15 replies to this topic

[Reddog]

I searched the forums and wiki and could not find details on what is good software for PCB layout. Would someone be able to tell me what software OP uses for schematic creation please?

[Kenn Sebesta]

Altium, Eagle, and gEDA are all commonly used. Eagle is my poison of choice.

[Reddog]

Kenn Sebesta, on 13 December 2011 - 11:27 PM, said:

Altium, Eagle, and gEDA are all commonly used. Eagle is my poison of choice.

Thanks Kenn. I checked out Eagle and they want $700 or so for a copy, thats pretty steep. Is this what you paid?

[Kenn Sebesta]

Reddog, on 13 December 2011 - 11:36 PM, said:

Thanks Kenn. I checked out Eagle and they want $700 or so for a copy, thats pretty steep. Is this what you paid?

Woah! When did Eagle stop giving a hobbyist license for free? That was their advantage. You couldn't do much with it, but it was a free license anyhoo, so good for tiny things like the OPESC. I'm glad you told me about this, because I have to be very careful about my old schematics which were done in Eagle. I'd hate to lose the software and thus the necessary license to view my own boards.

I'm sure if you were to PM certain OP members you could still get the old version of Eagle, that was free and didn't require a license.

[peabody124]

We use Altium within the project which is pricey.  I used gEDA for my first round on the ESC.  Latest version is Altium though.

[Reddog]

peabody124, on 14 December 2011 - 02:40 AM, said:

We use Altium within the project which is pricey.  I used gEDA for my first round on the ESC.  Latest version is Altium though.

Hell $5,000 is a bit more than I can justify as I am a newbie, why are you guys using such expensive tools, are they that much better?

[peabody124]

I only switched from gEDA for the ESC when I thought I might need blind vias.  However Altium is quite good.

[dankers]

Reddog, on 14 December 2011 - 03:12 AM, said:

Hell $5,000 is a bit more than I can justify as I am a newbie, why are you guys using such expensive tools, are they that much better?

Talk to Altium, they have ways of getting their software cheaper if used for research and educational work.

Eagle is still free but only for up to 2 layer boards, which is not a bad place to start anyway.

[Kenn Sebesta]

dankers, on 14 December 2011 - 04:09 AM, said:

Eagle is still free but only for up to 2 layer boards, which is not a bad place to start anyway.

Maybe I'm misreading this page, http://www.cadsoftus...ng/?language=en, but what I'm seeing says that it's $69 for the Light version that lets you only do two layer boards in reduced dimensions.

That being said, you can still download prior copies of Eagle at ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/program/.

[dankers]

Wow, yeah they changed it. Still not a bad price considering.

[Tallak Tveide]

I learnt to use geda and liked it. Plus its free without limitations :-)

[Sambas]

Just installed eagle 6.0.0, I gives a choice to run it as freeware while installing it.

[David J]

There's also DesignSpark - supposedly fully-featured, and free.

http://www.designspark.com/pcb

Disclaimer: I haven't tried it yet!

[D-Lite]

Target 3001 also has a free edition. It seems rather limited but should be okay for small projects. Eagle is probably the most common one among the free PCB designers.

[D-Lite]

Kenn Sebesta, on 14 December 2011 - 04:16 AM, said:

Maybe I'm misreading this page, http://www.cadsoftus...ng/?language=en, but what I'm seeing says that it's $69 for the Light version that lets you only do two layer boards in reduced dimensions.

This version is still free as long as you use it for non-commercial projects only (see the link in my previous post).

[Kenn Sebesta]

D-Lite, on 14 December 2011 - 03:09 PM, said:

This version is still free as long as you use it for non-commercial projects only (see the link in my previous post).

Thanks for finding that. They're practically shooting themselves in the foot with this new web design, from what I read. You're the first one I've seen point out that there's a freeware version (I hadn't seen it at all in "downloads", and it's no linked to from "shop"), so I think a lot of people had Reddog and my reactions.

Reddog, since there's still a free "Lite" version, I would put Eagle back on the list of things to use. I don't know if it's the best, but it's multiplatform which rates it quite highly in my opinion.