Schematic designer for the Mac. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Mint.
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 07:59:17 pm
content: Hello once again!I have got recently got myself a mac computer, because my other Windows one is 5 years old. Anyways, I would like a program like TinyCAD for drawing schematics, but since it is only for Windows I cannot use it. Can anybody recommend anything?

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 09:36:31 pm
content: get the free software virtualbox and install Windows® in a window !then run your old and known softwares for Windows® in it !https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 09:53:12 pm
content: To draw schematics I use EagleCAD, even though it's not perfect. When I wan't to draw something pretty I tend to use Omnigraffle.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2012, 10:12:03 pm
content: You can use Diptrace too, although it is a bit buggy. I think I've seen one in the app store.

author: sonicj
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2012, 01:47:50 am
content: qucsSolve Elec

author: Achilles
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2012, 06:35:30 pm
content: There is a version of eagle for mac and it is free. Even if it is more than just a simple CAD for schematics and therefore a bit more complicated it would be worth a try.Otherwise I highly recommend you to make use of bootcamp or an emulated windows like with virtual-box..... I use parallels for GIS, Remote Sensing...well and my DVB-T stick if I want to watch TV. It works.....and you have an opportunity to use Win-only software which you may encounter sooner or later when you play around on the MAC.If you want a simple CAD without libraries for sketching. There is a very simple freeware made by Thales/Dassault Systemes called DraftSighthttp://www.3ds.com/de/products/draftsight/overview/That could be interesting if you search a more general CAD.

author: electrode
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 01:32:26 am
content: As said, there's EAGLE for Mac, but the interface is horrible (on any platform), and it doesn't fit in with system shortcuts like a program should. I've designed a handful of boards in it, and there is good community support for libraries - SparkFun, for example, make lots of EAGLE parts.Virtualbox is an option, either to run Windows (ugh) or Linux (most distros are relatively lightweight, should boot fast and run well under virtualisation).- KiCAD is a popular FOSS program for Windows and Linux (don't bother trying on Mac, it's too experimental), but it shares the same horrid UI ideas as EAGLE, such as adding extra button clicks to do simple things, like moving a component. Such unintuitive UI is generally defended with the usual cop-out excuse of "learning curve". But hey, it's free, and it's considered very good.- Altium has a fantastic user interface, which obeys UI conventions that we have grown into over the past 20 years. It's Windows-only, and a commercial program, so it costs money to (legally) obtain.

author: Unknown
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 02:42:47 pm
content: Quote from: electrode on January 31, 2012, 01:32:26 amMake that a lot of money ($5k or so). Plus a retail version of Windows to run on Virtualbox will set you back another few hundred bucks. And it's not exactly a great fix for a program not integrating well with the OS.I believe there's a Mac version of Diptrace.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 05:54:15 pm
content: If you don't mind eagle, the Mac version seems to be quite good (not "buggy", as with some other partial-effort Mac versions, like KiCAD.)

author: electrode
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 09:43:32 pm
content: Quote from: alm on January 31, 2012, 02:42:47 pmThanks for the tip. Giving that a go now. At a glance, the free version has a 300 pin limit.Hmmm, I wonder how many pins a typical microcontroller project might use:micro = 28couple of 16 pin DIPs = 3215 resistors = 305 LEDs = 1010 caps = 20crystal, headers, transistors, etc = 30Total = 150Should be alright.Edit: Yeah, okay, so it runs in Wine under X11, so it's effectively just the Windows version clunkily running on Mac.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 10:15:49 pm
content: Quote from: electrode on January 31, 2012, 09:43:32 pmAnd it's a bit buggy. In fact, you can't use Mission Control properly to switch to it and sometimes it just won't let you focus on the window. For example, if you have it in the background and a message box comes up from DipTrace, you can't select the main DipTrace window. If the message box is centered, you would have to look for it because it won't appear in Mission Control.

author: kripton2035
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 10:17:04 pm
content: the mac version of diptrace is a big sh*t... monster of bytes compared to the windows version...it is encapsuled under wine, really not worth it...better use directly the windows version under virtualbox...will go faster that way...

author: PedroDiogo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 10:25:47 pm
content: Quote from: kripton2035 on January 31, 2012, 10:17:04 pmI just downloaded the evaluation version from their site and I confirm, it's just the Windows application bundled with Wine, so in the end you're better running Windows.As I said before I use Eagle and this version is much better for those of us that use it with Macbooks. In this version they added support for multitouch touchpads so you can pinch to zoom and scroll with both fingers.

author: electrode
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2012, 10:34:57 pm
content: Yeah, it only took me 5 minutes of playing with Diptrace on Snow Leopard to know it's not worth it:- Menubar menus lag before appearing after clicking.- If you switch to another app, then click back in the window, focus won't shift to it; you need to also cmd+tab away and back again.- Fugly. :pQuote from: PedroDiogo on January 31, 2012, 10:25:47 pmOh wow, that's pretty awesome. One of my biggest problems with it before was that it always felt like a fight to naturally pan around the schematic and zoom in/out.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2012, 01:07:00 am
content: Quote from: PedroDiogo on January 31, 2012, 10:25:47 pmAt first I couldn't figure this one out, being used to the previous version. When I did, it was glorious.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 01, 2012, 01:23:49 am
content: Quotethat's not an awful compromise; I wish more SW would do that. Assuming that it works at least "OK" (which ought to be possible.) Still, it's a lot of stuff that has to work right...The first version of EAGLE for Macs appeared to be their linux version, recompiled to run under Apple's X11. I thought that was a great idea: minimal effort on their part, and a usable result (before, I was running EAGLE on a headless linux box via X11 from my Mac, anyway.) But in their next version they did a native Mac implementation, which was a lot better (I had reason to go back and re-try the old version, and it was ... painfully ugly!)