PCB designing software

[mahesh_jo]

Is there any PCB designing software available which can generate best fit PCB on a given schematic. I mean, we can design the schematic in the software and afterword the software should generate a best fit pcb.

-Mahesh Joshi

 

[Oznog]

Automation in this area falls into two categories- autorouting, and autoplacement.

Autorouting makes the best fit for the wires. It is very common.
Autoplacement places all your components on the PCB space for you. Autorouting may or may not take place at the same time.

Autoplacement is not very common. Many times the user has an idea of the best way to place things, i.e. put the power supply components together, put the socket here, etc. Usually you can do that by hand to fix their locations and let the autoplacer finish it.

Still, the Protel one I've tried then made decisions I didn't like at all, in fact it was insane. I asked why autoplacers aren't very common and got back the answer that most engineers don't like the results. You sort of need a higher level understanding of the circuit to make logical placements, or else the only thing it can do is make semi-random hit & miss attempts to find layouts with short wiring paths.

 

[mahesh_jo]

thanks oznog,
I have visited Protel site and found that this is very high end product. I am a beginer and need a simple one which can autoroute two or three ICs, Caps, Resistences and diodes.

-Mahesh Joshi

 

[samcheetah]

try Eagle

its easy to use and has a large library of components