The material was written for the website RCOnline.ru in 2007.

Some time ago, I accidentally came across two very interesting programs on the Internet, designed for drawing basic electronic circuits and layout of printed circuit boards. Both programs were translated from German into Russian by V. Shcherbakov, which allows them to be used even by inexperienced modelers and novice electronics engineers. The programs are not interconnected and do not have such wide capabilities as the well-known packages OrCad, PCad and Accel-EDA and others, however, with their help you can draw a fairly complex circuit and trace a double-sided printed circuit board. Both programs have ready-made libraries of elements, in addition, in each of them you can easily create your own element, both circuit and PCB.

Since both of these programs were announced as Freeware, I think that I will not violate anyone’s copyright by posting them on this site.

The first program is Splan - a “drawer” of circuit diagrams. contains nine files of the “body” of the program and a bibo folder containing ready-made libraries of circuit elements. It should be noted that the set of ready-made elements, especially digital and analog microcircuits, is not very large, but the user can draw the necessary elements using the built-in editor. The program supports continuous numbering of similar parts.

Of course, the program allows you to draw basic geometric shapes, lines, connection points, make text inserts and inscriptions, as well as design the finished diagram in accordance with the requirements for technical drawings.

The program does not require installation as such. Simply unpack the archive file into the desired folder, and the program is ready to use. The program is designed to work under Windows of any version (Win-*, NT, 2000, XP), and takes up a little more than one megabyte on disk.

Please note that I will do all my further developments and publications with circuit diagrams and designs of printed circuit boards using these two programs!

P.S. Life does not stand still - over the past 7 years, both programs have been significantly modified by the developers. Currently relevant and. The programs have significantly greater capabilities than their predecessors, for example, Sprint-Layout can trace four-layer printed circuit boards and has much more convenient service capabilities, and sPlan is presented in a portable version that does not require installation on a hard drive. Both new versions of the programs are available in the attached archives.

Please note that output file formats created in earlier versions of programs are read by older versions, and they are usually modified to match the format of the older version. But, unfortunately, younger versions of programs do not understand files created in older versions of sPlan and Sprint-Layout.

Many people are familiar with such technology for wiring and creating printed circuit boards as. But what to do when the scheme is too complex and voluminous? Here you will have to master more modern methods, one of which we will get acquainted with here. Take, for example, the circuit of this sound probe:

Device diagram

It makes no significant difference whether we lay out the board on a piece of paper in a checkered pattern, cutting out templates of parts with pins from cardboard (although I deeply doubt that anyone will use this method in the 21st century, when every home has a computer), or use some program for PCB layout, for example sprint layout. Of course, with the help of sprint layout it will be much easier to do this, especially in large schemes. In both cases, first we place on the working field the part with the largest number of pins; in our case it is a transistor, let’s say VT1, this is our KT315. (A link to the sprint layout user manual will be provided below). Moreover, at first, when designing, your printed circuit board may resemble a circuit diagram, that’s okay, I think everyone started out that way. We installed it, then we connect its base and emitter with tracks to resistor R1, we also have the base VT1 connected to the output of capacitor C1 and the output of resistor R2. Instead of lines on the diagram, we connect the pins of the parts with a track on the printed circuit board. I also made it a rule to count the number of pins of parts connected on the diagram and on the printed circuit board; we should get the same number of connected patches.

As you can see, we have 3 more pins connected to the base on the board, just like in the diagram; in the diagram they are marked with red rings. Next, we install transistor VT2 - this is a KT361 transistor, it has a pnp structure, but we don’t care at the moment, since it also has 3 outputs and is in a housing exactly the same as KT315. We installed the transistor, then connect its emitter to the second terminal R2, and the second terminal of capacitor C1 to the collector VT2. We connect the VT2 base to the VT1 collector, install patches on the board to connect the BA1 speaker, we connect it with one terminal to the VT2 collector, the other terminal to the VT1 emitter. Here's what everything I described looks like on the board:

We continue further, we install the LED, connect it to the BA1 pin and to the VT2 emitter. Afterwards we install transistor VT3, this is also KT315 and connect it with the collector to the cathode of the LED, we connect the emitter of VT3 to the minus of the power supply. Next, we install resistor R4 and connect it with tracks to the base and emitter of transistor VT3; we connect the output from the base to probe X1. Let's see what happened on the board:

And finally we install the last few parts. Let's install the power switch, connecting it to the power plus with a path from one patch and to the VT2 emitter, with a path from the other patch connected to the switch. We connect this switch terminal with resistor R3, and connect the second patch of the resistor to the contacts of probe X2.

