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What's the "it" software for circuit diagrams

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SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: techman-001 on September 17, 2019, 02:18:00 am ---I use gSCHEM which is a Free, GPL'd, easy to use Schematic Capture program.

--- End quote ---

Oh, I don't use gSCHEM currently, but yep for schematic capture, it's nice and can produce vector graphics as well. Last I checked, there wasn't really up-to-date binaries for Windows though (or MacOS for that matter), so if the OP isn't using Linux, that may be impractical. (And also, last I checked, that was a while ago, gSCHEM was hard to build on Windows/MSYS2 from source...)

(Again, for those intimidated by gSCHEM or who can't use it, KiCad does also produce vector graphics and has a much larger library AFAIK! Either way, there's really little reason to use an all-purpose drawing program for this IMO, as those schematic editors are real schematic editors, much easier to use for schematic entry, and can definitely produce vector graphics which will look every bit as good as using Illustrator or Inkscape, but a lot less clunky for this!)

For pure-Windows users that want something simpler than KiCad, there's also TinyCAD, which works fairly well, is simple to use and even though it can't produce vector graphics formats directly, it can export to EMF, which is a graphics metafile, which in turn can be imported in Inkscape (and others), and can then be exported to your favorite vector format (SVG, EPS, PDF, others...) I used to use this a few years ago and it was fine. Depending on the application you use for document editing, you may not even need to go through Inkscape (or such), because on Windows, many document editing apps can directly import EMF and will translate it to pure vector graphics.


KMoffett:
ExpressPCB is free and pretty intuitive. Decent component library and easy to edit or create new symbols and parts  Exports the schematics to 300 dpi bitmap image.   https://www.expresspcb.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3MTm8eHY5AIVg_5kCh3qIQ0lEAAYASAAEgJoGfD_BwE

tooki:

--- Quote from: james_s on September 16, 2019, 07:13:41 pm ---Forget Eagle, it was once very popular with hobbyists but then it went subscription-only, KiCAD is the path forward. ALL professional EDA tools are kludgy, it's just the nature of the beast. Once you learn it it's no big deal.

--- End quote ---
It's only the "nature of the beast" because every EDA program behaves basically the same. It's definitely possible to make one whose user interface doesn't suck, but it would mean breaking some of the (crappy) conventions that are so entrenched. If someone were to design a pro-level one from scratch, but involving some actual professional interaction designers in addition to EEs, they might actually produce a tool that isn't daunting to beginners.

As for KiCAD, it just reminds me of practically every open source desktop app I have ever tried: raggedy as hell around the edges. You can tell that with OSS apps, no UI designer has ever been near them, with few exceptions. Do they get the job done? Yes. Are they pleasant to use? Rarely.

(And that's why the Mac remains my platform of choice: Mac developers tend to pay a lot more attention to UI consistency, making it less jarring and annoying to use apps from various developers than having to memorize different gesture and key conventions like on other platforms.)

ledtester:
Question... if you have drawn up a schematic in KiCad or Eagle, is it possible to render it in black & white (not grayscale) with heavier weight lines?

This is an example of how I'd like to have it rendered:


techman-001:

--- Quote from: ledtester on September 17, 2019, 10:22:23 pm ---Question... if you have drawn up a schematic in KiCad or Eagle, is it possible to render it in black & white (not grayscale) with heavier weight lines?

This is an example of how I'd like to have it rendered:

(Attachment Link)

--- End quote ---

This doesn't answer your question but it's a piece of cake in gEDA. This took me 5 minutes and used standard library parts.

Note: This demo is on Unix, please see this article for one way of running gEDA on Windows:
http://www.8bitforce.com/blog/2019/05/10/how-to-run-geda-tools-on-windows-10/

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