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Advice on best free PCB design software

O

OzBrit Audio

pfm Member
Hello all

For those who do their own PCB design I am looking on the best/easiest to use freeware for designing a PCB layout and then sending onto a PCB manufacturer. My requirements are for a fairly simple linear power supply design - nothing terribly complicated. All through the hole components

In an ideal world what I would like the software to do

1. Circuit design with the ability to specify each component type so when I get the software to design the layout it puts the holes with the right spacing for my component choice.
2. Ability to manually change the track width and placement
3. Preferable MAC software but I can also run windows so I guess either platform is ok.

Any good links on the web to beginners guide to all this would be very useful too. And any recommendations for board manufacturers?

All comments gratefully appreciated

Cheers
 
Good Morning,

I used to use EagleCad which was more then adequate for what I needed. I was using PCBCart out in China as they weren't charging the 'silly' prices I found UK suppliers wanted (although circumstances may have changed).

Regards

Richard
 
KiCAD has a bit of a learning curve but is excellent. The best way to learn really is to have to use it, I redesigned several PCBs last summer and built my own active crossover, it was very satisfying.
I used both PCBWay and JLCPCB. Not much between them in price but PCBWay had the edge on quality and both delivered within a couple of weeks.
 
KiCAD is probably the best free PCB design software available today. It's not without a few quirks (nothing is), but once you get the hang of it, it's quite capable.

For manufacturing, I've used OSH Park (USA) and Aisler (Europe). Both support KiCAD files directly, so there's no need to mess around with Gerber files. OSH Park has slightly better quality and more options (including 6-layer boards), but they're also a little more expensive.
 
I downloaded KiCAD
MJS said:
KiCAD has a bit of a learning curve but is excellent. The best way to learn really is to have to use it, I redesigned several PCBs last summer and built my own active crossover, it was very satisfying.
I used both PCBWay and JLCPCB. Not much between them in price but PCBWay had the edge on quality and both delivered within a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
I downloaded KiCAD and functionality looks very impressive for free software
However starting with the schematic drawer and say I was drawing the schematic for a NAP/Avondale design where would I find all the symbols for the parts used for example MJ15003/MJ15004. Do I have to create my own symbols if they are not in the list. Or are there other libraries I can download?
Cheers
 
If the exact part is not in he library, use a generic NPN/PNP instead. Filter the lib for "NPN" or "PNP". There will be lots of choices so you should be able to find one with the correct pin assignment, e.g. "BCE". You can Edit the part number in the schema editor and assign the appropriate footprint when you get to that stage.
 
OzBrit Audio said:
I downloaded KiCAD

I downloaded KiCAD and functionality looks very impressive for free software
However starting with the schematic drawer and say I was drawing the schematic for a NAP/Avondale design where would I find all the symbols for the parts used for example MJ15003/MJ15004. Do I have to create my own symbols if they are not in the list. Or are there other libraries I can download?
Cheers
Click to expand...


Quickest way is to put a standard device which it has like 2N3055/2N2955 go into library edit mode then save as MJ15003/MJ15004. Takes a couple of minutes once you are used to it. The standard libraries are usually write locked, so create your own local library on a local drive or better still something like Dropbox.
 
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