[sdiy] Eagle, Proteus, DIPTrace, DesignSpark & Kicad
Robin Whittle
rw at firstpr.com.au
Sun Feb 20 17:17:36 CET 2011
Thanks for this discussion of PCB and schematic programs.
I don't have a particular interest in simulation or 3D modelling. I
would like a PCB program which can place components at arbitrary
angles. This is not essential for current projects, but if I am going
to make the major investment in learning a program, I would be happier
knowing I could place components at any angle.
Ideally the program would run on Linux, but if it is stuck on Windows,
that's OK for me.
I will need to design large boards, so will be paying $1k to $2k for a
commercial program if I don't choose free (beer) DesignSpark or Free
(open-source) Kicad.
I am fussy about the look of schematics. I prefer minimally complex
graphics in schematics. The old (1990 or so) Protel DOS Schematic had
bit-mapped schematic symbols and text which I was perfectly happy with.
I found these pages useful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_EDA_software
http://www.milton.arachsys.com/nj71/index.php?menu=2&submenu=7
My interpretation of the general knowledge and discussion so far:
Eagle http://www.cadsoft.de
Probably does everything I could want to do. Is very
widely used. From all indications, it has a difficult
user interface.
Huge set of user-contributed libraries.
Runs on Linux.
Proteus http://www.labcenter.com
I don't think anyone has reported on it directly.
Clearly a substantial pair of programs - separate
for schematic and PCB. History goes way back to
the late 1980s, I think.
Windows only.
DIPTrace http://www.diptrace.com
Hasn't been mentioned yet. Established 2004:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DipTrace
Windows only.
DesignSpark http://www.designspark.com/pcb
Free of cost, closed source, Windows only, from
RS Components. Written by Number One Systems and so
is presumably very similar to Easy-PC, which has a
long history.
Windows only.
Kicad http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
FOSS - Windows, Linux and MAC. Some people gave
it a good rap. Its a huge project making schematic,
PCB, DRC and autorouter functions to the point where
they are seriously useful.
I downloaded demos. here are some thoughts:
Arbitrary rotation of components (not just 90 degrees)?
Eagle Yes
Proteus Yes
DIPTrace Yes
DesignSpark Yes
Kicad Yes (Double click, user orientation.)
Output of data for automatic assembly? I have no experience in this,
but the Proteus people:
http://www.labcenter.com/products/pcb_overview.cfm
state that ODB++ format is the best. Their Level 2, 2+ and 3 versions
do this, which are $999 and above.
Eagle } I assume the commercial programs do it well.
Proteus }
DIPTrace }
DesignSpark }
Kicad I don't know what to look for, so I can't tell
if it does it well. Kicad's documentation seems
to be minimal and not necessarily up-to-date, though
the eeschema.pdf file is January 2011. I couldn't
find this recent English version on the Net - it is
in the /doc/help/en/ directory.
Schematic aesthetics (entirely my subjective opinions) and export
capabilities.
A vital characteristic of a schematic is that it can look good in
monochrome even with poor print quality and with things packed
reasonably closely together. The more components which can be
fitted on an A4 or A3 sheet, without it looking messy, the better.
Fine-line Helvetian fonts are maybe not as good as small but chunky
dot matrix fonts. These are very preliminary opinions, so don't
take them too seriously.
Eagle I don't like the look - for instance hexapod.sch. Here
is a page with some examples:
http://junzo.sakura.ne.jp/dsp101/dsp101.htm
Schematic export to PNG or clipboard, in any resolution
with colour or monochrome. Examples use box resistors
which I do not use - I like zig-zag resistors, which
I am sure I could use instead.
Proteus I really liked the aesthetics of the PICDEM LCD 2
schematic. Nice zig-zag resistors and all the other
components looked uncluttered, with fonts and all
scaled well. They claim:
http://www.labcenter.com/products/schematic.cfm
to provide extensive control over schematics via
style sheets. So a bunch of already created
schematics could have their display style changed
with a single style sheet file.
The export facility is formidable: Bitmap, Enhanced
Metafile (?), DXF (worked nicely as pure lines when
read into QCad, where individual lines of text could
be moved), EPS (I was able to open it in Adobe
Illustrator and change the line widths), PDF and
HPGL (worked OK imported into Corel Draw 9, which
can save it as .EPS or .AI for Illustrator).
