I am sometimes required to draw proof-of-concept circuits or typical connection of some lab setup for reports or presentations. For this it is overkill and much too time consuming to use my normal CAD/EDA software (since I do not need real components, part names, or rule checking etc.).
I have tried using normal drawing programs, but its annoying to have to draw each symbol by hand.
I have also tried searching for free schematic drawing softwares but I have not found one that is not web based (needs to be local) and does not require libraries of components and so on.
TLTR
Can anyone here recommend a standalone circuit diagram drawing program for making good looking illustrations of generic circuits?
I am sorry if this has been asked before, I tried my best to search for it but I could not find it.
Did you already check out KiCad?
It is a full CAD software suite. However just doing the schematics does not require you to build up a whole library of Parts.
I like because for resistors diodes capacitors Etc I don't need to go picking specific components, it has a generic library of discrete components which you can choose from.
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LOL! It's not called Klunky for nothing. Damn that was painful. At least it
may work with Netscape Navigator 6.0
So Klunky is at least 17 years old.
It's like a crack addiction though. I am forever asking "can I bend it to do X". Usually I can
eV1Te,
Try
Bsch3V. It comes with a good (but not overwhelming) symbol collection, full unicode support, muti-layered schematics feature.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will see if I can convince my IT department to give me Visio because I don't have it installed at the moment and I don't know if we have licenses for it.
Otherwise I will try some of the other options, such as Bsch3V or KiCad.
I have used KiCad before for PCB design, but I didn't like it back then, maybe its time to try again.
Klunky seemed a little too rudimentary, it barely does its job
why not a modern, free, Spice with schematic entry - LTspice, Tina...
https://www.draw.io/Works pretty decent, there is a circuit/electrical option for drawing schematics.
It's free, also for commercial use.
Another vote for KiCad here. Once you've learned the shortcut keys, it's blazingly fast to throw together a schematic in it.
Only thing that comes close to it is... Pen and paper.
I used to use AutoCAD for this which is overkill but worked well.
Also love the classic icon visuals!
(much better than most programs nowadays)
Another vote for Microsoft Visio. It's the best I've used for this but it's not cheap. Dia is a decent open source alternative to Visio that has circuit components (
http://dia-installer.de/shapes/Circuit/index.html.en). You might also want to check out Fritzing's schematic feature (
http://fritzing.org/home/), another free option. It may be a little more full featured than what you're looking for but I've found it useful for simple and quick circuit documentation.
I'll give you that. Dia is pretty good.
