[sdiy] PCB Layout Software?

[Terry Shultz]

Hi Guys,

Check out PCBLIBRARIES.COM and see if this helps at all.

There are paid sites as well, but they go for about $5,000 licenses wise.

Neil is right as going from Pads MPABGA to other tools can be a bit daunting. 

Not everything translates between tool vendors.

Example Orcad/Allegro format beyond 16.2 version changed file format making it difficult to import schematic/layout into Altium 13.x.x

Atium expects an ascii file format I found out. So if you save Orcad file as 16.2 file, it will import into Altium.

Pads DxDesigner files/project can be imported into Altium. I have not tried to import Pads into Orcad.

I just purchased the Altium designer last month for $5,500.00 and so far it seem fine. I also have Protel99SE, Pads 2007.4 and Pads ver. 9.4.

Orcad 16.6 Lite is free btw. But it is limited to a small design size. I installed it to be able to read my Orcad files from Freescale.

Eagle and Kicad and others are unchecked out as we were not allowed at Freescale to use these tools for design, but some guys did use Pads some time back , hence why I have Pads.

I never trust imported files to be correct, I double check myself as I have found that somethings can be in error.

just my 2 cents.

Terry


On Aug 13, 2013, at 4:22 AM, Neil Johnson <neil.johnson71 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Donald Tillman wrote:
>>>> User's needs are going to be wildly diverse, so in practice I think most people will end up building their own libraries anyway, or at least heavily modifying existing symbols and footprints, and so a universal standard library may not be the best goal.
> 
> Tom Wiltshire wrote:
>>> Don makes a good point, 'though I don't agree totally. I made myself a library of "SDIY" parts that you don't find often - CA3080, SSM2164, suff like that. But having standard libraries for parts like 74HC series, voltage regulators, and that kind of thing definitely saves time. I wouldn't expect to have to make my own library for every transistor I put in a board, and I'd expect a decent PCB design package to include a good selection of standard parts in a usable form.
> 
> cheater00 wrote:
>> In addition to that, it's simply not possible to model the parts
>> correctly yourself for 3D renders and spatial compliance testing.
> 
> Having been caught out by errors in CAD vendors libraries I now create
> my own from scratch.  You do carefully check the vendor libs against
> the datasheet and the physical part don't you (in case of errors in
> the datasheet)?
> 
> And I'm not talking at the cheap end either.
> 
> Neil
> --
> http://www.njohnson.co.uk
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