Homebrew PCBs

Hello Group

What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use? I am thinking of 
using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience with this software?

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007 02:17:18 +0100, k6txd <k6txd@...> wrote:

> Hello Group
> What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use? I am thinking of
> using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience with this software?


I use target, and it's surely not the best, but it's damn good for the  
money and does everything i need.
The english version is a crappy translation, i'm told.

ST

"k6txd" <k6txd@...> writes:
> What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use?

I use gEDA and PCB.  They're free, they run on everything, and the
file formats are all open standards (i.e. plain, documented, text
formats).

http://www.geda.seul.org/
http://pcb.sourceforge.net/

--- k6txd <k6txd@...> wrote:

> Hello Group
> 
> What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use?
> I am thinking of 
> using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience
> with this software?
> 
> 
> 
> 
I like eagle cad, but just my on opinion.
mebo ac5mp

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hi,
 I am kind of fond of kicad myself. full featured and
well supported.

Ken

--- k6txd <k6txd@...> wrote:

> Hello Group
> 
> What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use?
> I am thinking of 
> using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience
> with this software?
> 
> 
> 
> 


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Hi,

Do you happen to know whether anyone uses gEDA and PCB to mill 
circuit boards (that is, isolation routing)?

I've mostly been using Eagle so far, and that's the one feature that 
I really like.

Kevin



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:

>
> 
> "k6txd" <k6txd@...> writes:
> > What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use?
> 
> I use gEDA and PCB.  They're free, they run on everything, and the
> file formats are all open standards (i.e. plain, documented, text
> formats).
> 
> http://www.geda.seul.org/
> http://pcb.sourceforge.net/
>

Hello,

There are so many CAD programs out there that you will get many answers. One 
thing to look for is whether they have auto routing if you prefer that and 
whether they can generate the proper files to print or plot your boards.

I also prefer CAD programs that allow both mouse and keyboard movement of 
the cursor too.

One good program I like is Circad98. But the best program is the free one 
that does all you need.


Loren




----Original Message Follows----

From: Ken Ames <kenames99@...>
Reply-To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] pcb cad
Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 21:26:46 -0800 (PST)

hi,
  I am kind of fond of kicad myself. full featured and
well supported.

Ken

--- k6txd <k6txd@...> wrote:

 > Hello Group
 >
 > What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use?
 > I am thinking of
 > using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience
 > with this software?
 >
 >
 >
 >


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"Kevin Morgan" <prizes@...> writes:
> Do you happen to know whether anyone uses gEDA and PCB to mill 
> circuit boards (that is, isolation routing)?

There's someone working on DXF export, which is the first step.  But
if you have something that works from gerbers, pcb can produce those
(duh).

PCB has a plugin interface that lets you add more exporters (or other
functionality[*]) without recompiling pcb itself, so if you know how
to do isolation milling "in general", it should be easy to apply it to
pcb's internal data structure.  We have a polygon clipping module,
too, so you could in theory start with "everything" and clip out all
the copper you want to keep, and use the resulting set of polygons to
drive the cutter.  I'm just guessing on that, since I'm not familiar
with the clipper's internals.

But none of us have mills, so we haven't worked on it yet ;-)

[*] http://www.delorie.com/pcb/ has my RenumberBlock and Teardrops
    plugins, for example.

Pulsonix is excellent, but is a fully-featured professional package and 
probably too expensive for many people. I used Easy-PC for many years and 
can recommend it:

http://www.numberone.com

Leon
--
Leon Heller
Amateur radio call-sign G1HSM
Yaesu FT-817ND transceiver
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle
leon355@...
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller

Hi,

Thanks for the info. This sort of environment might be exactly what 
I'm looking for.

Kevin

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:
>
> 
> "Kevin Morgan" <prizes@...> writes:
> > Do you happen to know whether anyone uses gEDA and PCB to mill 
> > circuit boards (that is, isolation routing)?
> 
> There's someone working on DXF export, which is the first step.  But
> if you have something that works from gerbers, pcb can produce those
> (duh).
> 
> PCB has a plugin interface that lets you add more exporters (or 
other
> functionality[*]) without recompiling pcb itself, so if you know how
> to do isolation milling "in general", it should be easy to apply it 
to
> pcb's internal data structure.  We have a polygon clipping module,
> too, so you could in theory start with "everything" and clip out all
> the copper you want to keep, and use the resulting set of polygons 
to

