I'm pretty new around here, but have been playing around with a couple of arduinos for a little while. I've just got myself a project where I can't (sensibly) lay out the components on stripboard so am looking at making a PCB.
I got a cheapo PCB etching kit from Maplin, but am now wondering how you go about designing a PCB? I've had a bit of a play with both Eagle and KiCAD (slightly prefering KiCAD because it's OSS) but whats the best way to design the thing? Does anyone have any opinions on which bit of software is better? Or some tutorials on this kind of thing?
On EAGLE you can design your PCB then hide all the layers except the bottom layer (or top depending on the layer you designed on), then you can export it as a 1:1 bitmap, make it black and white, print it then use it for etching. It sounds like a lot of steps but it's not too tricky.
I presume on KiCAD you can do very similar but I have not used it much.
I would use it but as I know a bit of EAGLE I don't have the time at the moment to learn KiCAD. I like the 3D aspect of KiCAD too (with Wings3D)
I think it's fair to say that most people here use Eagle, frankly I'd rather chew my own arm off than use that software, but at least there will be a lot of people than can help you.
For simple boards I find RIMU (hutson.co.nz) to be very easy to use. I think the free version is limited to 500 pins or something, but that may not affect you. You can print to a PDF which I assume is 1:1 and usable for home etching but I've not tried that.
DesignSpark is another free windows program which is very usable.
It will also read EagleCAD schematics and PCB layouts. Its a two stage operation involving running EagleCad and using a script/macro to convert them into a intermediate format, but it works quite well and you can do libraries as well.
No, there's no lock in to any board house. You only need to register on their web site.
It's RS Components response to Farnell buying Cadsoft, the makers EagleCAD. In fact, DesignSpark is actually a version of EasyPC, which has been around for years, made especially for RS.