DIY Layout Creator - software for easy drawing PCB, vero and perfboard layouts

brad · May 06, 2006, 06:57:54 PM

Not sure why you'd want an IC running horizontally along the tracks

bancika · May 06, 2006, 07:13:28 PM

Well, it's useless for vero but not for perfboard...you can put horizontal ICs there.
I finally finished all components I planned to make for now. If you think I should add some let me know. I also redesigned them a little.
As for scroll, I reied but it's hard thing to do (believe it or not), so I added two little arrows on the bottom. When you click on it, that menu panel or explorer slides out to give more space if needed. With that you can easily make boards up to 40 holes wide on 1024x768px monitor.

Peter Snowberg · May 06, 2006, 07:37:09 PM

Absolutely fantastic!

One suggestion for an additional component would be an 8 pin inline chip package. They're less common but I think they complement tight layouts and vero quite well.

bancika · May 07, 2006, 11:41:31 AM

Good idea, will do it

not only for 8 pin, as other components it will be determined with first and last pin

JimRayden · May 07, 2006, 01:50:42 PM

Quote from: lchyi on May 06, 2006, 06:42:39 PM
Sweet piece of work!

Anyway, a suggestion for me is to enlarge the radius where you can click. Instead of a tiny circle, can you make it a square grid so that the user can just hover "around" the point and click? That'd make things a lot easier for me b/c I always seem to miss the points with my clumsy mouse hands.

I second that.

Oh, and don't forget trimpots too.

Lookin' great thus far!

-----------
Jimbo

Connoisseur of Distortion · May 07, 2006, 02:53:55 PM

i second the request for a bigger hole to select... maybe make the whole pad a button?

rockgardenlove · May 07, 2006, 03:11:33 PM

^I agree too.

I'd like trimpots though too...might that be possible?

mac · May 07, 2006, 04:44:18 PM

Quote from: bancika on May 05, 2006, 05:14:28 PM
It doesn't need startup screen at the moment because it loads very fast (less than a second).
and Mac, if you think it's easy to convert to mac I'll send you code, so you translate it. At the moment it has 1100 lines, so good luck

... If only I had the time I will ...

I was serious about that. I'm a mac user since 85, have a lot of experience on physical simulations, so 1100 lines is something I would expect from a project like this.

mac

bancika · May 07, 2006, 07:45:13 PM

It's more than 1500 now

I'll put trimpots and make pads bigger

tommy.genes · May 08, 2006, 09:16:16 AM

This is shaping up quite nicely, but I do have one more comment.

It is sometimes necessary to locate trace cuts or jumpers underneath components, especially ICs. I tested and wasn't able to do that in your last posted version.

-- T. G. --

bancika · May 08, 2006, 10:22:17 AM

well, trace cuts are drawn above all other components, so there's no problem with them. as for jumpers I don't know

cab42 · May 08, 2006, 02:34:01 PM

Bancika,

I'm very impressed. I have followed this thread but haven't been able to try until today. Delphi rules

Quote from: bancika on May 06, 2006, 05:28:21 AM
Thanks
I'll think about that. What about this: "connection test" which will for given two holes test and if they are connected it should highlight signal path. This isn't what you guys ask for, but it should speed up verification and not so hard to do

This feature would be extremely cool. A variation could be a node checker. Click on a component in the vero layout and highlight (or list) which components are connected . This is how I manually check my layouts.

Regards

Carsten

bancika · May 08, 2006, 03:00:02 PM

great idea, worth thinking

tommy.genes · May 08, 2006, 04:54:24 PM

Quote from: bancika on May 08, 2006, 10:22:17 AM
well, trace cuts are drawn above all other components, so there's no problem with them. as for jumpers I don't know

I just tested again. The easy "work-around" is to put the trace cuts down first, then whatever component over top. The trace cut stays on top as you say, so you can still see it. I was trying to put a trace cut under a component that was already in place before, which is why I was having trouble.

[edit] Works with jumpers too. [/edit]

-- T. G. --

rockgardenlove · May 10, 2006, 03:36:57 AM

So, any possibility of a PCB designer...? It would be nice to be able to start with just a blank area(with snap to dots) and then be able to draw your own traces and then put the components on...that would be very cool

bancika · May 10, 2006, 05:19:42 AM

Well, I've been thinking about it also. See, the main point is to make unique drawing/saving/designing system for all board types. The only difference with PCB would be adding traces and solder pads. Traces would be the same as jumpers just thicker. And pads would be new component. I think it's feasible

Why not

bancika · May 10, 2006, 10:00:44 AM

You mean something like this?

I'll make it hide some components that are not used with certain layouts (trace cut with perf and pcb, trace with vero, etc)

hairyandy · May 10, 2006, 10:15:56 AM

That's looking awesome Bancika! Could you please post a link to the lastest version, if you have one compiled of course.

JimRayden · May 10, 2006, 10:25:20 AM

Wow, PCB support too! Great! This is coming along nicer and faster than I would have thought.

One should be able to create a trace "knee" (a 90-degree turn) without a solder pad. And of course use the same point-to-point system as with components and jumpers. Hmm, a modifiabler solder pad size and trace width would be excellent too.

------------
Jimbo

Xavier · May 10, 2006, 10:31:42 AM

Whoa, I didn't see this thread before.

Bancika, it looks great !!!!

I have tried the last compiled version, and so far it's a great piece of software !!! I expect to see quite a few more vero layouts from now on .....

Keep up the good work please.

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DIY Layout Creator - software for easy drawing PCB, vero and perfboard layouts

brad