EMRFD Message Archive 9585

Message Date From Subject
9585 2013-12-23 20:48:53 Ashhar Farhan schematic drawing software
hey all, season's greetings. it is a bone chilling 60F here in hyderabad! as weather  is more of a 'cultural season'  around these parts rather than a meteorological phenomenon, i see people wearing ear muffs and mufflers to protect themselves from the 'weather'. well you have to wear that fleece jacket some time, don't you!

has anybody any recommendations for a simple schematic capture software with nice symbols ? what was used for EMRFD? I am getting tired of ms-paint and their buggy 'transparent mode'  of copy/paste is not helping either.

- f
9586 2013-12-23 21:07:25 Rick Commo Re: schematic drawing software
Try Googling "schematic entry software."  I have an open software version that I looked over a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately I'm not at home at the moment and the name of it is escaping me.  You might want to check out www.pcbexpress.com and www.pcb123.com.

-rick

9587 2013-12-23 21:11:14 Jerry Haigwood Re: schematic drawing software
Farhan,
    I can recommend ExpressSCH.  It is a free download from ExpressPCB.COM.  It works well and is easy to use.
Jerry W5JH
"building something without experimenting is just solder practice"
 
----- Original Message -----
9588 2013-12-23 22:32:09 EricJ Re: schematic drawing software
I use LTSpice for schematic drawing, though it is also simulation software. It's easy to learn and fun. I sometimes use ExpressPCB also--someone else recommended that. Both are useful and pretty easy. Both are also FREE. Like word processing, once you learn one program, it's pretty easy to pick up another so you can try a couple and see what you like best.

Eric
KE6US
9589 2013-12-23 23:11:40 Ashhar Farhan Re: schematic drawing software
rick and eric,
the quality of symbols is quite bad in both. I find the symbols used in the ARRL handbook to be far better and acceptable to hams than the LTspice symbols (I have pspice). My current method is to copy paste symbols into ms-paint from another bitmap and draw lines between them. This method is quite painful for several reasons. but the main problem now is that the 'transparent' mode in ms-paint strangely includes opaque white patches as well. quite frustrating.

- farhan


9590 2013-12-23 23:55:03 Nick Tsakonas Re: schematic drawing software
If you are interested mainly in drawing schematics, you can try TinyCAD.It is very easy and I use it to "document" the circuits I make.It can also export netlist for spice and PCB packages although I have not tried these capabilities. I find the symbols quite nice and you start drawing in a few minutes without even reading the manual.

There is also KiCad.I like its symbols very much,but I found it to be counter-intuitive and bit difficult...it requires some learning. (just for reference,OpenBeacon schematic is made in KiCad).


73,Nick,SV1DJG

9591 2013-12-24 00:26:45 jorschei Re: schematic drawing software

Hi Ashhar,


I use for a long time S-print and S-plan from ABACOM.

You can make your symbols in the drawing and for the PCB design

In S-print you can generate the Gerberfile for fab PCB production


Usefull tools for a low price


73'Joris PE1KTH

9592 2013-12-24 00:28:27 jorschei Re: schematic drawing software
9593 2013-12-24 00:45:41 Dave Re: schematic drawing software
  I have used KICAD for several years.  Symbols are included.  If you need more, making your own is not difficult.  KICAD does have a somewhat long learning curve.  But, it is free for both hobby and commercial use and runs on Windows, Linux, and OSX.  When my design is done, I "print" the schematic and board layout to PDF.

Dave- WB6DHW


9594 2013-12-24 05:33:14 Dan Mills Re: schematic drawing software
KiCad?
Free and not too bad, for all that the library could be larger.

Geda? Free but somewhat complex.

Altium? Very much not free, but very good.

Isis? Cheap, but in my view not very good.

Just the things I have used in the last year, there are plenty of others.


73 M0HCN


9595 2013-12-24 06:06:19 Ashhar Farhan Re: schematic drawing software
I downloaded tinycad but found the symbols a little too rough.
Probably there are better symbol sets available.
For the time being, I'm sticking to copy-pasting symbols from arrl
handbook's gif page to ms-paint.
- f

On 12/24/13, Dan Mills <dan.mills.00@gmail.com> wrote:
> KiCad?
> Free and not too bad, for all that the library could be larger.
>
> Geda? Free but somewhat complex.
>
> Altium? Very much not free, but very good.
>
> Isis? Cheap, but in my view not very good.
>
> Just the things I have used in the last year, there are plenty of others.
>
>
> 73 M0HCN
>
>
>
9596 2013-12-24 06:28:24 T. Hills Re: schematic drawing software
If your going to use the cut-n-paste method GIMP is free/open source at http://www.gimp.org/

