Tired of breadboarding ? Me too.

True breadboarding is very easy to test drive a design. But when the circuit is OK and meant to stay, it is much less practical (where was that loose cable going to ?). So I started looking for free tools to design PCB.

Here's what I found:

• Fedora Electronics Lab
  • a Fedora Linux distribution that is tailored to include all the Linux tools needed for designing and producing circuits (from PCB to FPGA - VHDL)
• GPL EDA
  • a software suite for Electronics Design Automation
  • for Linux (and Mac OSX through X11 server)
• Kicad
  • a software suite for creating schematics diagram and printed circuits
  • works under Windows, Linux (source code compatible with BSD and Mac OSX)
• FreePCB
  • PCB drawing only
  • Windows only, Open source
  • Output Gerber and Excellon drill files
• ExpressSCH & ExpressPCB
  • drawing of schematics and associated PCB
  • Windows only
  • Linked to a PCB manufacturer
• Advanced Circuits' PCB Artist Layout
  • drawing of PCB
  • Windows only
  • Advanced Circuits proposes the tool and links to different manufacturers in USA (not directly linked to a single manufacturer but still...)
    • "Gerber-Formatted files FREE after 1st order for each part #"

From our HAM friends,

• SDS & TCI
  • SDS for Schematics capture, TCI for tracing circuits
  • Windows only

Good source of links:

• OpenCollector
  • a huge database of online free resources

Tips & techniques for PCB design:

• ExpressPCB
• PCB Artist layout tips
• PCB Design guide