[sdiy] Free CAD (was: Proteus software)

[karl dalen]

With Protel/Altium and other higher end software you can
draw free hand both schematics and PCB netlist connect can
be switched on or off at will.

Some tools allow you to draw a PCB and automagically create
a schematic from that.

I often do free hand drawing then turn on netlist when things
get stiff for one reason or other.

Speaking of easy PCB/schematic older versions of protel like 3.1 
98 and 99 are dead simple to use still sufficent modern to do all
kind of things. They support Gerber 273x on export imports HPGL
and DXF. But are a bit weak on the font department.Still very
valuable for the ease of use factor.

Btw, one should not expect inbuilt autorouters to create magic.
Real auto routers cost a fortune , at least they did 10 years ago.

There should be a boat anchor list for dead PCB and schematic softwares!

KD


> 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