Re: PCB CAD Options (was: Re: Is it at all possible?)

From: Leif Bloomquist <leif_at_schemafactor.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2017 11:05:52 -0500
Message-ID: <CAOTCz+HH4wXa4PYs3OgPSAd3z=j8k4oZU7mxbjXpHnMjk_exSg@mail.gmail.com>
I'd like to chime in with a "third option" for PCB CAD:  Fritzing.

http://fritzing.org/home/

It's not nearly as full-featured as KiCad, Eagle, etc, but it has a
lot going for it:

-Totally free, open source, unlimited board sizes
-Very easy to learn - I picked it up in an evening
-Seamless forward/back annotations - PCB and schematic are
continuously synchronized automatically
-There's also a "breadboard view" that is synced with your PCB and
schematic.  Kind of a gimmick, but good for tutorials (Sparkfun uses
it for this)
-Integrated code editor
-Single integrated tool
-Multiplatform

There are some drawbacks of course:

-Making your own parts is rather painful
-Only does 2 layers
-Not frequently updated
-Part library is limited

It also has an autorouter, which works reasonably though probably not
as advanced as in other tools (I haven't compared)

Worth looking at if you're a beginner/casual hobbyist/maker .

Cheers,
-Leif









On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 7:06 AM, Per Olofsson <magervalp@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017, at 04:20 AM, silverdr@wfmh.org.pl wrote:
>>
>> Do you mean
>> something like "if even autorouter can route this layout then this layout
>> is better than the other one I tried before"?
>
> Yeah, kind of. I expect the autorouter to either fail, or do a crappy
> job - it's more about how bad a job it does. E.g. if I rotate this chip,
> does it get better or worse? If I straddle this DIP chip across that
> connector, does it go haywire? I could spend an hour trying to route it
> myself, or I can get feedback from the autorouter in 30 seconds. If I
> was more experienced I'm sure I'd have more of a feel for it, but as an
> amateur it's a great crutch to lean on.
>
> --
>   Per Olofsson
>   magervalp@fastmail.fm
>
>        Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list

       Message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list
Received on 2017-02-15 17:00:03

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