Tim Hills
Sioux Falls, SD
9597 2013-12-24 06:35:22 Leon Heller Re: schematic drawing software
DesignSpark from RS is free, and is based on EasyPC which I used for
many years (they aren't compatible):

http://www.designspark.com/eng/page/designspark-pcb-home-page

73, Leon
--
Leon Heller
G1HSM
9598 2013-12-24 07:28:08 ford@highmarks.co... Re: schematic drawing software
DigiKey offers a simple drawing tool called Scheme-it. It's free to use. Here is a video tutorial:

http://www.digikey.com/us/en/mkt/scheme-it.html

The only thing I've drawn was to document a 160-10 meter 4-XXX twin hole home brewed linear amp I found at a hamfest. It did a pretty good job if I must say so myself. And very intuitive to use. The best part is that you can use their part numbers to track components through the system. Although I've not done it, my guess is that a bill of materials can be produced and even kitted up for you.

I had difficulty locating it on the site. But if you look at the site map you will see it listed. Here is a sample I drew some time ago...

Ford-N0FP


[cid:image001.jpg@01CF008A.72FC7BF0]

9599 2013-12-24 07:30:54 ford@highmarks.co... Re: schematic drawing software
Link to picture clip is busted. Attached is a PDF.

Ford-N0FP


-----Original Message-----
9600 2013-12-24 07:41:19 ford@highmarks.co... Re: schematic drawing software
I just watched the video again. What is massively cool about Scheme-it is the collaborative features. By making your schematic public, you can share the document along with the kit of parts on a BOM by just providing a link to the site. How cool is that? So you draw a schematic, then brag about it right here on emrfd by including a link.

It's all in HTML, so nothing to download, although having a DigiKey login ID appears to be important to using the advanced feature.

Did I say it was Free? It's free.

Oh, and by the way, it's free...

Ford-N0FP



-----Original Message-----
9601 2013-12-24 07:58:01 ford@highmarks.co... Re: schematic drawing software
Hello,

Ford Peterson would like you to view the following project:

HomebrewAmp:

http://www.digikey.com/schemeit/#cd4


Message:
Testing the shared document feature when sent through the list. I first sent it to the list but it never came through. Then I sent it to myself and clipped this from the resulting email.

Ford-N0FP


-----Original Message-----
9602 2013-12-24 10:26:09 Todd F. Carney / ... Re: schematic drawing software
9603 2013-12-24 13:03:19 Alan Jones Re: schematic drawing software

Hi Farhan,

I use a program called BSch3V Schematic capture package.

AA1TJ pointed me to this program several years ago.

The author is still updating the software which is a good thing.

Give it a try and see what you think.

 

73,

 

O. Alan “Al” Jones

N8WQ

http://n8wq.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

9605 2013-12-24 13:12:42 w7zoi Re: schematic drawing software

Hello Farhan and Group,


The question of schematic drawing software is perpetual.   I have one dominant requirement for 

such software:  It must be as quick to draw a schematic with the computer as it is to do by 

hand.   At the recommendation of ka7exm, I ended up with Visio, version 3.0.  It was not free, 

but was not expensive either.   The program, purchased in 1994, included all sorts of element 

files.   I ended up modifying ALL of the schematic elements and building many of my own.   The 

main modification was to replace lines that were 1 pixel wide with ones that were 3 pixels 

thick.   


My Visio drawings were used with little or no modification for much of EMRFD. This helped to 

keep publication costs in check.   A side benefit of accuracy results by directly publishing 

the same drawings that were used and drafted by the circuit designer/builder.  


A drawing in Visio that is on the computer screen is captured to the clipboard with the PrtScrn 

key.  This can then be pasted into other applications where it can be saved as a PNG, GIF, or 

JPG format.   These are generally small files that are easily transmitted via the Internet.  

Pasting into WORD results in a single page drawing that can contain a rather large circuit, 

such as an entire transceiver.


I'm not recommending this software today.   Rather, this is just what I used. Some of the other 

solutions that various readers have suggested would probably be better.  For example, I'm amazed 

at the ease of use of the LT-SPICE schematic capture.  In the final analysis, you will just 

have to apply experimental methods to the drawing and the related learning.


Happy Holiday's to all from Beaverton.   


73, Wes

w7zoi


9606 2013-12-25 10:53:20 kf9cm Re: schematic drawing software
I've always used Tubepad from Gary's (wd4nka) site.  It can be used as a cut and paste with just about any drawing program. I've always used Microsoft Paint......It's FREE!

http://www.qsl.net/wd4nka/TEXTS/Tubepadf.html


73 de Gary, KF9CM

9608 2013-12-26 07:10:16 kb1gmx Re: schematic drawing software

I suggest Eagle, there is a free version that does both schematic capture and PCB routing.

