[sdiy] Free CAD (was: Proteus software)

[Tim Parkhurst]

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 9:46 AM, Jay Schwichtenberg <jays at aracnet.com> wrote:
> There are a couple more things out there for the PC. TinyCAD and FreePCB. I
> played with them and they didn't seem all that bad and there are Yahoo
> groups for support.
>
> One thing that bugs me about a number of the PCB programs out there is that
> they work from schematics. If you want to just draw up a PCB they become a
> real pain. They require you to manually build a 'node list' for the board as
> you go.
>
> Jay S.
>

Although it's a bit of a pain, that is how "real" PCB layout programs
work. The advantage to this is that the layout portion of the program
will compare the tracks you are laying out to the netlist, and will
not allow you to make a bad connection (i.e., one that doesn't exist
in the schematics). You can also run a check to make sure you haven't
missed any connections. It's not 100% bulletproof, but if your
schematic is correct, then your PCB layout should be too.

If you're looking for a program where you can simply draw up a PCB
without having to go through all this, you can get great results from
AutoCAD or CorelDraw. The problem there is that you no longer have
automatic checking of PCB tracks vs. schematic/netlist.


Tim (nutlist) Servo
-- 
"Sire, the church of God is an anvil that has worn out many hammers."
- H.L. Hastings