schematic programs

[andrew2022]

whats the best program for making schematics?

 

[TillEulenspiegel]

Whats better vanilla or chocolate? all kidding aside, I have autocad 2000 which I do not use for schematics, altho other people swear by it. I have used, P-CAD,Or CAD,Eagle,Ivex, Design works...You name it. The question is what is the best schematic capture for You? Are you a pro? Do you need infinite parts library's? What format do you need as an output or Export, same for reading files...DXF? JPEG DWG. There are some good free proggies that will work for the hobbyist. Best thing to do is sit down and list all the features you NEED. Like I said Autocad is prolly great ..it will do anything, but I like windows drag and drop components altho most programs can't do what ACAD can.

edit to add most suppliers have free amateur versions or crippleware ( 30 days, less then 50 components etc.) try here:**broken link removed**

 

[andrew2022]

nothin too professional, but able to have unlimited parts. also an export to JPG would be useful

 

[Savlon]

Iv used a package called Electronics workbench, which comprises of MultiSIM and Ultiboard. Multisim was a pretty good program for creating schematics and simulating them. Ultiboard was used to create PCB's. Really cant remember much about the package except it wasnt too difficult to use and had quite a varied library of components.

Iv also used AutoCAD2000 which was pretty good but not too sure if u can create JPEG's with it tho.

Check out
**broken link removed**

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

nothin too professional, but able to have unlimited parts. also an export to JPG would be useful

Export to JPEG isn't very useful, you want export to GIF - JPEG throws too much away and can make circuits unreadable, it's intended for pictures, not diagrams. Often a GIF of a circuit will be smaller than a JPEG, and maintains 100% of the data.

 

[kinjalgp]

Thats right Nigel. GIF is the best compression for schematics.

"andrew2022" you may try PCB123 Version 2 which has just been released. It is 100% free and has lots of features found in commercially available softwares. www.pcb123.com

Note: Right now it works on Win 2000, XP and NT.
Win 98 and ME will be supported soon.

 

[andrew2022]

Thats right Nigel. GIF is the best compression for schematics.

"andrew2022" you may try PCB123 Version 2 which has just been released. It is 100% free and has lots of features found in commercially available softwares. www.pcb123.com

Note: Right now it works on Win 2000, XP and NT.
Win 98 and ME will be supported soon.

i have pcb123 already. was just wonderin if there was ne beta programs

 

[kinjalgp]

PCB123 V2 beta is about to end and final stable version is comming soon.

 

[DigiTan]

Does the PC123 beta include an autorouter feature? How reliable is it?

 

[kinjalgp]

V2 has been written from scratch and so is totally different from V1. It has an in-buit auto-router. You can read more about V2 at www.pcb123.com

 

[andrew2022]

V2 has been written from scratch and so is totally different from V1. It has an in-buit auto-router. You can read more about V2 at www.pcb123.com

to be honest, i dont like it that muxh. the best program i have found is express pcb but the only prob is when you print you get grid markings what cant b disabled

 

[kinjalgp]

Thats because ExpressPCB people don't want you to make PCBs from other manufacturers. The only way to get your PCBs done is through ExpressPCB only. There is no means to export PCB file to other formats.
Ofcourse there are some crude methods like screenshots which some people use but that may cause slight variation in dimensions which may not be tolerable.

 

[Crofty]

Proteus.....

I use Proteus Pro. ISIS for schema's ARES for PCB design.
It's a bit more intuitive than some I've used. Not to mention that it can run PICs includes running your software on the pic based schema, with goodies like LCD displays, on screen keybaords etc. the autorouter is good too.

Steve

 

[fat-tony]

I'm not sure if this deserves another thread or not...

Is there any useful design software for Linux? Anything that compares to something like EWB?

 

[medusaman]

Re: Proteus.....

I use Proteus Pro. ISIS for schema's ARES for PCB design.
It's a bit more intuitive than some I've used. Not to mention that it can run PICs includes running your software on the pic based schema, with goodies like LCD displays, on screen keybaords etc. the autorouter is good too.

Steve

I like using proteus too. But i couldn't find crack for the last version of it (version 6). Steve could you know any adress for it. And one more thing, i wanna tutorial or text about this program. Thanks

 

[Oznog]

Eagle has a Linux version.

TillEulenspiegel, what's your impression of Eagle vs Protel?

I initially messed with Protel 99 years ago, and vaguely recall it being buggy, the features didn't always work, it crashed periodically, and the autorouter wasn't all that logical.

But that was a long time ago, and I noticed how prevalent Protel is and figured maybe it's just me. I'm using Eagle, which has some difficult steps in manipulating the libraries, but seems to do a good job.

But I did more of a search and found maybe I wasn't so far off:
**broken link removed**

How did it work out for you?

 

[kinjalgp]

Please don't ask for CRACKS or share it on this board.
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