Gerber - PCB Layout Software??

[kevj]

Hey all. This is off topic but everyone here is so helpful.

We've got a few products in production now. We've always let our contract manufacturer lay out our boards for us based on our schematics and requirements but it's time to do that on our own now.

I'd much appreciate suggestions on software packages and their average price points. We are already (probably) getting a base version of SolidWorks to handle design of the enclosures and plastic parts that go with our products, but their CircuitWorks looks a bit overkill for what we're doing.

Usually our products are done on standard double sided boards .064 or .040, the boards are fairly small (under 8 square inches) and normally involve under 100 individual surface mount components with a few through hole. Pretty simple stuff - the kind of thing that will probably shorten development cycles and lower costs to just have a simple PCB layout package in house. We can lay that stuff out about as quick as it takes to verbally discuss it with our current 3rd party contractor.


Software Requirements:

Basic stuff - setting pads and traces, but most importantly, we need it to spit out Gerber files we can send straight to our board house. I understand most PCB software is buggy at best when converting to Gerber, so we want something that will do that conversion clean, as well as providing a Gerber editor we can do back and "touch up" and conversion errors manually on the end files.

Advanced stuff we'll probably move toward in the near future is designing with ultra small components and flexible types of circuit boards. We have a few projects lined up which involve adding complex logic in very small spaces - some of which are flexible.

Some PCB software I know will automatically calculate the best and tightest layout of parts and figure the traces for you - we'd be willing to pay for that feature.

We're considering options everything from basic software in the $100'ish range all thew way to the full blown electronics version of AutoCad and others - just have to consider the pros and cons of each but would like a handful to begin to study.

Thanks in advance!!

[Melanie]

Well if you think that most software that outputs Gerber is 'buggy' then it's time you stop playing with hobbyist software.

We use Easy-PC from No.1 Systems...

http://www.numberone.com/

It works, there's no issues, and it's been around for some 23 years...

Btw... we also use Solidworks for designing enclosures, custom parts and the like - expensive, but it does what it says on the box.

[dhouston]

Look at Sprint Layout. It is about $50 and is truly outstanding.

• http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/sprint-layout.html

[tenaja]

I have been using EAGLE for the last 8 years or so, and the new 5.0 version got rid of every complaint I had about it. It's free, with a $50 license. I highly recommend it for hobbyists.

In December I bought Labcenter's Proteus Ares. It is truly amazing, and with the simulator option (ISIS) you can actually watch your code run, step, and watch variables.

[kevj]

Well if you think that most software that outputs Gerber is 'buggy' then it's time you stop playing with hobbyist software.

LOL. Interesting you say that.

It's actually our current outside contractor that's painted that picture - this is the stated reason the past couple designs we've handed them - simple one page schematics with 30 parts have turned into month long ordeals to get from trace layout in graphics software to Gerbers for the board house.

That didn't sound right to me either. I'm rather sure that using the right tools, it should be a pretty simple process.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm happy to look at any others and I'll check out the ones suggested.

[Tobias]

If you don't mind having to purchase your boards from a certain PCB Manufacturer, you can get PCBArtist for free from Advanced Circuits. I actually used it for about a year. It worked out great. I then moved to EasyPC. PCBArtist is very similiar to EasyPC.

[manxman]

I can strongly recommend DIPtrace. It has excellent linked schematic and PCB layout functions. My only criticism would be that library function and designing custom components is over-complicated. Otherwise, brilliant and the support is good.

[kevj]

Thanks everyone.

I ended up going with DipTrace for now. As manax said - I agree creating components is a bit harder than it probably needs to be, but the rest of the software seems very clean and easy to use. I'm running it on an old XP laptop and its sailing smooth. Thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated.