How do I draw a schematic with a computer?

[Electronic Technician]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Uwe Bonnes]

: I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
: I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
: print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
: Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
: dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
: page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
: I am using Windows 2000.

: Does anyone have any suggestions?

www.cadsoft.de is one point to start

 

[Don Lancaster]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

My Gonzo utilities do exceptionally high quality schematics, especially
DIP packages.

They are free but there is a steep learning curve.

http://www.tinaja.com/post01.asp

--
Many thanks,

Don Lancaster
Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552
voice: (928)428-4073 email: [email protected]

Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com

 

[Boris Mohar]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Is your schematic ever going to became a PC board? If the answer is yes
than consider that whoever is laying out the board will need a netlist in
the format the they can use. This means that your schematic drawing program
should be capable of netlisting. I often get schematics that were drawn
with "if all you got is a hammer then the whole world looks like a nail"
tools. The latest one that I am redrawing was originally drawn in Excel of
all things. Looked pretty good to but no netlist.




Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see:
Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs http://www3.sympatico.ca/borism/

void _-void-_ in the obvious place

 

[Jem Berkes]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing

schematics. I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw
schematics and print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for
simple and easy to learn. Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to
pay up to a couple of hundred dollars. The ability to make a .png or
.jpeg that I can put on a web page or in a Word document would be a
plus, but I can live without it. I am using Windows 2000.

Could I tack on a question to this, for hobby stuff I've been making simple
printed circuit board layouts using pencil and paper, pretty much single-
sided so nothing that fancy.

Anyone know of good software for making PCB layouts, something with pads
and IC sockets etc. already in its library?

 

[Glenn Ashmore]

Check out Cadsoftusa.com. It has schematic editor, pretty decent parts
libraries, board layout, BOM, auto routing and Gerber generation. You
can print masks to etch your own or send the Gerbers off to a board
house. The only restriction on the free version is 2 layers and 3"x4"
card size. It is surprising how much stuff you can cram into 3x4" but
if you need more room the non-profit version sells for $125 and gives 4
layers and twice the acreage.

It takes a little work to get proficient but the free support forum is
pretty good.

Could I tack on a question to this, for hobby stuff I've been making simple
printed circuit board layouts using pencil and paper, pretty much single-
sided so nothing that fancy.

Anyone know of good software for making PCB layouts, something with pads
and IC sockets etc. already in its library?

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

 

[Guy Macon]

----------------------------------------

www.cadsoft.de is one point to start

----------------------------------------

Check out Cadsoftusa.com. It has schematic editor, pretty decent parts
libraries, board layout, BOM, auto routing and Gerber generation. You
can print masks to etch your own or send the Gerbers off to a board
house. The only restriction on the free version is 2 layers and 3"x4"
card size. It is surprising how much stuff you can cram into 3x4" but
if you need more room the non-profit version sells for $125 and gives 4
layers and twice the acreage.

It takes a little work to get proficient but the free support forum is
pretty good.

----------------------------------------

Please note that these two posts are recommending the same program;
The EAGLE Layout Editor.

The nice thing about Eagle is that you can get a lot of work done
with the free version and not have to shell out any money until your
boards and schematics get so large that the price of the software is
small compared to the price of your time.

I would stay away from Don Lancaster's Gonzo.PS utilities.
They are what I would call a "put *anything* on paper" set
of tools, and of course "anything" includes schematics, but
they don't meet your "Nothing fancy - simple and easy to
learn" requirement.

Another alternative (but one that I don't recommend) is dia.
See [ http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/ ]. Dia is a free
program that runs under Linux and Windows, and it's a lot like
Microsoft Visio. I don't think it's a good choice, because it
just makes schematics, and you will have to throw out everything
you learned and get another program when you get to the point
where you are making netlists or board layouts.

 

[Chaos Master]

Quoting Electronic Technician[[email protected]] in sci.electronics.design at Mon, 09
Feb 2004 15:06:18 -0800:

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

With an schematics editor program.

Some I can remember right now:

EAGLE. www.cadsoft.de -> cheap. excellent program IMHO.
gEDA. don't remember the link but Google will give results. -> free (open source)
PSpice. www.pspice.com (IIRC) -> expensive, includes simulation tools.

 

[Guy Macon]

EAGLE. www.cadsoft.de -> cheap. excellent program IMHO.

Also see [ http://www.cadsoftusa.com ]. BTW, B2 Spice adds
simulation to Eagle. See [ http://www.beigebag.com/eagle.htm ].
I haven't tried B2 Spice but it looks good on the web site.
Then again, lots of bad software looks good on the web site...

gEDA. don't remember the link but Google will give results. -> free (open source)

It's at [ http://www.geda.seul.org/ ]. Alas, it doesn't meet
the "I need a simple Windows program - I am using Windows 2000"
requirement. gEDA is Linux/UNIX only.

PSpice. www.pspice.com (IIRC) -> expensive, includes simulation tools.

They got bought by OrCad: http://www.orcadpcb.com/pspice/default.asp?

OrCad used to be the best in the DOS days, but I gave up on them
when they came out with Windows versions that were very bad indeed.
I tried to autoroute the simplest circuit I could think of - a
resistor and capacitor in parallel. The OrCad autorouter used 27
vias to get the job done after running for over five minutes.
(They may have improved a lot since then, but I don't trust a
company with management that allows something like that to ship.)

