What's the board say about circuit drawing software? Not a simulator, but hat you use for laying out the traces and pads etc.

My pal uses OmniGlyph and gets good results but he cusses the whole time

 

eagle cad
CadSoft Online: EAGLE Layout Editor

 

My vote for eagle

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shree-electronics.com - Abrreviations and microcontroller related stuff.

 

Altium Designer, if you can afford it.

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I do not answer private messages asking for help because no one else can: benefit from advice I may give or correct me if I'm wrong.

Please ask on the open forum if you have a question and I'll be happy to help, if I know the answer.

 

I tested quite a few before settling on Express PCB, it is free and it was the easiest to use.
http://www.expresspcb.com/ExpressPCBHtm/Download.htm

Edit: if you deside to try it and have problems drop me a line with your phone # and I will contact you.

 

This subject could use a sticky.

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Please post questions to the forums. PM's are for personal communication.

BCHS/3v0's Tutorials
Junebug USB PIC programmer kit., USB Bit Whacker,
The 15 Minute Printed Circuit Board! (+drill time)

 

I have used EasyPC for some time, you can get decent results pretty quickly, but it is on the basic side.

I'm starting to learn Proteus (ISIS/ARES), a lot more features, and turning out to be quite decent, although some of the basic things are not quite as easy to do straight away. However it is a lot better at handling larger and more complex boards.

I have never used Eagle, but heard decent things about it.

It depends if you want to pay money or find a free one

 

I've been using sprint layout for years and I reckon it's tops, for a trial I exported both the gerber and drill files and did a sim in Kcam and the sim was exact. So for the cheap cost of this software my opinion it's perfect for the DIY without the huge learning curve of using eagle or some of the other pcb software programs.

Cheers Bryan

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" The only way to avoid human error is to avoid the use of humans"

 

It is hard to tell from Sprint-Layout the trial version. Is it wort the difference in price? That depends on a lot of factors that we can only guess at. For most of us that money could be better spent.
I took the trouble to install the trial version of Sprint-Layout so I could compare it to ExpressPBC for my self, my quick trail was just that.
For the average beginner DIY in PCB toner transfer I would now highly recommend ExpressPCB because of its more intuitive interface and much lower price.