Looking for good PCB and Electronics layout software

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Diego_Knyte's picture
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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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Looking for good PCB and Electronics layout software

Howdy,

I'm tired of prototyping with protoboards so I'm on the hunt for a decent Electronics simulator and PCB layout software in one package. Mac OS X. Currently on a G4 1.5Ghz but I'm probably gonna splurge for a Intel Mac Pro soon.

I've found this site {http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.20/20.05/ElectronicHardware/index.html} that has some reviews. It seems that there's always that one software feature that another doesn't have and yet another does but it's missing something else. I'm looking for 1 piece with the whole shabang for my buck.

I'm looking for one that lets you design, simulate (with descent library), layout (with autotracing and silkscreen side) and be able to export to at least the Gerber format.

If anyone out there knows the skinny on this software stuff help would be appreciated. Even if there isn't one with everything, what's the best choices so my expendature is minimal.

Thanks in advance!

DrBunsen's picture
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Never tried it, but gEDA ?

gEDA

It's a Linux suite, but you could probably run it under X11.app in OS X.

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Last seen: 8 years 7 months ago
Joined: Jan 12 2005 - 18:09
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Re: Never tried it, but gEDA ?

He's right, there's a port from fink, and a port from macports:
http://finkproject.org
http://www.macports.org

Even if you don't go with geda, I'd recommend getting the fink and macports packages, they have a lot to offer.

gEDA

It's a Linux suite, but you could probably run it under X11.app in OS X.

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