All this new stuff that I must learn I am looking for actually 2 things 1 is where to find help learning LTspice and taking what I have on schematic and making a board out of it. Never used any tools like this before. great but a steep learning curve to all of it.

 

I recommend thinking about your end state, what you imagine doing in the future. Do you want to produce a new PCB once a week, or once a year? Or just once?

A time-saving tool is only worth learning if the time you save far exceeds the time to learn it.

LTspice is useful to even a casual hobbyist like me despite its learning curve. Making tweaks and adjustments is a lot easier in software than on a breadboard, IMO. (You'll definitely find other opinions on that here.) It's a great learning tool for understanding how your choices of component values can affect output. And the next step is often the breadboard, because real circuits don't always perform as they do in simulation. You can certainly skip from paper to PCB but be prepared for failed builds.

For me, the next step after the breadboard has not been a custom PCB but rather a build on a perf-board. I used general drawing software (which I was already quite familiar with) to work out the precise layout "on paper". I've made a handful of devices this way. In my most recent project I made 5 identical perf-board builds and swore I'd never do that again. Sizing, stripping and soldering all the wires drove me nuts. So I started to learn about tools to produce a PCB file for production.

Software such as Eagle can do simulation (so I hear, I've never used it) and take you all the way from a schematic to a finished board layout. You'll find proponents of Eagle here, as well as KiCad and a few others. Output that board layout in the right file format and you can send it off to get your PCB made. People here can recommend a half dozen such shops. I didn't get very far on my learning curve before hitting some walls and bailing out. If I had a few projects in the hopper, I'd jump back in and do the work.

 

Well I'm going to be having to make a few over the next year or 2 something I am building will require by my count 5 boards. and those boards are going into a long term tool for my hobby and I would like to at least get my feet wet and learn some of the new tools. I'm an old paper and pencil guy that did a ton of math then built on protoboard and then having to make a circuit board was a much simpler process then.

 

...something I am building will require by my count 5 boards...

If that were all you were ever going to do, I'd say you're on the bubble. It'd be hard to justify learning Eagle just for that. But as I said, my last build of 5 boards had me vowing to never do that again "the hard way".

I can't really recommend Eagle because I haven't done much with it myself but I know a lot of folks here recommend it. I believe KiCad may be the leading alternative but there are others as well. It may take a little experimentation, combined with advice from the experts here, to find the one that suits you.

The topics of PCB design software and PCB fabrication shops are both recurring and popular here. A little searching will uncover a lot of collective wisdom.

 

KiCad is a steep learning curve and very specific. You have to know the exact component to use with all of its parameters which will be in a pick library. There are those here that use it. So LTSpice for modeling, breadboard for testing, maybe a perfboard for further testing, and then there is the old make your own board by etching copper clad or Manhattan style. If all goes well as intended, then using CAD to optimize the board layout and having a board house make a run of several or a one-off board. Even then and at any step along the way be ready to deal with errors...

 

My middle name is error. I am prepared to make errors I have and usually do build onto a protoboard to test parts of a circuit and then add them into the larger board I have. I am very limited in space for making etched boards here. I really do need to handle this project with the utmost care. It's being made to last me for years to come. tiny little desk I work at is at least L shaped and solder station at one end scope off to one side power supplies scattered in front of me signal generators meters and other test equipment under the top shelf. and then there is the components. tis a mess.

 

EasyEDA (standard edition), offered by JLCPCB, is indeed easy to use and it free. I recommend giving it a try.

It feeds into JLCPCB's pcb fabrication service seamlessly and into their extremely cost-effective assembly service if you'd like to have your boards assembled. But it generates all the files you need to have boards fabricated and assembled anywhere.

I could outline all the positive things about EasyEDA, but trying it is the best way to tell if you like it.