What PCB software are you all using?

[Jeroen3]

Multisim and Ultiboard which I had liked. 

What version? Please tell me.

[Throy]

Multisim and Ultiboard which I had liked. 

What version? Please tell me.

I can't remember the version number.  I'm guessing either 10 or 11.  I had used it from 2009 till 2011.  I'm not saying it's the best out there, but compared to Target, I find it a lot easier to use.

[John Coloccia]

FWIW, I decided to give KiCad a good look. 

a) there's a stable version that's "old", and they suggest you don't use it.  On the other hand, the new builds are apparently hit or miss unstable or reasonable, and there's no guidance which of the zillion versions you should download...I just took the latest.

b) when you start, you click on help and get a file not found error

c) when I started trying to make a schematic, every other operation I tried would complain about some file or other not found.  Regardless, it still seemed to work.  I probably just didn't prepare the schematic properly and it's all angry at me.

d) Where are the parts? I couldn't even find a resistor.

That's where I gave up and uninstalled it.  Yeah, I'm sure there are packages I'm missing, maybe I happened to get a crappy build, or whatever, but the entire effort appears very amateurish and unorganized to me.  It's probably a fine package, but I have a feeling that my experience is not unique and that lots of people simply give up before ever even getting a resistor on a schematic.

[c4757p]

Interesting, the "semi-official" Windows builds here installed the libraries correctly the last time I tried them. Which system are you on?

Edit: apparently they disappeared. I'm discussing this a bit now, hopefully we can get this fixed... also trying to stir up some discussion about the silly error messages, which the head honcho devs up until now have been okay with

[John Coloccia]

Interesting, the "semi-official" Windows builds here installed the libraries correctly the last time I tried them. Which system are you on?

I installed the 7-24 build for x86_64.  I'm on a 64 bit Windows 7 machine.  It probably did install everything correctly, and I just don't know how to use it, but this is the first package that I couldn't even figure out how to get a resistor on the schematic after 20 minutes.

I wanted to try it because every time I look at something like KiCad...or Altium....or Eagle...or really, almost any other package other than the Diptrace package I actually use, the look seems so much easier on the eyes than Diptrace.  Very clean, very professional.  Diptrace just looks and feels very amateurish, though the user interaction is actually pretty well thought out.  I just can't stand looking at it.

So every couple of months, I decide to give something else a try. Maybe I'll try it again when they have something stablized. So far, though, Diptrace's interaction is really the best I've tried.  I really wish I could have that combined with better interface elements and features.

[c4757p]

If you still want to give it a try, for now - create a new project before you open the schematic. It looks like it wants to start the project by default in a stupid place which causes some bugs. Start a new project, and pick a sensible place to save it, and then everything works.

Otherwise, I can't say your comments are unfair.

[John Coloccia]

If you still want to give it a try, for now - create a new project before you open the schematic. It looks like it wants to start the project by default in a stupid place which causes some bugs. Start a new project, and pick a sensible place to save it, and then everything works.

Otherwise, I can't say your comments are unfair.

I'll reinstall it and give it a try.  Thanks!

[Alex Eisenhut]

Nice synopsis @funkathustra, but you omitted Allegro from Cadence.

For what I hear, anyone that has access to Allegro from Cadence would never touch anything else because it's significantly better than anything else out there.

I currently use OrCAD/Allegro at work and would say the oppose it is the case. It's a total nightmare to use. The UI is like something straight for the 90s. Simple tasks are a pain to accomplish and generating artwork is very laborious. The thing which annoyed me most recently is when creating the silk screen layer, it insists on rotating all component idents to the nearest 90 degrees - total rubbish!

Allegro is immensely powerful. Generating artwork is very simple. I don't see the problem.

I also don't see why you have a "90 degree" problem, simply set the rotation angle to 0 in options and you are free to rotate at any angle, although you can type in the box, I use 5 degrees. There's no point in having arbitrary precision angles.

Don't forget to skip the UI as much as possible and create your own batch file to create the final output. There are many little helper .exe commands for this.

Just go to %cdsroot%\tools\pcb\bin\ and do a dir *exe
then just play around with these commands, -help gets you the help.

artwork.exe is the one you want.

You wanna complain about a layout software? Try SciCards Encore. Then get back to me.

[MyElectronsFellOut]

I've used Eagle in the past. But right now, I'm doing alot of work in Designspark.  It's fairly goof for what I need, nothing fancy. The auto placer and router is humorous to say the least.  Needless to say, I've become quite decent at PCB layout and planning routes in my head and working with space constraints.
I have been stung a few times by dodgy library parts where I didn't check the pin out for something like a mosfet etc. Rule one, if you didn't create it.. make sure you check it!  The ATmega2560 I used initially had several pins labelled incorrectly. Luckily I checked it was correct before ordering PCBs..