ISO free PCB design software

[mudandsnow]

Any recommendations?

 

[mcgyvr]

For professional use?

I use Diptrace

http://diptrace.com

They have "free" (non-profit use only) and paid versions (well worth the small cost)

Kicad is another commonly recommended (open source/free)

http://kicad-pcb.org/

 

[mudandsnow]

Thanks mcgyvr. This is mainly just for a few little school projects but I might also want to use it when I go back to work, if it works with files I made in altium. I'm guessing that's unlikely so I'll probably just buy altium at that point.

 

[mcgyvr]

I haven't used Kicad yet but many like it..
I found Diptrace really easy to learn/get up and going and I bought it and use it at work.. (Altium,etc.. are just too costly/feature rich for my needs) but so far Diptrace has done everything I need of it and more.
But most if not all PCB programs don't transfer from one to the other easily if at all..

 

[itsmoked]

The two mcgyvr suggest are the only two likely worth your time.
There is also Eagle which is free for miniscule size boards.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[benta]

What do you mean by "ISO".
I may have missed something here, I'm still stuck with PADS-PCB netlists and Gerber output.

Benta.

 

[mudandsnow]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to try Kicad since it's freeer.

Benta, I guess this meaning of ISO doesn't really fit in this forum but in this case it meant 'in search of'.

 

[benta]

OK, ISO is "in search of", not some standard from the ISO organization. Avoiding acronyms improves communication.

Apart from that, I've been using FreePCB for the last 8 years.
It's free, open source and works very well and is quite easy to use. Nothing much has happened since 2011, but it's stable and I haven't run into any bugs yet.
It needs a PADS netlist as input. Component editor is also included, but the supplied library is quite large.

http://www.freepcb.com/

Cheers,

Benta.

 

[mudandsnow]

I saw an ad for freePCB on facebook. Looks like they give pretty good student deals for small batches of PCB builds. I'll probably get some PCBs built by them.

Tried out Kicad this weekend. Fairly easy to pick up and nice little bonus is that it has template PCBs for Arduino etc.

 

[mcgyvr]

If you are looking to get some boards made I would highly recommend itead

https://www.itead.cc/open-pcb/pcb-prototyping.html

best pricing I've found and quality is excellent..

 

[itsmoked]

I concur with that.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[djs]

In the Linux world there is a free design suite, I don't recall then name right off hand. Includes schematic editor, PCB software etc.

 

[mcgyvr]

In the Linux world there is a free design suite, I don't recall then name right off hand. Includes schematic editor, PCB software etc.

Thats kicad.. possibly gEDA

 

[djs]

gEDA. I used the chain to design and build a pool chemical controller.

 

[rajgumstix]

@mudandsnow, have you looked at Geppetto from Gumstix? It is a different take on PCB design: Free-to-use, intuitive, web-based UI, no routing and boards arrive in 15 business days. Geppetto has been awarded Best of 2015 by Electronic Design.

 

[Skogsgurra]

I got interested in DipTrace and it feels extremely competent at that price. But I don't feel competent at all - can't enter greek letters (like omega, for ohms). The character set is TrueType, so Unicode doesn't work. Must be simple, this. But not to me...

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

If it's TrueType, can you replace the font it uses?

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Skogsgurra]

Not sure about that - waiting for some more input. There must be a standard way of defining resistor values, but it escaped me.
In the meanwhle, I like DipTrace more and more. Had to create an old metric DIN 41617 board connector and fit metric dimensions to the .1" grid of the PCB. Everything worked like a dream.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[badservo]

Copied this from page 25 of [Link www.diptrace.com/books/tutorial.pdf]www.diptrace.com/books/tutorial.pdf[/url]

Now we will add resistance values "10kΩ " for all resistors on this schematic. Since "Ω " is a Unicode
character, it doesn't work in vector fonts, which are set by default in DipTrace. We need to activate
TrueType font for part marking in order to use Unicode characters. Go to "View \ Part Marking Font \ TrueType". Since TrueType characters look a bit different from Vector on the design area,
you might need to change font size. We made it a little bit bigger.

Now select all resistors then right click on one of them and select "Properties" from the submenu.
Select "Main" tab and type "47 kΩ" into "Value" field. Click on "Markings" Tab and specify "Main
Marking \ Show \ Value", then go to "Additional Marking \ Show \ RefDes" and click "OK".

 

[Skogsgurra]

Yes, that is also on page 25 in my manual. Just below the picture with the schematics. That is actually what I tried to - and don't understand how to do. Have you been able to do that? How? Please.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.