Best layout software?

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Just a warning. If you tamper with the Eagle cad software and crack it, you will only be able to open the files with your personal copy.
My tip to you is to use the software your school/university support. If you are stuck you will be able to get help. And do not worry about creating new components. 80% of the job will be copy and paste, as a thumb rule.
 

Thread Starter

JMD

Joined Dec 9, 2009
94
Altium Designer for sure.
Gonna give it a look :) Thanks.



There are student version of National Instruments Ultiboard/Multisim.

Multisim is circuit layout and Ultiboard is where you generate your PCB board..make gerber files to be sent to some PCB manufacturer to get your board made.

Another one I've used is Pspice..that one is very common among students.
Ive used both - PSpice is just a b*tch in my opinion, it makes ALOT of errors, and crashes from time to time. Could give multisim another go.



Just a warning. If you tamper with the Eagle cad software and crack it, you will only be able to open the files with your personal copy.
My tip to you is to use the software your school/university support. If you are stuck you will be able to get help. And do not worry about creating new components. 80% of the job will be copy and paste, as a thumb rule.
I have no need to crack Eagle, as im only doing small circuits :) But thanks for the heads up!!



Any comments on the component i made in Eagle?
 

Thread Starter

JMD

Joined Dec 9, 2009
94
Ive been figthing a bit with Altium, and so far its good.. and bad !

So far ive had two crashes - both resulted in "File type not recognised." (yep, they spelled it with s, not z).

Thats ANNOYING, to be honest! Alot of time spend, and bam, the file is corrupt beyond any rescue.
 
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loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
I can't believe (spark-fun) says if you are a e.e. student
its ok,don't worry if it burns you will learn not to do it again.
Use there kits. They even say they don't expect you to know
much and they talking embedded curcuits.What up?
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
I can't believe (spark-fun) says if you are a e.e. student
its ok,don't worry if it burns you will learn not to do it again.
Use there kits. They even say they don't expect you to know
much and they talking embedded curcuits.What up?
This seems to go with the industry. A couple years ago when I first started playing with microcontrollers every beginner book I read seemed like you needed a masters degree or higher to understand. Then again I am pretty dumb.
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Ive been figthing a bit with Altium, and so far its good.. and bad !
So far ive had two crashes - both resulted in "File type not recognised." (yep, they spelled it with s, not z).
Thats DAMN ANNOYING, to be honest! Alot of time spend, and bam, the file is corrupt beyond any rescue.
I think Altium make automatic backups for you. In your project folder look for a directory called history. The backup files is zip type files. Just a tip.
To be honest i think the Altium system is not the best system. The documentation is poor, and sometimes the functions are somewhat awkward to use. But I am stuck with the system, so I have in some way got used to this.
 

Thread Starter

JMD

Joined Dec 9, 2009
94
I can't believe (spark-fun) says if you are a e.e. student
its ok,don't worry if it burns you will learn not to do it again.
Use there kits. They even say they don't expect you to know
much and they talking embedded curcuits.What up?
Im lost.. what are you talking about? :D


t06afre --> I haven seen any backup files - maby its a feature that needs to be enabled?
 

t06afre

Joined May 11, 2009
5,934
Is there an easy way to resize the PCB in Altium Designer?
Just draw a new keep out layer boundary. If you do not know how it is done. Create a new board using the wizard and custom dimension. Then use copy and paste into your board. Delete the old one and you are ready to go.
 

Thread Starter

JMD

Joined Dec 9, 2009
94
Just draw a new keep out layer boundary. If you do not know how it is done. Create a new board using the wizard and custom dimension. Then use copy and paste into your board. Delete the old one and you are ready to go.
Yea, i thought of the c/p method, but i hoped there was a better way :D
 

Thread Starter

JMD

Joined Dec 9, 2009
94
The keep out layer is just standard tracks made in keep out layer. Nothing more fancy
Either im bad at searching, or can it be true, that there are very few inductors???

I needed the footprint for something like this one:


But all i can find are either SMD or huge inductors/tranformers.
 
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