Whats your favourite PCB design Software

[darkage]

I've just been testing out a few PCB design packages. I guess ppl on ami forums probably tend to design their own hardware as well, so wondered what software other ppl preferred.

For me so far I like Altium Designer, Diptrace and was starting to like Kicad found it polished but a little buggy here and there.

Prefer sometime clean cut in presentation.. dont like Eagle all that much.

Any budding hardware designers around here?

 

[Zetr0]

For quick (small) 2 layer prototyping I would recommend Eagle - it has nuances but you soon learn them - there's youtubies online if you get stuck

for the full on multilayer - CPLD base prototyping projects then Altium is pretty cool indeed!

 

[darkage]

For quick (small) 2 layer prototyping I would recommend Eagle - it has nuances but you soon learn them - there's youtubies online if you get stuck

for the full on multilayer - CPLD base prototyping projects then Altium is pretty cool indeed!

Yeah Altium is very cool. Has a initial steep learning curve at first but learnt it pretty quick. I guess I was after something a little more initiative.

I got annoyed with Eagle prefer something more clean cut. Kicad looked very promising, I like how you can assign footprints to components rather than have them associated with the library object (some ppl might not like that though) but its not quite there in maturity

I think I've learnt theres no 100% perfect pcb design software, you stick to what fits best to you

 

[Zetr0]

I think I've learnt theres no 100% perfect pcb design software, you stick to what fits best to you

I find that a sheet of A4 or even A3 if I am being particularly creative works a lot quicker than most prototyping software =)

 

[Merlin]

Eagle is the most non-intuitive piece of software I have ever come across. I found it sooo frustrating to use and couldn't get my head around it.

I much prefer PCB Wizard Pro.

 

[darkage]

Yeah glad someone agreed that Eagle was non-intuitive I find it a bit messy, took longer to learn than Altium actually.

I'll try out the PCB Wizard Pro..

Whao Zetr0, old school tape style? :wooha:

 

[Marc]

Anyone have any ideas on MAC PCB software? I have dabbled with Osmond, but dont want to go down the road with it if I've missed a better alternative.

 

[darkage]

@Marc, Give Kicad a go

Still needs improvement but its not half bad.. (cant really speak for the MAC version since its listed as *experimental* yikes!)

http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page