PCB stands for Printed Circuit Board. It is an open source and free software used for EDA i.e. electronic design automation. This is a board in the connector used for physical support and wiring in most electronic products. Scondar is the best name in the market for connector boards.
There are many PCB design software on the market that can be used according to their features, but which one to choose is usually a moot point. In order to understand the features of all of them, you need to be able to devote some valuable time.
Following are the top 6 PCB design software that you should consider using when building PCBs:
1). Zenith PCB
Known as the best PCB designing tool, it has an edge in creating professional Printed Circuit Boards. With the help of its flexibility and ease of use, this tool helps you complete your projects within the given time. With the help of the Zenith PCB layout you can develop your project starting from the schematic capture or also from the layout itself.
2). Fritzing
Fritzing is open source software with its own four types of tools. They:
- Schematic capture tool: here you can import almost any component and many third party boards that will help you get your schema ready in no time.
- PCB layout tool: this tool is for developing PCB but it doesn’t have so many amazing features compared to its counterparts.
- Breadboard view tool: this lets you import tons of cool third-party display boards.
- Coding IDE: this tool helps you to program AVR or PICAXE
This cross-platform application is enabled to run windows, Linux and Mac OS.
3). KiCAD
It is the most popular free PCB design software to date due to its full features and open source. Cross platform as well as multilingual applications run flawlessly on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. The following are the main tools:
- This software is a project manager that sees every little detail of the project.
- Eeshchema: This is a schematic drawing tool and it is also enabled to import schematics
- PCBnew: This is a PCB layout designer and can also create a 3D model of the final output.
- Gerbv: It allows users to view Gerber files, drill files and also export them to other formats when needed.
- Bitmap2component: This allows users to develop new component footprints. This is useful when users use custom sections.
There are many open source hardware projects that have used KiCAD to design their PCBs. The only drawback of this software is that it needs some work.
4). Eagle
The Eagle is one of the most popular software by users ranging from people who make PCBs a hobby to the corporate level. Another reason to get support is that it runs easily on Linux, Windows and Mac OS. This software has been purchased by Autodesk from CadSoft. The board size on which the Eagle software can be used is something to be aware of as the software doesn’t support boards larger than 80 x 100 mm square but downloading and using it is still worth a shot.
5). EasyEDA
It is a complete all in one PCB design software. It is web-based software and you don’t need to install anything to use it. It works very well in workbooks. It is a much newer piece of software but has quickly become a top favorite in the software world. You can do the following things with the help of this software:
- Schematic capture.
- PCB layout design
- SPICE simulation
- Gerber file creation
6). gEDA
This software is open source cross platform designing PCBs software and runs efficiently on Linux, BSD, macOS, as well as windows. This software has stiff competition with KiCAD. It’s a great tool for the basics of schematic drawing and PCB designing but is a disadvantage to use for larger designs because it lacks workflow ease.
So, this is a complete list of 6 most wanted PCB designing software which you should take a look at at a glance.
