Hi Guys,
I mainly work in a design support role in a predominantly MCAD environment. I have just finished transitioning from a PRO/E & CATIA to a SOLIDWORKS only role. My new SOLIDWORKS license bundle gives me access to SOLIDWORKSs CIRCUITWORKS add-in so I am keen to give the whole ECAD caper a shot.
Im not about to sink a whole lot of capital into something like ALTIUM, Protius or one of the high-end, "big boy" ECAD suites but I have been eyeing off KiCAD as an open source comprehensive bundle that still gives me Hierarchical circuit design, spice simulation as well as PCB design with some sort of auto-routing or auto track generating functionality. It appears to have a comprehensive library of semiconductors and editing or adding to the parts library is also facilitated. Good quality 3D CAD models also appear to be very doable for integration into downstream mechanical assemblies. Could be just the ticket for making up virtual designs from the ground up for my next Audio project. The best thing is that virtual components and virtual PCB's dont cost anything to make
As my background is from the mechanical engineering / manufacturing & product development side of things Im curious to see what you specialist electronics design guys would typically use and whats the go for integrating MCAD and ECAD on a budget ... (obviously open source and/or free-ware is way to go).
LPSPinner.
PS: heres some CAD renderings of a little phono preamp Ive been playing with at the moment. Making up the PCB assembly in SOLIDWORKS was a bit of a fiddle and at the moment there is no design intelligence in the model of the PCB other the packaging geometry. The case on the other hand has all the sheet metal information, Unfolded sheet blank geometry and the front facia will be 3D printed on a fancy HiRes 3D Printer that I am soon to have access to.
I mainly work in a design support role in a predominantly MCAD environment. I have just finished transitioning from a PRO/E & CATIA to a SOLIDWORKS only role. My new SOLIDWORKS license bundle gives me access to SOLIDWORKSs CIRCUITWORKS add-in so I am keen to give the whole ECAD caper a shot.
Im not about to sink a whole lot of capital into something like ALTIUM, Protius or one of the high-end, "big boy" ECAD suites but I have been eyeing off KiCAD as an open source comprehensive bundle that still gives me Hierarchical circuit design, spice simulation as well as PCB design with some sort of auto-routing or auto track generating functionality. It appears to have a comprehensive library of semiconductors and editing or adding to the parts library is also facilitated. Good quality 3D CAD models also appear to be very doable for integration into downstream mechanical assemblies. Could be just the ticket for making up virtual designs from the ground up for my next Audio project. The best thing is that virtual components and virtual PCB's dont cost anything to make
As my background is from the mechanical engineering / manufacturing & product development side of things Im curious to see what you specialist electronics design guys would typically use and whats the go for integrating MCAD and ECAD on a budget ... (obviously open source and/or free-ware is way to go).
LPSPinner.
PS: heres some CAD renderings of a little phono preamp Ive been playing with at the moment. Making up the PCB assembly in SOLIDWORKS was a bit of a fiddle and at the moment there is no design intelligence in the model of the PCB other the packaging geometry. The case on the other hand has all the sheet metal information, Unfolded sheet blank geometry and the front facia will be 3D printed on a fancy HiRes 3D Printer that I am soon to have access to.