Advice on software for drawing PCB layouts?

[iandy4]

Hi Guys,
After years of building projects on vero board, and single hole board I have decided it's time to get into making proper PCB layouts for some of my better projects.  Does anyone have some advice about which programs to use to design the layout?  Is there anything out there that I could download for free?  There are a lot of tutorials for the actual etching process but I haven't found so much info on programs for designing the layout in the first place.  Thanks in advance!

[iandy4]

Sorry, I shouldn't have started this thread.  I'm getting too lazy to look things up myself because people on this forum are so helpful.  Is expresspcb a good one?

[boogietone]

Pcbexpess works. I believe that it uses it's Own file format. I use diptrace.

[derevaun]

The main drawback of expresspcb is that you can't export your work to any other pcb format. So you can print for etching, or you can upload to expresspcb to manufacture a board, but you can't make files for any different, cheaper board fabricators, and you can't export your work to another free pcb editor (like diptrace or eagle).

I'd try Eagle or Diptrace. They seem to be the prevailing free tools for hobbyists (Eagle especially) and serious, quasi-pro hobbyists (Diptrace especially).

[davent]

Hello,

For many years I've been using ExpressPCB as i have no need to have boards commercially produced, just homemade, mostly one-offs. Program's free, super easy to learn and if i need to do any creative editing, i import the board image into Inkscape and do the beautifying there.  http://www.expresspcb.com/

dave

[R.G.]

There are a lot of tutorials for the actual etching process but I haven't found so much info on programs for designing the layout in the first place.

I wrote a whole book about that. 

To a certain degree, if you don't want to have boards made by a commercial PCB maker, any drawing program will do. If you don't plan to ONLY etch your own, you'll need a program that turns out Gerber format files and NC drill files. ExpressPCB (which is NOT the same as PCB Express) gives you the program free, but makes it substantially impossible to use any other board house by not making Gerber possible. It's OK if you can live within their "three boards for $51 and only 3.8 x 2.4". I learned on Protel systems from way back. Easytrax is free, but a PITA to get working in a Windows machine above 3.1 because of the printer drivers. Advanced PCB from Protel (now Altium) is free I understand, and works in newer version of Windows. There are other free ones, among them KiCAD, GCAD, and a thing from Advanced Circuits called "PCB Artist". I know little about those. There are various pages haggling over the virtues of one versus the others.

[cloudscapes]

I use diptrace with a custom pattern/component group. I like its simplicity.

[toneman]

Check out KiCad.

Open source. And, best of all-------FREE!
Outputs gerber and supposedly will print to toner transfer paper(although I haven't actually done this).

[iandy4]

Thanks Guys!

Lots of programs to check out now!