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Any good electronics packages anyone knows of?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 4:27 am
by CWood
Started a new project, and decided to try my hand at some electronics engineering. Problem is though, I can't seem to find any decent, free (and adding to that legal) software, for circuit simulation and PCB design (preferably in one package, or able to communicate with each other).

Does anyone know of anything that meets these requirements? Platform is not really an issue, but price is. Thanks.

Re: Any good electronics packages anyone knows of?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:01 am
by xenos
My recommendation is gEDA:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDA
http://www.geda-project.org/

I don't use it frequently because I haven't done much electronics development recently, but it was always suitable for my needs.

Re: Any good electronics packages anyone knows of?

Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:02 am
by ACcurrent
Umm... If you are looking for free stuff I use spice for simulation. There are loads of spice frontends. For windows there is 5spice which is free. If you are looking for simulation on linux there's Xcircuit which outputs spice netlist. You also have TI TINA which used to be free, but I believe is reasonably priced. It does not do PCB but is excellent for designing and simulating circuits. For open source stuff you can go here: http://www.gpleda.org/. If you ar looking at arduinos and Open Hardware then have a look at fritzing for PCB layout. It has a nice interface, but does not simulate anything.
Note: Lot of software packages out there are free if less than a certain number of components are used. Also have a look at the PCB manufacturer's site, some larger ones provide their own software packages.