Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Several months ago I was looking for a PCB design and layout software
package. I wanted to draw the schematic and lay out the PCB. A
friend at work told me about CadSoft Eagle. I found that they had a
freeware version so I got it.

I went through the tutorial several times and started to create my
schematic. Right off the bat I found that most of the components I
was using were not in the supplied libraries. At least, I could not
find them. I went to work creating the devices in a new library.
The supplied tutorial did not give enough information to create the
devices. A search of the internet found a small tutorial
specifically on creating devices. I then was able to create the
devices in my new library.

I was able to muddle through the process and finally got my schematic
and PCB completed. It seemed to be an uphill battle all the way. It
seemed that few of the processes in Eagle are intuitive at all but
rather some obscure method that is difficult to discover and equally
difficult to remember.

I then went on to my second project which needed a larger circuit
board. It wouldn't fit within the constraints of Eagle freeware
version, so I started looking for another software package and found
DipTrace.

As with Eagle, DipTrace comes with a tutorial and libraries. I went
through the tutorial and while reading, realized that the processes
and techniques in DipTrace seemed very intuitive in nature. Quite
different from Eagle. I then started on my project. I was amazed at
the size of the supplied libraries. I found all but a couple of my
components in the supplied libraries. For the few components I could
not find, it was easy to create them in DipTrace.

Comparing DipTrace to Eagle is like comparing night and day. Going
from point A to point B can be done in both, but the trip is so-o-o
much easier in DipTrace.

Help with DipTrace is also very readilly available. They've got a
yahoo group called 'diptr'. The DipTrace staff is very involved with
all of the discussions on the group and you get quick answers to all
of your questions.

My bottom line is:
If you're looking for PCB software, give DipTrace a try.
If you use Eagle, give DipTrace a try.
If you're fed up with Eagle, give DipTrace a try.

Have a Great day.

Jim