schematic drawing

[mister_e]

P-Cad is certainely not the easiest to learn (if you want to use/learn every function/features) but you can do absolutely everything. A bit expensive yes but that really worth the price.
Maybe not the best one for hobbyist or to do a relly few design a year.

[saturnX]

wow this thread really grew suddenly since i last came in to check here. thank you all for your contributions and i have been reading up on the softwares mentioned. still considering my options before i purchase any of them. hope this thread helps others as well. i'm sure there are more programs out there that is not mentioned here. post them here

[jmgelba]

P-Cad is certainely not the easiest to learn (if you want to use/learn every function/features) but you can do absolutely everything. A bit expensive yes but that really worth the price.
Maybe not the best one for hobbyist or to do a relly few design a year.

Yes, what I hated most about P-CAD was the very poor libraries that came with it. Fortunatley that was made a little better with the launch of P-CAD2004. You could not draw a nice schematic with the symbols that came with it and the grid centre was a weird size. I built hundreds of custom components to make life easier.

[Luciano]

Source:
http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk...rt=52923&PN=On

Magazine - Elektor Electronics November 2005

Kaleidoscope
Software for schematic capture and PCB design

Programs for schematic capture, board designs (PCBs) and simulation are now indispensable tools for anyone serious about electronics design. This issue of Elektor Electronics comes with a free DVD packed with demo, evaluation, trial and complete versions of all popular E-CAD programs. The DVD, we hope, allows you see what program is best suited to your requirements and applications. This article provides brief discussions of all programs on the DVD.

Abacom: Splan 6.0 – SprintLayout 4.0
AMS: Circuit Creator
Baas: Layo PCB 10.0
Bartels AutoEngineer: BAE 4.3.0.347
Cadence Design Systems: OrCAD V 10.0
CADInt PCB: CADInt PCB 2.11.15.0
CADSoft: Eagle 4.15
Capilano: DesignWorks 4.3.1
Edainnovation: EPD 7.2.31
Electronics Workbench: Design Suite 8.1
Free PCB: Free PCB 1.2
Friedrich (Bureau): Target 3001! V11 & V12
Holophase: CirCAD ‘98
KiCAD : KiCAD
Labcenter Electronics/Multipower: Proteus 6.8
McCAD McCAD Schematics – MAC PCB-ST
Merco electronics: PCB Elegance 3.0
Merlin: MerliPCB
Micrelec: WinSchém 6.1 – WinTYPON
Niche Software: PCB Designer 1.3.3
Number One Systems: Easy PC 9.0
Pad2Pad: Pad2Pad 1.6.0
PCB123: PCB123 V2.1
PCB Editor: PCB Developer's Assistant V3.0
Seetrax: RangerXL – Ranger2XL
Tsien: Boardmaker 3
Visionics: EdWinXP 14.0
Vutrax: Vutrax 12.5
Zuken: CADStarexpress 7.0


Hyperlinks
Abacom
www.abacom-online.de
AMS
www.advancedmsinc.com
Asic Atoms
www.asicatoms.com
Baas
www.baas.nl
Bartels AutoEngineer
www.bme.ie/bae/bae
CADint PCB
www.cadint.se
CADSoft
www.cadsoft.de
CirCAD
www.holophase.com
DesignWorks
www.capilano.com
Edainnovation
www.edainnovation.com
Electronic Workbench Europe
www.electronicsworkbench.com
Friedrich (Bureau)
www.ibfriedrich.com
Free PCB
www.freepcb.com
KiCAD
iut-tice.ujf-grenoble.fr/kicad
Labcenter Electronics
www.labcenter.co.uk
(pour la France) Multipower
www.multipower.fr
Layo1PCB www.baas.nl
McCAD
www.mccad.com
Mentor Graphics
www.mentor.com/products/pcb/pads
Merco electronics
www.merco.nl
Merlin PCB
www.geocities.com/MerliPCB
Micrelec
www.micrelec.fr/lyctech/tele.htm
Niche Software
www.niche.co.uk
Number One Systems
www.numberone.com
OrCAD (Cadence)
www.orcad.com/downloads.aspx
Pad2Pad
www.pad2pad.com
PCB123
www.pcb123.com
PCB Editor
www.waldherr.com
Seetrax
www.seetrax.co.uk
Target 3001 !
ibfriedrich.com
Tsien
www.tsien.info
Visionix
www.visionics.a.se
Vutrax
www.vutrax.co.uk
Zuken
www.zuken.com

Other interesting links for companies that do not appear on the DVD.
Altium
www.altium.com/pcad
Ariadne
www.cad-ul.de/htm/ariadne-start.htm
Circuit Maker
www.circuitmaker.com
Pulsonix
www.pulsonix.com/index.asp
The PCB Designer
www.cad-design.com

[saturnX]

wow... its been a while since i checked back here... thanks luciano for all the urls. hope that this thread reli help others out there. certainly helped me

[memo333]

my programme is target 3001! v11 (not v12 ı dont advise) i think it's the best free pcb program. it has a large library,autorouter,autoplacer,3d view,free updates etc, etc.

ı advise this German miracle, because Toyota F1 uses it

[forgie]

I'm going to learn me some Eagle.... one of the few available for OSX as far as I'm aware... or one of the few that anyone will actually recommend, anyway.

[Chris Mayhew]

Here is one from New Zealand -

Hutson Systems
http://www.hutson.co.nz/

I downloaded it yesterday and had a bit of a look. There are some things missing but considering the price and that this is only version 1.0x it looks like pretty good value for money. I always try the demo with out looking at the help file as I find this a good indication of ease of use. I just can't relate to Eagle but maybe thats because I'm so use to Protel ?

Here are a couple more I don't think have been listed...

TinyCAD for Windows
http://tinycad.sourceforge.net/Links.html

Autotrax (no relation to the old Protel DOS version)
http://www.autotraxeda.com/

Roger Lascelles VCad Page (this is a Veroboard layout program that uses Netlists)
http://www.geocities.com/rogerlasau/VCad.html

There are some OS offerings as well, though not all work on Windows.