Ive noticed there a certain similar methods of doing simple circuit diagrams. I want to ask some questions about a relatively simple project but before i do i want some diagrams to go with it. Any ideas about how/were i get the software to do the designers and any tips on including them in a forum comment. Cheers
Lots of options, all of which can generally help you turn a schematic into a PCB (or breadboard layout as well, in Fritzing's case):
Fritzing: http://www.fritzing.org/
gEDA: http://www.gpleda.org/
KiCad: http://kicad.sourceforge.net/
Eagle: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/
The Fritzing folks have put together a pretty comprehensive list of software in that space; awfully nice of them to give you a condensed list of their competition. 
http://fritzing.org/about/comparison/
There's a million other choices as well (I'm sure I'll get flamed for forgetting someone's favorite layout tool), but that's probably enough to get you started. 
I prefer www.expresspcb.com, easy to use to create schematics & symbols if needed.
Here's an example.
Sparkfun.com has several tutorials on EAGLE.
And they make it so easy to find too ... buried here
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/108
CrossRoads:
I prefer www.expresspcb.com, easy to use to create schematics & symbols if needed.
The only problem I have with ExpressPCB is the vendor lock-in; anything you develop with it can't be opened by anything else, and their software won't generate gerbers, so you can't just send it off to any old board shop.
If someone doesn't already have familiarity with it, I have a hard time recommending it with a clear conscience; you can learn any of a number of other packages early on, and it's a skill that will serve you well even after you've graduated to more complicated work.
logic:
CrossRoads:
I prefer www.expresspcb.com, easy to use to create schematics & symbols if needed.The only problem I have with ExpressPCB is the vendor lock-in;
I second the vendor lock-in dislike and is the exact reason I do not recommend that software. (Nor do I recommend their PCB service.)
Most PCB services will offer you their software and I have not seen one that will output Gerber file but their own. I hate proprietary formats that don't convert to a common format. EAGLE has proprietary format but exports to Gerber easily.
The only PCB software that does not output Gerber, is software from a lock-in vendor.
Typically these vendors tout "per-board live pricing quotes." Well, find a good PCB service and that doesn't matter anyway. (And in most cases, those proprietary houses will still accept Gerber files.)
The OP gave no indication of needing to make PCBs, only a diagram for a presentation.
Expresspcb is great for that. I have used it to capture multipage designs, with lots of ICs, cabling, layouts, etc. It is very easy to use for thru hole layouts, and thats mostly what I design to make manual assembly go quicker.
Eagle is a hurdle to learn quickly and to make a quick schematic for posting here for examples & discussion purposes.
I had no problems using expresspcb to make the double sided circuit cards that went into the 12 scoring machine lights I built up.
The PCBs were of very high quality and delivered very quickly, 2-3 days, after ordering. I think I bought 14 or 16 of them using the standard service.
I will accept that eagle is good for doing a surface mount board layout. I am doing a design now where I used the duemilanove layout as a starting point and copied the parts there so I knew what size footprints I would end up with.
If I had to do it from scratch it would have taken ages longer going thru the tons of available libraries to find parts.
Futurelec also accepts expressPCB files, so this lock-in talk is overhyped. If they will, then I am sure other vendors can be found who will accept them also.
And if you are making your own PCBs at home, then having gerbers or not is moot point.
All good suggestions i was only looking for something to use to post on here but the other info is useful as well as i will very likely want to do other thing in the future. So thanks all round.
You can use any schematic editor to post here.
What I find is quick & easy is to zoom in on area I want, do a screen capture (shift-print screen in windows), paste into powerpoint, crop & add any notes, save as type .jpg. Then post here using the Additional Options... feature below. The old forukm required that things be uplinked externally (flickr, etc) & linked to, which you can also do.
You can also embed in a message using the Insert Image button above (2nd row, 2nd from left, adds these tags [ img ] your_file.jpg [ /img ] (without the spaces tho)
Do the same for posting code, using the # button (adds these tages [ code ] your_code [ /code ]
logic:
Lots of options, all of which can generally help you turn a schematic into a PCB (or breadboard layout as well, in Fritzing's case):Fritzing: http://www.fritzing.org/
gEDA: http://www.gpleda.org/
KiCad: http://kicad.sourceforge.net/
Eagle: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/The Fritzing folks have put together a pretty comprehensive list of software in that space; awfully nice of them to give you a condensed list of their competition.
http://fritzing.org/about/comparison/
There's a million other choices as well (I'm sure I'll get flamed for forgetting someone's favorite layout tool), but that's probably enough to get you started.
I would add DesignSpark PCB as well