Which circuit drawing software? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Minor Tom
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 06:53:08 pm
content: Hi again!As a preparation for my music related electronic projects, like building stompboxes and modifying valve amps, I would like to explore what circuit drawing software suits me best.What do I want?- Easy to use- Support in the software for different versions of a circuit, perhaps even support for branches in the version tree.- Low cost, ideally free- Solid user base, so that there is less risk of the software being orphaned- Ability to create new component types- Ideally, support for valve circuits out of the boxWhat do you use? Or do just use DaveCAD?Curious about and thankful for your answersTom

author: fourtytwo42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 06:55:21 pm
content: If you want to also simulate desighns LTspice is very easy to use (and free of course).If simulation is less of interest then KiCad is also free and you can create pcb's from it!

author: sg-o
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 07:03:04 pm
content: I suggest that you try KiCad.In my opinion it's quite easy to use (at least as easy as most other programs).As KiCad saves it's files in a text form it works perfectly with git and other version control systems.It's free and open source.It has a really large user base and is supported by Cern.It has a small valve library included.DaveCad is always an option for small projects, but a CAD program makes organizing all of your stuff so much easier.

author: Minor Tom
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 07:15:07 pm
content: Thanks a lot for your answers, seem to be good, will look at these.Is there some kind of interoperability (exchange format) between different programs?Quote from: sg-o on April 24, 2018, 07:03:04 pmThe most appealing thing about software for me is you can incorporate changes easily - no need to scribble things in and start again for a fresh drawing!

author: Minor Tom
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 07:21:14 pm
content: Quote from: sg-o on April 24, 2018, 07:03:04 pmWell, I would prefer having the Cad program do the versioning, otherwise I would perhaps stick to using folders and filename conventions. Just needs a bit of discipline. I'm just too lazy to use more software than necessary....

author: sg-o
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 07:53:39 pm
content: There sadly is no real universal interchange format in the electrical CAD world.KiCad can export its netlist to OrcadPCB2, CadStar and Spice. Eagle import has been announced for the next major release.I can't think of a single electrical CAD program with integrated versioning... You will always have to do this externally. Some commercial products like Altium (quite expensive) have a UI for SVN integrated.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 24, 2018, 11:35:54 pm
content: I've been satisfied with KiCAD, it's not super intuitive but frankly none of this software is. On the plus side, once you learn one of the tools the workflow transfers reasonably well to others.

author: Lt_Flash
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2018, 07:05:44 am
content: CircuitMaker for sure. Almost Altium Designer and for free.