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

[Donald Tillman]

> On May 13, 2024, at 12:25 PM, mskala at northcoastsynthesis.com wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 13 May 2024, Donald Tillman wrote:
> 
>> I don't see a "tension" between a pretty diagram and a correct netlist.
>>  Features in one are not at the expense of the other.
> 
> Often they are.
> 
> For example, the "power flags" in many Kicad-generated schematics, which
> serve only to tell the electrical rule checker that a given net is a power
> net, are to the detriment of making the schematic look good.  I've also
> added things like screws to a schematic just to make them appear in the
> BOM, or mounting holes to make them appear and be properly linked to the
> right nets on the board, because that was more convenient than doing it
> any other way, even though I would not include these things in a schematic
> intended solely only for display purposes.

Oh sure; that happens all the time.  Simply put that stuff on a separate page.  It's a win-win because it leaves the schematic less cluttered, and it collects all the screws, flags, and knick-knacks together.  

> In the other direction, a
> schematic meant for humans to read would preferably include notes, voltage
> readings, waveforms, and so on, which may be difficult to add in a
> schematic capture program that only really has feature support for things
> that will affect the netlist because that's all it's designed to create.

Yoiks!  Not being able to include notes, instructions, voltages, waveforms, or other non-netlist elements would be unprofessional.  That would be dealbreaker for me.

> For instance, Kicad comes with a lot of
> third-party libraries and users expect to use those.  Some of the symbols
> in those libraries look bad; and others look okay by themselves but are
> drawn to a different scale from symbols in other libraries, so that two
> symbols from different libraries next to each other will clash.

Yes, libraries are an issue.  Always.

If you care you pretty much have to do your own.  Sizes, spacing, naming conventions, attributes, part numbers, values, package options, multiples, unusual parts, etc.  Consistency is important.  And available libraries are unlikely to fit your needs.

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