That's it, the board is separated . If you really want, you can transfer this drawing to PCB and etch this board and you will have a Sound Probe device with a test resistance of up to 650 Ohms. Of course, it was possible, if desired, to be laid out more compactly, but I did not have such a goal, my goal was to tell you step by step about the process of creating a printed circuit board layout. If anyone is interested in the process of creating boards using the program sprint layout, I recommend going through and reading the manual

A free, fully functional cloud-based PCB design system that does not require installation on your local computer (Figure 1). Despite the fact that EasyEDA is a cloud service and a new developing project, it boasts functionality, reliability, stability and speed, a simple and intuitive interface, a rich set of component libraries with an automatic update function, and the ability to import projects from other design systems. The system includes a circuit editor, a mixed signal simulator using SPICE models and circuits, a multilayer printed circuit board editor with an autorouter and a system for preparing boards for production. And most importantly, the EasyEDA system has a Russian user interface.

In addition, the EasyEDA system, which has the functionality of professional PCB development tools, adds advantages typical of cloud services: automatic updating of element libraries (for the schematic editor, SPICE simulator and PCB editor), the ability to share your designs and libraries, access to a huge collections of professional Open Source modules, prompt technical support and communication with system developers.

You can work in EasyEDA from any browser. The presence of a textbook, a guide to the SPICE simulator, a huge number of examples of professional projects, and a clear user interface make it easy to master the system.

Main advantages of EasyEDA:

• A free cross-platform set of cloud-based tools that does not require installation, combining powerful tools for editing electrical circuits, modeling digital-analog circuits and designing printed circuit boards in a web browser for electronics engineers, teachers, students and radio amateurs;
• all the advantages of a cloud service: work from a browser on any operating system Linux, Mac, Windows, Android;
• fast drawing of electronic circuits in the browser using available libraries, efficient automatic updating;
• libraries from SeedStudio, SparkFun, Adafruit, KiCad, DangerousPrototype;
• manager for working with element libraries, quick search for elements in system and user libraries;
• verification of analog, digital and mixed circuits using SPICE models and subcircuits;
• work on multilayer boards with thousands of contact pads;
• the ability to import projects from Eagle, Altium, Kicad and LTspice;
• the ability to set up sharing and collaboration on projects;
• access to Open Source modules developed by thousands of radio electronics engineers;
• the ability to share your developments using public or private access settings.

TinyCAD

The free professional electronic circuit design system is positioned as a common application for drawing and editing two-dimensional hierarchical electronic circuits of varying degrees of complexity (Figure 3). A fairly extensive library of components, support for exporting and importing projects, and collaboration with the FreePCB printed circuit board design environment and the LTspice simulator make TinyCAD a fairly powerful free system for end-to-end design that can compete with commercial products.

ZenitPCB

Easy and flexible to use CAD, which is a semi-professional software for drawing electrical circuits and routing printed circuit boards (Figure 4). The application consists of four independent modules: ZenitCapture (electrical circuit editor), ZenitParts (component editor), ZenitPCB GerberView (Gerber file viewer) and ZenitPCB itself (PCB editor). The sequence of operations in the ZenitPCB program is as follows: placing components in the ZenitCapture module, specifying connections between them, creating a netlist, developing the board outline in the ZenitPCB module, loading the netlist into the ZenitPCB module, routing operations. Supports import/export of DXF files, export of IDF (3D) files, printing of work results in each application module. However, the main disadvantage of ZenitPCB is the lack of useful functions such as automatic routing and automatic placement of component bodies.

FreePCB

A free and open source program designed for editing printed circuit boards (Figure 5). When creating the program, the goal was to make it as easy as possible to learn and use, but capable of providing professional quality development. It is designed only for manual routing of boards, but it allows you to use the FreeRouting autorouter available on the network.

Here are some features of the program:

• operating environment - Microsoft Windows;
• support from 1 to 16 layers;
• maximum printed circuit board size 1524×1524 mm;
• Most functions accept both inch and metric units of measurement (mils or mm);
• package libraries courtesy of Design International, PCB Matrix and IPC;
• filling polygons;
• editor and Wizard for creating and modifying component footprints;
• import netlist from LTspice simulator;
• import/export of netlists to PADS-PCB;
• export of topology files to the extended Gerber format (RS274X) and drilling files to Excellon format;
• checking compliance with design standards;
• autosave.

KiCad

A free cross-platform system with a Russian interface for creating electrical circuits and printed circuit boards. KiCad includes a set of programs for automating the development of electronic devices (Electronic Design Automation - EDA). Work in the system is carried out entirely through a graphical interface. You drag the necessary elements into the work area, add connections between them, and make captions for them. A distinctive feature is support for 3D visualization of a printed circuit board design (Figure 6).

KiCad consists of the following components: Eeschema - electrical circuit editor; Pcbnew - printed circuit board editor (also includes a viewer for three-dimensional images of printed circuit boards); Gerbview - photo template viewer; Cvpcb - selection of footprints for components used in the circuit; Kicad is a project manager.

