it's really a very very bad method.
When I first tried Eagle I couldn't figure out why I couldn't just pick my footprints and start making traces, it annoyed me. But I soon realised I needed to spend the time drafting the circuit diagram and either picking out the parts I need from libraries or creating my own from scratch. This annoyed me too as I felt like I was wasting time, far from it. When it came to designing the PCB itself all the effort I'd put into the schematic came to light. I couldn't make a routing mistake unless I made the mistake on the schematic, I could check that I've routed every trace I needed to, the design rule checker is a god send, the list goes on. Because of Eagle's work flow method it's really easy to make a change to your schematic and apply it to the PCB design.
Seriously give it a try, it really is the best hobby PCB package you're gonna find (imo anyway). Once you get the hang of it you can create some really awesome boards (I just finished this in an hour http://openairsoft.net/sites/default/files/hardwirefrontv1.png)
That is altogether too cool for one hour work!