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[on:]

Dear ALl,
A long time ago I lernt electronic. But it a long time. Now I am back 
I remimber, Our teacher show us a soft and with that soft I could draw the connection between electronic componment.
I coulkd choose to have a double face PCB or a simple face, and then it draw the PCB, ready to be realized.

Do you know a soft which can help me to create a PCB and calculate the best way to have the smallest PCB?

Cheers
Pierre

[Reply #1 on:]

Fritzing, while somewhat limited has Arduino and breadboard layouts you might find useful.

http://fritzing.org/

[Reply #2 on:]

Nice!!!
It seams to be great.
Thank
Cheers

[Reply #3 on:]

I use Pulsonix: http://www.pulsonix.com/

[Reply #4 on:]

cadsoft eagle is great and you get the actual arduino pcb layout files in the hardware section

[Reply #5 on:]

I also have become a fan of Eagle..

[Reply #6 on:]

Thank a lot for all of your answer.
But now all of this answer make me confused 

I just installed Fritzing and it seams to be very nice.

The problem, I plan to use those compnment that are not in Fritzing library.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10139
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10138
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11571
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/579
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8612

Then how can I import those componment to Fritzing?

For the other PBC soft, does thos componment are include?
Is it easy to get it in one of those soft?

Frtzing is nice, because is an open soucre, does the other soft are opensource as well?

Cheers and thank for all

[Reply #7 on:]

I also have become a fan of Eagle..

I found Eagle completely unintuitive.

[Reply #8 on:]

Apparently all are not Opensource excepted Fritzing :o(

[Reply #9 on:]

thats one the biggest problems with all of these applications/programs..

their libraries..(choice of components)


you can surf/google around for a fritzing components of the parts you want..


Same for Eagle.... sometimes you cant find a part.. BUT.. Eagle has a pretty big community following.. and there are libraries all over!

And lots of current boards/parts have eagle schematics for them as well.. so you can use the part from that schematic/layout..

[Reply #10 on:]

I tried many schematic and pcb software programs.
Every single one had its own strange things.

So I made a choice, and decided to start using Eagle.
I slowly learned how to used it. It was not easy.

But in the end I am happy with my choice. So I keep using Eagle.

[Reply #11 on:]

I also have become a fan of Eagle..

I found Eagle completely unintuitive.

I did too!..  to the point where it was a turn off..

then later came back to it..

I read a tips-n-tricks article somewhere about Eagle.. that helped.

1.) mentioned Eagle was designed to be used with a mouse and a 3-button mouse at that. (middle mouse wheel has functionality too...switching from top to bottom layer/auto dropping via's..etc)

2.) Eagle works 'backwards' then how many (at least myself) are taught to work..  normally (maybe this is a Windows thing?)..  we select the object/text (whatever) FIRST... and then click on the effect you want to be applied to it (bold, flip, color change..etc)..

however in Eagle.. its the other way around.. you click on the effect/change you want to apply.. and then select/choose the object/part you want it applied to..

keeping these small things in mind help improve my work flow with it..

[Reply #12 on:]

I use Eagle and after about 10 months of using it I can do all kinds of complicated stuff

I use an inkjet printer and a fluorescent light so there is room for improvements in my PCB's but here is a picture of what can be achieved at home in the kitchen!

The look of the PCB really gets me excited its a work of art I am proud of

[Reply #13 on:]

u want to know if eagle supports ur components?

well there is even a sparkfun made eagle library:

http://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun-Eagle-Libraries

check it out

also there are a lot of good eagle tutorials on youtube, invenst some time and you learn how to use a programm much more powerfull than fritzing. also its not too hard to make components for library urself, just check youtube tutorials for that

eagle is free too as long as u dont use it to earn money the only limitation of that version is the max board size, but u wont reach that that fast

[Reply #14 on:]

No PCB/schematic layout software is going to have every component you might use--at some point, you're going to need to be able to add your own parts to the library.

Fritzing is free and Free.  However, my understand is that it's very limited as far as what you can do with it--exporting Gerber files to have boards made or regular schematics, as I understand, simply aren't possible.  OTOH, it can output a nice picture of how a breadboard setup will look, which can be convenient.  It's said to be very easy to use.

KiCad (http://www.kicad-pcb.org/) is free and Free.  It doesn't suffer from the limitations of Fritzing, but reports I've seen suggest very poor user interface design.

Eagle is commercial, closed-source software, but a limited version is free to use.  The limitations are that the board can be no more than 8 x 10 cm, with no more than two layers.  It's pretty widely used, so there are lots of parts libraries available, and lots of online support in the way of forums and tutorials.  The user interface isn't very intuitive, but I understand it's quite powerful once you really get used to it (I'm not there yet).

DipTrace (http://www.diptrace.com/) is also commercial, closed-source software, and also has a limited version that is free to use.  The limitations are no more than 300 or 500 pins, and no more than two signal layers on the PCB (any number of power or ground layers are allowed)--the board size is unlimited.  It's not as widely used as Eagle from what I can see, but seems to have pretty good support available.  The developers have a pretty extensive tutorial available that walks you through designing a schematic and laying out a board from the schematic.  The UI seems, at least to me, to be a bit better than Eagle.  I understand that it's possible to import part libraries from Eagle, but I haven't tried it yet.