Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Software tools to create double-sided circuit boards?
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Mechatrommer:
If you dont want the kicad flow, cant get around with parts, libraries and footprints, You can carry on with the photoshop route and google toner transfer pcb diy method, or proto board routing with jumper wires...

But kicad (and any other eda) looks tedious on first sight for oldtimers like me, diy artwork printing or jumper wires feel much straight forward at first. But when we got the feeling of doing that, you'll know how tedious they are, esp on multiple production boards.. and that experience should encourage us to learn eda in more depth anyway..
westfw:

--- Quote --- I think this special case I want to start with - duplicating a board - is a complicating factor.
--- End quote ---
When I had to duplicate a board where I only had pictures or other non-usable formats, I took the existing picture, scaled it as close to "life size" as possible, imported it in my PCB CAD program  on some non-functional layer(s), and used that as a guide for routing new traces on the real layer.   It helped a lot that I already had a nearly-correct schematic for the design, so there were air-wires to route.  (OTOH, I think that using a CAD package today that does NOT connect a schematic to the PCB design is a terrible idea.)  Then I got rid of the picture (or perhaps just never displayed or output that layer again.)
I happened to be using EAGLE in that case (it was actually part of my "get better at EAGLE" project, back in 2008 or so), but I'm pretty sure most modern packages have similar capabilities.  These days I probably would have chosen KICAD.)

rrinker:
 I really tried to like KiCAD, I really wanted to like it a lot. I have experience with mechanical CAD, and did schematics in college with an ancient version (well, it was current at the time) old DOS OrCAD (schematic only, there was no PCB editor in the version we had). But then it was close to 30 years before I got back to doing anything with electronics, and the free versions of some programs were much too limited, and then I found out about KiCAD. But something about the way it works just didn't fit my style. Then I gave EasyEDA a try (It does run local as well as in the cloud, but file storage is in your cloud account). That one works for me. No doubt one of the rather expensive would also work for me, but as a hobbyist I can't justify buying something like that. I've done a couple of boards now with EasyEDA, sticking with JLCPCB to make the boards, and even set up a BOM to order the parts from LCSC. Maybe I could get parts cheaper by shopping around, but the whole thing works very well together and makes the process super easy.
sokoloff:
I wonder how many people prefer whatever “second” EDA package they try.

I tried Eagle and hated it. I later tried KiCAD and found it OK. If I tried things the other way, I might have preferred Eagle.
MarkF:

--- Quote from: rrinker on February 11, 2020, 09:29:11 pm --- I really tried to like KiCAD, I really wanted to like it a lot. I have experience with mechanical CAD, and did schematics in college with an ancient version (well, it was current at the time) old DOS OrCAD (schematic only, there was no PCB editor in the version we had). But then it was close to 30 years before I got back to doing anything with electronics, and the free versions of some programs were much too limited, and then I found out about KiCAD. But something about the way it works just didn't fit my style. Then I gave EasyEDA a try (It does run local as well as in the cloud, but file storage is in your cloud account). That one works for me. No doubt one of the rather expensive would also work for me, but as a hobbyist I can't justify buying something like that. I've done a couple of boards now with EasyEDA, sticking with JLCPCB to make the boards, and even set up a BOM to order the parts from LCSC. Maybe I could get parts cheaper by shopping around, but the whole thing works very well together and makes the process super easy.

--- End quote ---

I had a similar feeling of KiCAD. 

I found DipTrace more to my liking.  No limits other than the number of pins and only 2 layers.
You can get the FREE for Non-profit license just by asking that gives you 500 pins.
For personal use, I have never exceeded the 500 pin limit. 
Creating your own components and footprints is equally easy.
Another plus, NO online cloud crap.  Everything is local.

For PCBs, I have been using Elecrow.
Mostly because they DO NOT plaster their ID number on you silk screen. 


My only PCB that exceeded the 300 pin limit used a 96 pin VME connector:
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