The free version was more than enough to do commercial level projects for a two sided board.

It has a steep learning curve but once the basics are learned then any other CADD tool will 

seem similar.  The added feature is Its available for Windows, MacOS, and Linux.  I've use it on

an old 1.5ghz pentium powered IBM laptop with 2gn of ram and it ran smoothly under linux.


I suggest this as users of any OS can display, modify, and exchange CADD files with ease.



Allison/kb1gmx



9609 2013-12-27 10:41:28 Gustavo LU6AGV Re: schematic drawing software
DipTrace is really good, and have a free license key if you ask for it.

73's
Gustavo
LU6AGV


9610 2013-12-27 18:09:15 Ashhar Farhan Re: schematic drawing software
For my current minima project, i have decided to just go with the good ol ms-paint as I am really pressed for time to finish documenting minima. I do plan to pick up something that will be a substantial improvement over it. probably TinyCad with a better library. 
Have a great new year, everyone!!!

- f


9626 2013-12-30 13:12:52 Ephemeral Re: schematic drawing software
I second the earlier recommendation of Diptrace. If you are getting started on capturing schematics
then I suggest you think ahead about PCBs. So a program that will take you all the way to a
PCB if you need it is a good idea I think. You may be intending to build ugly, but ugly is not
so great for SMD and all the more interesting parts are made in SMD nowadays. Whatever
you do, please don't ever reenter a schematic - if it has more than 3 components it will have
at least one mistake. If you design the prototype in your schematic package you can be
reasonably sure the wiring matches what you actually built. Diptrace is reasonably easy to use
and free for non-commercial use up to 400 pins and comes with a large library. I find that for
hand soldering SMD it is better to make the pads a little longer than is recommended for
reflow soldering - thus you always have a bit of pad unobstructed by the component lead
where you can place the iron on. So I tweak all the pads anyway.

 
9634 2014-01-04 03:42:29 Adrian Scripca Re: schematic drawing software
Hey Farhan et *,

That is a problem that I also heavily looked into. What I ended up use
LTSpice <http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice> for
simulation and Kicad <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/> for schematic
capture/pcb creation.

My reasons for choosing Kicad <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/> are:
- it is opensource and free, meaning you don't have to pay for it
and you can download the sources and fix some annoying bug if need be
- it is cross-platform which means I can use it both on my linux
desktop and my wife's windows laptop
- it has a strong community support -- see tutorials here
http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/Tutorials
- it is under active development which means it's not going to die
soon but on the contrary get new features and fixes
- there are some nice libraries written by users out there -- check
the awesome libraries at http://vkoeppel.free.fr/?p=21
- you can export schematic as vectorial outputs (.svg, .pdf) which
you can later rasterize as you wish for optimal quality

Of course, since nothing is perfect there are some downsides to it as well:
- the way Kicad is structured may be a bit confusing at first
(different editors for schematic/pcb/component footprint selection)
- the learning curve might be a bit steep, but once you get the hang
of it you will not want to go back to any other package.

Hope it helps. I have attached a sample of a QST project that I captured
with Kicad and the above mentioned libraries and exported to pdf.

73! de Adrian,
YO6SSW



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
9636 2014-01-05 09:30:18 Ashhar Farhan Re: schematic drawing software
I have downloaded kicad, ill start using it soon. Thanks for the reco.
- f

On 1/4/14, Adrian Scripca <benishor@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Farhan et *,
>
> That is a problem that I also heavily looked into. What I ended up use
> LTSpice <http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice> for
> simulation and Kicad <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/> for schematic
> capture/pcb creation.
>
> My reasons for choosing Kicad <http://www.kicad-pcb.org/> are:
> - it is opensource and free, meaning you don't have to pay for it
> and you can download the sources and fix some annoying bug if need be
> - it is cross-platform which means I can use it both on my linux
> desktop and my wife's windows laptop
> - it has a strong community support -- see tutorials here
> http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/Tutorials
> - it is under active development which means it's not going to die
> soon but on the contrary get new features and fixes
> - there are some nice libraries written by users out there -- check
> the awesome libraries at http://vkoeppel.free.fr/?p=21
> - you can export schematic as vectorial outputs (.svg, .pdf) which
> you can later rasterize as you wish for optimal quality
>
> Of course, since nothing is perfect there are some downsides to it as well:
> - the way Kicad is structured may be a bit confusing at first
> (different editors for schematic/pcb/component footprint selection)
> - the learning curve might be a bit steep, but once you get the hang
> of it you will not want to go back to any other package.
>
> Hope it helps. I have attached a sample of a QST project that I captured
> with Kicad and the above mentioned libraries and exported to pdf.
>
> 73! de Adrian,
> YO6SSW
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

--
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