(DSPCB) from RS Components (RS) is perhaps the most affordable electronic design software in the world (Figure 7). It is easy to learn and easy to use. It is specially designed for non-professionals in CAD systems to reduce the time between the idea of ​​​​a device and the start of its production, speeding up the entry of the finished product into the market. allows you to draw electrical circuits, develop a printed circuit board design and its routing, and also offers ready-made models of electronic components presented by RS Components.

In addition, this program performs auto-placement of components and auto-routing of printed design connections. The results obtained are corrected manually. It is important that the program is free from practical restrictions on board size, number of component pins, number of board layers, and output file formats. Therefore, it can be used not only for drawing circuits and PCB, but also for creating files for production.

Recently, several cloud-based PCB design systems have appeared, but some of them are limited in functionality and are not suitable even for radio amateurs, not to mention professionals. The remaining programs are comparable to desktop applications, but have become paid. For example, the free online system EasyEDA can become a worthy competitor to a product from Aspen Labs, the full version of which has become paid.

Directory Documentation

Best PCB Tracing Software

"Documentation" - Technical information by application electronic components, features of construction of various radio engineering And electronic circuits, as well as documentation on the features of working with engineering software and regulatory documents (GOST).

Today's popular programs for printed circuit boards allow you not only to obtain a finished drawing created according to the circuit. Their functionality includes:

• wiring;
• tracing (both manual and automatic);
• troubleshooting in the project;
• linking circuit components to their footprints;
• 3D viewing of the finished project, with the ability to print.

The most useful programs available are: KiCAD and DipTrace.

It has a free version, quite suitable for solving most non-industrial problems. The built-in PCB Layout module with automatic routing is perfect for both small boards and larger options, without the use of conventional grids. Its functionality is significant and begins with narrowing the routes and ending with independent optimization of the board size. It automatically checks the entire project at all stages of its creation, which eliminates the possibility of significant errors and speeds up troubleshooting by an order of magnitude. A very powerful tool, despite its simplicity. It should be noted that it was developed by domestic specialists, which means that all documentation and official information is entirely in Russian.

The library has more than 100,000 ready-made items. But you don’t have to limit yourself to them, since creating a new component with its own properties will only take a few minutes.

KiCAD

The main advantage of KiCAD is the huge number of existing component libraries, thanks to the open source code. There is also an excellent error search that clearly indicates them and gives additional recommendations, which is incredibly convenient for both beginners and professionals with a lot of complex projects. It is worth paying attention to the Russian-language menu.

Work in the program begins with the creation of a new project, the creation of which begins work in the Eeschema circuit editor. All components can be used standard, download others, edit existing ones, or create new ones.

It is more expedient to carry out automatic tracing using the free router FreeRouter. In this case, it is more advisable to route the most important routes yourself, and then FreeRouter will do everything. This way you can achieve the greatest productivity of the process.

Publication date: 27.11.2017

Readers' opinions

• YAKIK / 08/14/2018 - 13:46
  HOW TO OPEN

The DipTrace program is a modern complex for the development of circuit diagrams and tracing. DipTrace is reliable and powerful PCB tracing software, which will help you easily create even the most complex printed circuit boards, including when making a printed circuit board. It helps you create single or multi-sided PCBs, draw the schematic, and export the PCB connection table. DipTrace has a simple and intuitive interface.

All important functions for design and editing are conveniently placed, with buttons located around the main editing screen. During testing, all program functions worked well and without errors.

For professional designers who want a reliable tool for designing circuits and PCBs, for small business owners who don't want to spend a lot of money on software, and for hams who want to create a board for their devices, DipTrace is a great option for this.

Description of the DipTrace program

DipTrace is an advanced PCB design software. The program has 4 modules:

• PCB Layout— endowed with an effective automatic router and automatic placement of circuit components;
• Schematic— editor of circuit diagrams, including multi-sheet ones;
• SchemEdit– radio element editor, drawing symbols, creating a library of radio elements;
• ComEdit– editor of radio element packages, with the ability to combine them into package libraries.

DipTrace has a powerful automatic tracer that is superior to many tracers available in similar software packages. It can trace both single-sided (single-layer) boards and multi-layer ones. It is also possible to auto-rout a single-sided board using connecting wires (jumpers), if necessary.

Smart Tools - Manual Routing, allows users to complete the design and obtain the final result through manual adjustments. There is a control option that allows you to control the accuracy of project creation. DipTrace modules allow you to exchange schematic diagrams, layouts and libraries with other CAD and CAD packages. Output formats can be DXF, Gerber, Drill and G-code. The standard library contains more than 98,000 components.