What is the best free or cheap electronics design software? It is hard to say in this ever changing field. I some time ago mentioned some software examples in Top Free Electronics Design Tools posting and you can find a long comparison list at Wikipedia Comparison of EDA software page.
For the circuit design I would say that this list from Mostly free engineering software article is a good list of free/cheap software I can agree:
- KiCad seems the best known open-source EDA system.
- gEDA looks very similar.
- EAGLE is a commercial package with a free version that will handle small double-sided boards.
- DesignSpark PCB is not open-source, but looks very capable given the cost ($0). It is adware
From has done some playing with KiCad and gEDA (years ago) but I felt that they were lacking something in easy to use (some improvement needed here I think). From those alternatives EAGLE feels the best for me.
Here are also some new on-line focused alternatives:
CircuitBee is an online platform that promises to allow you to share live versions of your circuit schematics on your websites, blogs or forums that I covered three years ago.
Digi-Key Corporation and Aspen Labs launched two years ago one-of-a-kind online ‘Scheme-it’ tool for drawing schematics.
HackEDA is an interesting looking new on-line electronics design tool introduced last year. The premise is simple: most electronic projects are just electronic Lego: You connect your microcontroller to a sensor, add in a battery, throw in a few caps and resistors for good measure, and hopefully everything will work.
circuits.io was promising looking free circuit editor in your browser introduced two years ago. I has browser based schematic and board layout. Anyone familiar with Autodesk knows they have a bit of a habit of taking over the world. Autodesk started with 123D modeling tool that is suitable for designing models for 3D printing. Now Autodesk has followed with 123D Circuits: Autodesk’s free design tool. 123D is web-based software, and using it requires account creation on the circuits.io website. Anything you design sits on the cloud: you can collaborate with others and even embed your circuit (with functioning simulation). All your work is public unless you pay. There are many things similar to Fritzing in this.
CircuitMaker from Altium posting that tells that Altium recently announced CircuitMaker, their entry into the free/low-cost PCB design tool market. They’re entering a big industry, with the likes of Eagle, KiCad, gEDA, and a host of other tool suites. CircuitMaker from Altium posting has introductory video on CircuitMaker and discussion on it. CircuitMaker’s website is pushing the collaboration aspect of the software. The software is still in pre-beta phase.
EasyEDA is an integrated tool for schematic capture, circuit simulation and PCB layout that you use with your web browser. Read more about it from my posting on EasyEDA.
Related links: Check my postings on electronics design software.
308 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARduino. This tool enables you to interact with and debug hardware using augmented reality.
Accelerate Hardware Development
https://www.inspectar.com/
Enable electronics work like never before. Overlaying every aspect of a design directly onto the board, inspectAR enables interactions with hardware intuitively. Inspect, debug, rework, and assemble PCBs in less time, without mistakes or frustration.
Use inspectAR Free of Charge
https://www.inspectar.com/sign-up-free
You spoke, and we listened. Create a free account to get instant access on iOS and Android to an Arduino Uno r3 and the 2019 Hackaday Superconference badge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
We know GitHub has become the de facto standard for source control and has morphed into a collaboration and project management platform used by everybody who’s anybody in the hacking community. But have you ever wished for a collaboration platform that was a little more in tune with the needs of hardware designers? Then InventHub might be of interest to you. Currently in a limited beta – we tried to sign up for the early access program but seem to have been put on a waiting list – it seems like this will be a platform that brings versioning directly to the ECAD package of your choice. Through plugins to KiCad, Eagle, and all the major ECAD players you’ll be able to collaborate with other designers and see their changes marked up on the schematic — sort of a visual diff. It seems interesting, and we’ll be keeping an eye on developments.
