Free PCB Software

[Marion]

Anybody tried the free PCB software from CADSTAR World ??

www.cadstarworld.com/express

I have downloaded it, but have not tried it yet.

[Malc C]

well now you have downloaded it, how about you try it and let us all know your thoughts ;) :)

[crossup]

without the libraries for symbols, footprint etc it will of limited use.... :rolleyes:

[Marion]

Yes, without the liberaries it wil not be of much use. I had not realized it didn't have the liberaries. Surely they are not offering it without some hobbiest (free) way to get the liberaries. Are they ??

:confused:

[MAVA]

Here is a simple and effective one with lots of components.

The learning curve is fast.

http://www.expresspcb.com/

The best thing is it cost "Free-99"...

Martin

[Art Horne]

An excellent freebie is Eagle at www.cadsoftusa.com. If your board size is small it is completely unrestricted in what it can do, including the autorouter.
Regards,
Art

[mluniewicz]

I use Eagle as well and have been very happy with it. Although I haven't done any huge projects, I've not run into the board size limitation, and I've found pretty much everything I needed in the included libraries.

- matt

[Norman Adlam]

Eagle is brill!

Easiest to use, free (for small projects), and produces 'reasonable' results. :D

Gets my vote!

Cheers,

[crossup]

What version of freeware Eagle are you guys running? "Light" version says Autorouter not available in trial version or something to that effect

[Malc C]

4.13 - auto routes the birdsnest no problems !!

[Comatose]

4.09 and 4.11 both autoroute in the free version as well.

[chaitanya]

and.. if u wanna convert the *.brd files in eagle to Gerber (RS274-X) files with NC drill files, try the E2 converter for 2 sided and E4 for 4 sided boards at http://www.pcbexpress.com/technical/tips.php#conv
download the scripts bundle zip file
also pentalogix-Viewmate is good free software to view the gerber files

[ZAGNUT]

exprespcb is very easy to use but ended up annoying me...so i took a few minutes to read through the eagle instructions and now it too is easy and far more capable as well.


dave

[crossup]

While Eagle is pretty much as described above, I also find it is pretty poorly coded. Doing things like changing the grid size after you've made something..last nite it was stairstepping on me when I changed the grid..
I'm not saying it doesnt work, rather you have to operate it precisely, not freestyle. Also alot of it is not very intuitive. The error handling just plain SUCKS!
referring the user to the Help file without telling them what they are looking for is not very bright. So for free or $49 for the Light version its pretty nice, but for $500 per module I find standard Eagle far short of most commercial offering in terms of quality.