[time-nuts] Schematic capture, anyone?

Steve Byan stevebyan at verizon.net
Fri Feb 24 14:08:25 UTC 2012


On Feb 23, 2012, at 7:38 PM, Jim Hickstein wrote:

> What do people use these days for schematic capture (and just possibly PCB layout), for low-budget homebrew stuff?  

[snip]

> I'm a Mac shop, but can of course run Windows if need be.  

Basically there are only two reasonable choices for schematic capture on the Mac:

Capilano's DesignWorks: <http://www.capilano.com/dwm_features>. Available only from the Mac App Store.

VAMP's McCAD: <http://www.mccad.com/>

Years ago, DesignWorks fit my budget much better than McCAD, but today I think they both offer free versions that can handle small hobby projects.



For PCB layout on the Mac: Osmond PCB <http://www.osmondpcb.com/>

Again, the Osmond free trial handles small hobby-sized boards. The price for the full version is quite reasonable.


For spice, see <http://www.macspice.com/>


There are some open-source apps using cross-platform GUI frameworks that compile on the Mac:
KiCad: <http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page>

If you can stomach Xwindows applications, then there are many open-source applications such as the Chipmunk system:
<http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~lazzaro/chipmunk/index.html>

Best regards,
-Steve

-- 
Steve Byan <stevebyan at me.com>
Littleton, MA 01460







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