The Shop > Electronics & IC Programing
Layout software?
Brass_Machine:
well... not so much concerned with designing a board right now as drawing a circuit.
Eric
raynerd:
Eagle for me as well.
There is also a really good one on linux distro that someone was once showing me. forget its name and never used it myself but it looked nice and straight forward when I watched this chap using it for a good half hour.
Chris
sparky961:
Eric,
How complex is the circuit that you're trying to draw out? And why are you needing to draw it out digitally at this point? For the first iteration or two, you're probably better off with a pad of graph paper because you're going to make plenty of revisions.
Depending on the complexity, you may want to play around with it in CircuitMaker (not sure where they're at these days with the software) because then you can do SPICE simulation based on graphical component layout. They have a PCB counterpart (or at least used to) called TraxMaker that can be linked to your circuit design but I never had great success with it.
After a few tries, you should get an idea of the "blocks" in the circuit and can then lay the schematic out that way, and this will to a certain extent also be evident in the PCB. Doing it this way keeps traces short and components with a lot of interconnections end up being closer together so the board doesn't end up having as many jumpers as traces. That reminds me, when you do get around to designing the board I have yet another tip - don't be afraid to put a few jumpers in there. It can really simplify the design and in many cases a single sided board will do the trick just fine.
Can I ask what it is you're designing? No pressure, just curious. :)
-Sparky
Brass_Machine:
--- Quote from: sparky961 on August 31, 2012, 11:47:07 PM ---Eric,
How complex is the circuit that you're trying to draw out? And why are you needing to draw it out digitally at this point? For the first iteration or two, you're probably better off with a pad of graph paper because you're going to make plenty of revisions.
Depending on the complexity, you may want to play around with it in CircuitMaker (not sure where they're at these days with the software) because then you can do SPICE simulation based on graphical component layout. They have a PCB counterpart (or at least used to) called TraxMaker that can be linked to your circuit design but I never had great success with it.
After a few tries, you should get an idea of the "blocks" in the circuit and can then lay the schematic out that way, and this will to a certain extent also be evident in the PCB. Doing it this way keeps traces short and components with a lot of interconnections end up being closer together so the board doesn't end up having as many jumpers as traces. That reminds me, when you do get around to designing the board I have yet another tip - don't be afraid to put a few jumpers in there. It can really simplify the design and in many cases a single sided board will do the trick just fine.
Can I ask what it is you're designing? No pressure, just curious. :)
-Sparky
--- End quote ---
Eh... Can't draw worth a c..p. In my job I do a lot design digitally. I use CAD a lot in my hobbies... Doing it on the PC just seems natural to me.
When I get a little closer to getting this off the ground, I will be doing a post on it. I want to try tackling this one on my own (my way of forcing me to learn electronics)...
Eric
Troutsqueezer:
--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on September 01, 2012, 12:53:37 AM ---Eh... Can't draw worth a c..p. In my job I do a lot design digitally. I use CAD a lot in my hobbies... Doing it on the PC just seems natural to me.
When I get a little closer to getting this off the ground, I will be doing a post on it. I want to try tackling this one on my own (my way of forcing me to learn electronics)...
Eric
--- End quote ---
When you get there, don't be afraid to ask any questions here. You've got some EE's here. I just retired from Intel after many years of dealing with professional schematic capture programs, package and PCB layout programs (nothing I can recommend to you since they were all very expensive).
Dennis
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