> drive the cutter.  I'm just guessing on that, since I'm not familiar
> with the clipper's internals.
> 
> But none of us have mills, so we haven't worked on it yet ;-)
> 
> [*] http://www.delorie.com/pcb/ has my RenumberBlock and Teardrops
>     plugins, for example.
>

---------------------
Hello Group

What pcb cad programs the poeple of this group use? I am thinking of
using Target3000! Has anybody have any experience with this software?
---------------------

Hi,
I use freepcb and tinycad (schematic editor).
http://www.freepcb.com/
http://tinycad.sourceforge.net/

The groups are not as active as kicad's, but the learning curve is (in 
my opinion) smoother..

Massimo

"Kevin Morgan" <prizes@...> writes:
> Thanks for the info. This sort of environment might be exactly what 
> I'm looking for.

If you decide to try your hand at a plugin, please feel free to join
the geda-dev mailing list.  That's where we discuss such things.

Massimo De Marchi <maui@...> writes:
> I use freepcb and tinycad (schematic editor).

You know, this is the only forum I've seen where four people can
recommend four competing products, and NOT start a flamewar.  Yay!
Keep up the good work :-)

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:

> You know, this is the only forum I've seen where four people can
> recommend four competing products, and NOT start a flamewar.  Yay!
> Keep up the good work :-)
>

Let's make it five. 

Take a look at Diptrace. One of the most user friendly and easy to 
learn pcb cad programs around. The free version is only limited by a 
250 pin count, rather than size. there is a very active user group on 
Yahoo, and the Stas, the developer usually replies within 24 hours to 
the groups questions.


 www.diptrace.com

Myc

On 10/01/07, mycroft2152 <mycroft2152y@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:
>
>  > You know, this is the only forum I've seen where four people can
>  > recommend four competing products, and NOT start a flamewar.  Yay!
>  > Keep up the good work :-)
>  >
>
>  Let's make it five.
>
>  Take a look at Diptrace. One of the most user friendly and easy to
>  learn pcb cad programs around. The free version is only limited by a
>  250 pin count, rather than size. there is a very active user group on
>  Yahoo, and the Stas, the developer usually replies within 24 hours to
>  the groups questions.

I did my first big board in a day with that, I loved it, very
windows'y as opposed to looking like a dos program trying to work in a
windows world.

What I dont like is you cant save the PCB as a bmp, but apart from
that I love it!

Lez

On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:00:25 +0100, Lez <lez.briddon@...> wrote:

>
> What I dont like is you cant save the PCB as a bmp, but apart from
> that I love it!
> Lez


You can get printer drivers that'll save to picture.

ST

Actually, you can save the pcb as a bmp or jpg file as well as dpi. 
There is an
option box.

There are a lot of great functions built into Diptrace, it just takes 
a little time to learn them all. I usually go throught the process 
of "gee, it would be nice if Diptrace did..." and then discover the 
function is already there.

Myc




--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan" 
<stefan_trethan@...> wrote:

>
> On Thu, 11 Jan 2007 14:00:25 +0100, Lez <lez.briddon@...> wrote:
> 
> >
> > What I dont like is you cant save the PCB as a bmp, but apart from
> > that I love it!
> > Lez
> 
> 
> You can get printer drivers that'll save to picture.
> 
> ST
>

Try FreePCB

www.freepcb.com

It does not have a autorouter, but the person who owns the program is 
writting an interface to a program someone else has so we can get use 
of the free autorouter!

Brian G.

On 11/01/07, Brian Gracia <bgracia1@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Try FreePCB
>
>  www.freepcb.com
>
>  It does not have a autorouter, but the person who owns the program is
>  writting an interface to a program someone else has so we can get use
>  of the free autorouter!
>
>  Brian G.

Will have to have a look when that happens, the autorouter in diptrace
can often be a little dumb, and you can see the obvious answer to
routing a trace when its trying and trying and eventually leaves about
4 traces unrouted, when simple hand editing later fixes it.

Thats on single sided, I only do single sided, on 2 layers its fine
but I think it makes a little too many via's because of it 'not seeing
the answer' on the first layer.

That said, I still love it.


Lez

On 11/01/07, mycroft2152 <mycroft2152y@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Actually, you can save the pcb as a bmp or jpg file as well as dpi.
>  There is an
>  option box.

Maybe I have a different version, I'll go download the latest one.
Lez