PCB making on the Mac

[Kevin Lightner]

"The package said Windows 3.1 or better.... so I bought a Mac!"


I just received the $95, stripped down version of the Douglas CAD/CAM PC
board software for the Mac.

I have a version from years ago and thought it looked pretty bad as a user
interface went, but figured that this version was several revs up and would
be better and more up to date.

Well, having just booted it, maybe it works better, but it sure doesn't
look or feel any better!

All black and white graphics. No command- shortcuts in the file menu
(command Q to quit for example isn't there and I had to ResEdit one in!)

It was originally authored in 1985 and it appears they have put all of
their time and resources into honing their professional PCB program and not
this one.

Still, I will give it a chance and try it out.


They have 3 versions-

$95 - A stripped down version that exports proprietary data to Douglas for
them to make your boards for you. Luckily they are pretty good at this and
their charges are reasonable. No printer drivers, but I had no problem
doing a "snapshot" of either layer....!

$395- Same program as above, but with printer and plotter support. (Your
choice who does the boards).

$3000+ A beautiful, hi-res color, surface mount saavy, multilayer
professional package with autorouting.

-Kevin