PCB design software for newbies.

Thread Starter

Teljkon

Joined Jan 24, 2019
267
I did a search for this and found some rather old posts but is there any free and easy for newbies circuit board design software. Also I bought the parts from mouser is there any software that would let me use the foot prints from their Ecad models?

For reference Ecad model

Or is that kind of thing fairly standard.
 

ZCochran98

Joined Jul 24, 2018
303
Like the other members have said, KiCAD is one of the best and easy-to-use free PCB/schematic tools. Its also pretty easy to add components that aren't native to the base libraries (which are, themselves, pretty enormous), whether you make them yourself or get the footprint/schematic symbol library from Mouser or other sources.

You will have to route your traces by hand, for the most part (unless you get an external routing tool like the "TopoR" topological router tool), but that's not a bad thing - it allows you to have more control over the traces, which can be very useful.

To use Mouser's ECAD models you may need another tool to "properly" import them (maybe?), but I think Mouser explains how to do it anyway.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,839
Yes but is it newbie friendly seriously Im green at this stuff and how can I resist not downloading the software that lets me say Hadzuken every time I load it up.
The "best" software in the world won't magically turn you into an expert. It takes years of practice and a good amount of common sense.

EDIT: Here's a layout someone with no experience was trying to do in fritzing. He was having problems placing all of the components and had resorted to standing them on end:
clipimage.jpg
And my attempt (with Eagle):
clipimage.jpgclipimage.jpg
This is the thread.
 
Last edited:

panic mode

Joined Oct 10, 2011
2,715
spend few hours (a day or so) reading manual and watching tutorials. it is not end of the world.
it is not like spending thousands of $$$ on a product than taking months to learn how to use it.
 
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