DIPTrace I liked the look of Schematic_1.dch better than
the Eagle look. Although it still uses Helvetian or
the like, it seems more compact, with less extraneous
stuff. Examples had zig-zag resistors, but the angles
of the end zigs were different from those in the
middle.
Schematic export to . . . DXF? It wasn't immediately
obvious to me how to export it to a graphics format.
DesignSpark I *really* disliked the schematic I saw for "Analogue
Circuit.sh". Box resistors, all the components really
big and unattractive with very small text in a font
which was not particularly readable. Settings >
Default did not seem to change the text in the
components or the larger text which where labels.
Schematic export? None - I could only print it.
Kicad I did not like the look of pic_program.sch on screen,
but it looked better when printed in monochrome.
Schematic export: Postscript .PS rendered what I
saw on screen perfectly (as tested with an old Acrobat
Distiller 4.0 to turn it into a PDF). SVG (I didn't
have a program to read it). DXF (looked good in QCad).
HPGL seemed to work OK too.
Since schematic quality is so important to me, , I think this rules
out Design Spark, which I won't consider any further.
PCB display and user interface
Eagle Has a bad reputation for the overall interface. It
looks like all the menu options have keyboard
equivalents. I think this is vital.
There were only 16 fixed colours to choose from: View >
Hide/display layers. This seems very limited. There
were 16 textures too. Surely there's a way of adding
colours, but it wasn't obvious to me how.
Proteus Has configurable keyboard mapping. (System > set
keyboard mapping.) Function keys could be assigned to
any of the hundreds of functions. This configuration
could be exported or imported. This looks really
good, since I would set up my function keys to do what
I want. I didn't see any such thing in Eagle, but
that doesn't mean it can't be done. Eagle has some
kind of internal programming language, so I guess it
is very flexible.
System > Set Display options enables Open GL graphics
which my video card supports, and this enables variable
transparency for: Current, Background, Solder resist
and Solder paste layers. My quickie impression of this
is that this is really helpful.
Layer colour selection involves arbitrary colours. The
internal plotter drive enables arbitrary colours too -
I guess this would affect graphics export, at least
for HPGL.
The same sorts of Graphics Export options exist as for
the Schematic program. Layers can be turned on and
off. I couldn't get the EPS export to be readable in
Photoshop 6.0 or Illustrator 8, but I didn't try very
hard. PDF export seemed to work, but I didn't try
fine-tuning colours.
DIPTrace There are keystroke shortcuts, but I couldn't quickly
see how to change them or assign function keys.
Layers can have arbitrary colours.
Kicad There is a Preferences > Hotkeys menu which enables
any key to be mapped to a list of a few dozen
functions, with export and import.
I couldn't easily find how to change layer colours.
I think all these programs have an autorouter. The only way to find
out how suitable it is is to try it on a real complex project - and
by then months of work have gone into learning the program, setting up
the libraries, creating the schematic and laying out most of the PCB.
My impressions are:
Eagle I guess it can do everything, but it is apparently awkward
- and I couldn't see how to alter its colours. I do not
like its schematics - so this pretty much rules it out.
Proteus Transparency! Seems to be very deep and well thought out.
Schematics looked good to me. Excellent graphic export and
they claim, for the more expensive versions, very good
support for component placement file output.
There appears to be no PDF user manual. However, there is
extensive, well illustrated tutorial and other information
in the Help section. The tutorial section prints out as
51 pages. I would typically print out the entire manual
and annotate the hardcopy.
DIPTrace Might be OK, but there was a lack of graphic export in the
Schematic program.
Kicad I didn't like the schematics much, but it is a very good
deal, since it is freely available open-source and
multi-OS.
Overall, my impression is that the most expensive one - Proteus - is
the most flexible and suited to my needs. Since the time and effort
involved in seriously learning any one of these programs, and creating
libraries and even a single project, is so steep, I aim inclined to
spend the money on the most impressive program, and hope that I don't
run into anything which is a serious limitation or a source of torment
in the years to come.
Proteus provides updates for 6 months. There is some kind of contract
and other prices for keeping a program updated for longer than this,
or upgrading to a later major version. So its not for free, or
inexpensive. However, the cost of investing in a program which
seriously annoyed or limited me would be much higher.
- Robin http://www.firstpr.com.au/rwi/dfish/
More information about the Synth-diy
mailing list