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Software tools to create double-sided circuit boards?
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leonababy:
I have made only one circuit board in my life - it was 30 years ago, single sided and everything was done by hand.  Fast forward to today, and I have several clock circuits I would like to have double-sided boards made for, and I have a pressing project that will require me to finally jump into the water.  I bought a vintage unbuilt Heathkit GC-1000 clock kit, and two of the circuit boards are missing.  My applications will all be less than 10 KHz circuits.

The circuits in question will have DIP's of various sizes, some surface mount components, nixie tube sockets, etc.  I don't mind laying all of them out by hand - I don't believe I need a program that automatically does the routing.

The first board I need to have made is shown in the attachment - foil from both sides is shown.  The board is about 2.6" x 6".  I use Photoshop for various graphics design, but my guess is I need a custom piece of software that manages multiple board layers, trace routing, hole sizes, etc.  I have no idea where to begin, or what kind of output file I need to send to a fabricator.  Any tips for approaches would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you in advance.
Miti:
If I was to start now, I would take on KiCad. It is free. I started 20+ years ago with Eagle and I have a hard time moving away from it, even though I hate their new subscription model.
The next would be Eagle, then probably Altium, if I had the money.
sokoloff:
+1 on KiCAD!

Watch one of Chris Gamell’s “Getting to Blinky” series on YouTube or this longer series of tutorial videos (which are excellent and broken into individual topics) https://youtu.be/9hcQQQxoRl0

I did my first board on KiCAD in one evening with a daughterboard, 6 headers, 2 buttons, and an IR receiver after watching Chris’ videos the prior evening.
leonababy:
Thank you for the replies.  I am a visual person, and I get hung up on details.  I am having trouble understanding how the process would work, since this is new to me.  I think this special case I want to start with - duplicating a board - is a complicating factor.  Can artwork be imported, such as in the case of the board I need to duplicate (assuming I create an image for each side)?  If so, could I add through holes where needed, or does one have to use parts from a library, or both are possible?  The traces - could I somehow have the program turn the imported artwork into traces, or would I be restricted to connecting pads using the software, and it would route the pads according to some rule?  Is it unrealistic to believe I can duplicate a board with such software?  It almost sounds like a special case where printing artwork with registration marks to align the two sides would be done, and a manufacturer could possibly use these to create a board.  But they would need information about hole sizes and such.

It's quite a black box to me, and I haven't used CAD before other than some simple schematics.  For laying out new boards, I assume that there is a library of parts, and one can select various sizes of DIPs, style and size of capacitors, etc - and I would place these as desired, and then later make connections with traces?  you can see I am totally new to this - I know I am asking silly questions for those in the know.  At the moment I feel like I am at the door of a secret society...

I'll check out some videos...
sokoloff:
You send Gerber files to the fab. These are a simple file format (but you don’t write the files by hand anyway, but instead have the tool generate them.)

The typical process is: create the schematic (the electrical design), assign parts and footprints to each item, then layout the board (the physical side of things), then check it, then check it again, then export Gerber files, then import them to your PCB fab, then check the output again, then click buy and wait.

Your board is low/medium complexity, so I’d go through the whole process rather than trying to shortcut anything. Treat it 75% learning and 25% getting the board.

People here will help, doubly so if it’s obvious you’re trying to help yourself as well.
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