Free Schematic Drawing Programs?

[jorgen.bergfors at idg.se]

Hi Martin
I use version 8. From version 6 the precision was improved a lot. That's 
because they went from 16 bit to 32 bit coordinates.
I doesn't have rubber wires and snap to pin pe se, but if you use snap to grid 
with a grid of 0,5 mm everything snaps to where it should. It has snap to 
objects, but I think snap to grid works best. Then you always get lines that 
are truly horisontal or vertical, without any effort. As long as you design 
your symbols on the same grid, everything line up perfectly. I designed my 
sybols to look exactly like in Elektor magazine, so all schemos that I make 
look like they are taken from Elektor.
By the way I also use Corel Draw for making circuit boards. The routing of 
course is completely manual then. Bu with typical analog circuitry the routing 
of the traces isn't difficult. Actually I think it's rather enjoyable. It's a 
bit like playing Solitaire, to optimise the layout by hand.
The advantage with using Corel Draw for circuit boards is that you can let a 
service bureau typeset it on film. That film can be used directly for exposing 
the photoresist.

/Jorgen





MIME:martin.czech at intermetall.de on 98-08-11 09.27.39
To:  Jorgen Bergfors at IDGSE
cc:  
Subject: Re: Free Schematic Drawing Programs? 

Of course you can draw. But I don't know if there are things like 
"rubber
wires" and "snap to pin". I aggree with you, that a complete CAD package
is far too complicated for our purposes. To much organasation.


What is the actual version you use? Version 6.0 was very cheap for sale
here. At the moment I have 3.0, and the most negative aspect is
that the grid can't be finer than 0.2 mm or so, which is a hoax.
What grid resolution does a more modern version have ?


m.c.