 

[Anand Dhuru]

Hi,

Yes; Eagle from Cadsoft can export to clip-board, enabling to use the
output in any Windows application.

And, the lite version is free!

Regards,

Anand Dhuru

 

[qrk]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

LTspice is free and comes with a schematic editor. If you do analog
stuff, you get a very capable Spice simulator. It can export a handful
of netlist flavors.

http://www.linear-tech.com/software/

Mark

 

[Ben Bradley]

PSpice. www.pspice.com (IIRC) -> expensive, includes simulation tools.

They (orcad who bought pcpice) used to have, as of a year or two
ago, a "student version" of pspice available with which you could draw
a schematic of up to 50 components. I did a cursory look but didn't
see it. Is it not still available? I'm still using it for small
schematics at home, I've always liked Pspice's schematic editor.

 

[Active8]

On Mon, 09 Feb 2004 20:04:02 -0800, Guy Macon

EAGLE. www.cadsoft.de -> cheap. excellent program IMHO.

Also see [ http://www.cadsoftusa.com ]. BTW, B2 Spice adds
simulation to Eagle.

So does Spice Opus and it's free.

See [ http://www.beigebag.com/eagle.htm ].
I haven't tried B2 Spice but it looks good on the web site.
Then again, lots of bad software looks good on the web site...

gEDA. don't remember the link but Google will give results. -> free (open source)

It's at [ http://www.geda.seul.org/ ]. Alas, it doesn't meet
the "I need a simple Windows program - I am using Windows 2000"
requirement. gEDA is Linux/UNIX only.

PSpice. www.pspice.com (IIRC) -> expensive, includes simulation tools.

They got bought by OrCad: http://www.orcadpcb.com/pspice/default.asp?

OrCad used to be the best in the DOS days, but I gave up on them
when they came out with Windows versions that were very bad indeed.
I tried to autoroute the simplest circuit I could think of - a
resistor and capacitor in parallel. The OrCad autorouter used 27
vias to get the job done after running for over five minutes.
(They may have improved a lot since then, but I don't trust a
company with management that allows something like that to ship.)

 

[Bill Sloman]

: I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
: I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
: print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
: Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
: dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
: page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
: I am using Windows 2000.

: Does anyone have any suggestions?

www.cadsoft.de is one point to start

Terry Pinnel's list of cheap and free programs is probably a better starting point

http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/ECADList.html

It includes the gEDA adn PCB packages that runs under Linux.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Could I tack on a question to this, for hobby stuff I've been making simple
printed circuit board layouts using pencil and paper, pretty much single-
sided so nothing that fancy.

Anyone know of good software for making PCB layouts, something with pads
and IC sockets etc. already in its library?

I use Circuitmaker for schematics. Its sister program for PCBs is
Traxmaker. See my notes and links to some 60 ECAD programs at
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/ECADList.html

Terry Pinnell
Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK

 

[Spajky®]

Another alternative (but one that I don't recommend) is dia.
See [ http://www.lysator.liu.se/~alla/dia/ ]. Dia is a free
program that runs under Linux and Windows, and it's a lot like
Microsoft Visio. I don't think it's a good choice, because it
just makes schematics, and you will have to throw out everything
you learned and get another program when you get to the point
where you are making netlists or board layouts.

Another alternative:

I use PowerPoint95 to do that (I had to make with it a small file with
my own simbols (to copy/paste when needed), but schematics for Web use
look nice, see my site), than I just when its finished snap it
(screen) with HypersnapDX & save as *.gif for picture to have not many
kB-s ...

-- Regards, SPAJKY ®
& visit my site @ http://www.spajky.vze.com
"Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"
E-mail AntiSpam: remove ##

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Another alternative:

I use PowerPoint95 to do that (I had to make with it a small file with
my own simbols (to copy/paste when needed), but schematics for Web use
look nice, see my site), than I just when its finished snap it
(screen) with HypersnapDX & save as *.gif for picture to have not many
kB-s ...

Another is Microsoft's Visio. Its Technical version has a large
library of symbols.

 

[Bob Stephens]

I need to retire my old stencil and vellum method of drawing schematics.
I need a simple Windows program that will allow me to draw schematics and
print them out. Nothing fancy - I am looking for simple and easy to learn.
Freeware would be nice, but I am willing to pay up to a couple of hundred
dollars. The ability to make a .png or .jpeg that I can put on a web
page or in a Word document would be a plus, but I can live without it.
I am using Windows 2000.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Avoid anything that has AMS associated with it.

Bob

 

[Guy Macon]

See my notes and links to some 60 ECAD programs at
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/ECADList.html

Terry Pinnell
Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK

That's a great list, and one that I waasn't familier with before.
Thanks for making it!

One minor quibble: I would prefer to see a line at the top of each
entry stating what operating system(s) it runs under.

 

[JeffM]

Eagle...can export to clipboard,

enabling [you] to use the output in any Windows application.
Anand Dhuru

Not natively. PrintScreen can get you there
as can (with greater flexibility) a screen capture app
like Screen Ripper 32.

there is a steep learning curve
Don Lancaster

True of any of these kinds of apps.

EAGLE, whose user interface preceeded Windoze,
is counter-intuitive to most Windows users.
Its price structure for registered versions
and the power of the free version
allow many of us to overlook its peculiarities.