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PCB Board Design Tool - RF Cafe Forums
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jom
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Post subject: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 9:44 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007
2:40 am Posts: 35 |
Can anyone suggest a relatively cheap PCB design
tool that has a schematic capture along with it?
One that is inexpensive (relatively speaking) with
little or no "limitations"? I'm a consultant and
could use a tool but can't really afford something
like Altium (formerly Protel). Any ideas?
Thanks jom
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IR |
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 5:28 pm
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005
2:02 pm Posts: 423 Location: Germany
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jom |
Post subject:
Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 9:10 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007
2:40 am Posts: 35 |
Thanks for that.... After reading about
Eagle (and a couple of others) I don't quite get
why anyone would want a more expensive software
program. You can get DipTrace (which I just found
yesterday) and Eagle at or below $1000. Compared
to some like Altium or Mentor that is VERY cheap.
So I guess the question really is what do the more
expensive packages have that, say, Eagle doesn't?
I don't see any size or layer limitations (unless
you get the free version) and they seem to have
plenty of libraries (you can always build you own
as you go). So what's the deal? I must be missing
something here... jom
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IR |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:53 am
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005
2:02 pm Posts: 423 Location: Germany
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I guess it is all about the brand - the manufacturer
reputation. I also have a very good example from
RF simulation SW which I recently purchased in a
low price and is capable to do the same as MUCH
more expensive equivalent packages.
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kpainter |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 3:30 pm
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General |
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003
11:47 am Posts: 101 Location: Santa Barbara,
CA |
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jom |
Post subject:
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 1:24 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007
2:40 am Posts: 35 |
kpainter: Thanks for that. I'll look it up.
IR: Care to elaborate on this SW package you
speak of?
I've found Eagle to be a bit difficult to
use. Mainly, they seem to base much of their GUI
on command-line rather than keyboard/mouse. The
annotation thing (connectivity) is annoying also.
DipTrace doesn't really look very professional
(not that much of a problem) but the library creation
is like pulling teeth (same with eagle it seems).
I guess my main problem is that I don't
have a lot of PCB design experience (none actually
) so maybe I'm being a bit harsh. jom
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kpainter |
Post subject:
Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:27 pm
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General |
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003
11:47 am Posts: 101 Location: Santa Barbara,
CA |
No, you pretty much hit the nail on the head. They
all pretty much suck in their own unique way. You
learn to work around each package's warts.
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IR |
Post subject:
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2008 8:44 am
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Site Admin |
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Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005
2:02 pm Posts: 423 Location: Germany
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Sure. The SW is LINC2 from ACS
www.appliedmicrowave.com It is a linear
simulator with a rich variety of synthesis tools
capable to analyze and simulate any linear netowrk.
The price is affordable for people like us and the
performances really exceed the expectations.
Good luck!
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insarabasab |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 1:22 pm
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Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2009
11:40 am Posts: 2 |
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biff44 |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:50 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2009
11:07 am Posts: 48 |
Altium IS on sale. It is the cheapest the full range
professional packages out there. I have also heard
good stuff on Eagle, but it does not sound like
the full package of tricks. Pads was a microwave
industry standard, but it is just sky high in price...people
are jumping ship.
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madengr |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:51 pm
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Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007
5:22 pm Posts: 13 Location: Overland Park,
KS |
+1 for Altium. I have been using it for 16 years.
I don't do huge digital circuits, but mainly high
density GHz RF layout and mixed signal (FPGAs, DAC,
etc..). It's easy to use but let's you tweak it
enough (via the design rules) to get a clean DRC
with lot's of arbitrary metal. You can assign nets
to polygons which is very helpful. It also imports
PADS, which Microwave Office exports, so it's easy
to pull in RF artwork as true polygons, not as a
Gerber file with a gazillion tracks. The 3D features
are excellent for checking mechanical interference
to housings.
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kpainter |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 4:10 pm
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General |
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Joined: Wed Aug 20, 2003
11:47 am Posts: 101 Location: Santa Barbara,
CA |
We use Altium where I work. We have 12 seats. They
wanted $12K/per seat. We renewed our current seats
and bought a couple of new ones but let them know
that this was going to be the end of the line with
them (not that we knew what we would replace them
with). A couple of months later, we got this really
interesting letter from the CEO stating a price
drop to $3,995 for a perpetual license. That is
still too much for me to buy a personal license
but we may pick up some more licenses at work.
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jom |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 2:48 pm
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Colonel |
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Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2007
2:40 am Posts: 35 |
I thought I would bring this up again. What we need
now is a software package that handle both PCB design
AND hybrid design. By hybrid I mean a package that
has bare die and bond wires. We've used AutoCAD
for the drawing part but had to translate it to
DipTrace so we could have LVS done. But the overall
control of drawings is pretty much a disaster as
AutoCAD is hard to use and not very well suited
to electronics design. What do most use out
there? The expensive Cadence or PADS? argh.
jom
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NeilCraig |
Post subject: Re: PCB Board Design Tool
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 4:01 pm
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Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2011
1:50 pm Posts: 4 |
I've been looking into this issue. I'm working to
make Eagle work for RF PCB design. PADS is just
so complicated and without a dedicated user, it
didn't make sense. Eagle seems easy enough to use
and has an extensive library, the trick is getting
transmission line matching structures from the EM
simulators via. DXF files, in and out of Eagle.
Once I get it figured out, I might write my own
tutorial as I have not found a good one yet.
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Posted 11/12/2012
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