[sdiy] What's the best freeware schematic capture and PCB layout software

[Donald Tillman]

Hi Dana,

I'll suggest just photographing them, and tweaking the brightness-level curves for readability. 

Transcribing them to a CAD package might be error prone, a lot of work, and dependent on parts libraries.  And photographs preserve the historical context and all.

I'm sure folks here will provide all sorts of recommendations based on their experiences... 

One metric I would use is: Can it produce publication quality art?  Because I care a lot about that.

I use the Gnu gEDA gschem package, with my own parts libraries, and it can provide publication quality art.

(I've never seen a KiCad schematic that doesn't look like crap.  But hey, I'm persuadable; maybe someone has a counterexample.)

  -- Don
--
Donald Tillman, Palo Alto, California
https://www.till.com

> On May 12, 2024, at 1:39 PM, <tamedogs at wildcats.com> <tamedogs at wildcats.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> I have a number of 45 year old blue line schematics that I want to capture on the computer before they disintegrate or fade away entirely from age.
> Using search engine, I see a number of freeware schematic and PCB layout packages available.
> Is the any consensus here as to what is the best software to use?
>  
> I downloaded the first package I came across (KiCad). I wonder if something else might be better.
> Any thoughts?
>  
> Dana
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