Source: https://hackaday.com/2019/12/08/hackaday-links-december-8-2019/
Link: https://inventhub.io/
Tomi Engdahl says:
InspectAR Augmented Reality PCB Inspection Has Come a Long Way in Four Months
This tool uses augmented reality to test, debug and rework your circuit boards.
https://www.hackster.io/news/inspectar-augmented-reality-pcb-inspection-has-come-a-long-way-in-four-months-c21c57c77c0b
Tomi Engdahl says:
Commercial Circuit Simulator Goes Free
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/08/commercial-circuit-simulator-goes-free/
If you are looking for simulation software, you are probably thinking LTSpice or one of the open-source simulators like Ngspice (which drives Oregano and QUCs-S), or GNUCap. However, there is a new free option after the closing of Spectrum Software last year: Micro-Cap 12. You may be thinking: why use another closed-source simulator? Well, all the simulators have particular strengths, but Micro-Cap does have very nice features and used to retail for about $4,500.
The simulator boasts a multipage schematic editor, native robust digital simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, 33,000 parts in its library, worst-case and smoke analysis, Smith charts, and it can even incorporate spreadsheets. There’s a built-in designer for active and passive filters. Have a look at the brochure and you will see this is a pretty serious piece of software. And now it’s at least free as in beer.
The number of models supported for active devices is impressive and includes some very recent MOSFET models, not just the old standard models. It can also read just about any regular Spice or IBIS model. It can also export Spice files if you want to use another engine or share designs with other Spice users. There are also quite a few examples provided. There are also over 2,000 standard digital parts including all the usual 7400 families, CD4000 CMOS, and even ECL.
As a bonus, we tried it under Wine and it worked well — at least the 32-bit version.
Why Free?
The software was under development since 1982. We don’t know the circumstances of Spectrum’s closing but we hope it was to move on to something great. However, we appreciate the free release of this powerful simulator that can give LTSpice a run for its money. True, we expect there won’t be future development, but the package seems very complete and with the ability to import models, it will be very useful for a long time to come.
http://s-iihr64.iihr.uiowa.edu/MyWeb/Teaching/ece_55041_2014/Labs/SPICELAB.pdf
If you’d rather do LTSpice, we have a tutorial. Then again, for just playing around, the Falstad simulator is pretty nice and requires no installation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Use LTspice to simulate mixed continuous and sampled systems
https://www.edn.com/use-ltspice-to-simulate-mixed-continuous-and-sampled-systems/
Did you know that you can use LTspice to do Digital Signal Processing (DSP)? Actually, I should say it is useful for validating the operation of a signal-processing algorithm under development. This article summarizes how to use LTspice to simulate the operation of a mixed continuous and sampled systems.
Tomi Engdahl says:
After 36 years as a paid product, the Micro-Cap Circuit Simulator is now free.
http://www.spectrum-soft.com/download/download.shtm
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.edn.com/use-ltspice-to-simulate-mixed-continuous-and-sampled-systems/?utm_content=buffer846c5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Tomi Engdahl says:
Review: Testdriving LibrePCB Shows That It’s Growing Up Fast
https://hackaday.com/2020/01/22/review-testdriving-librepcb-shows-that-its-growing-up-fast/
There are a host of PCB CAD tools at the disposal of the electronic designer from entry-level to multi-thousand-dollar workstation software. It’s a field in which most of the players are commercial, and for the open-source devotee there have traditionally been only two choices. Both KiCad and gEDA are venerable packages with legions of devoted fans, but it is fair to say that they both present a steep learning curve for newcomers. There is however another contender in the world of open-source PCB CAD, in the form of the up-and-coming LibrePCB.
This GPL-licensed package has only been in development for a few years. LibrePCB brought out its first official release a little over a year ago, and now stands at version 0.1.3 with builds for GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOS, and FreeBSD.
https://librepcb.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit Simulation In Python
https://hackaday.com/2019/11/30/circuit-simulation-in-python/
Using SPICE to simulate an electrical circuit is a common enough practice in engineering that “SPICEing a circuit” is a perfectly valid phrase in the lexicon. SPICE as a software tool has been around since the 70s, and its open source nature means there are more SPICE tools around now to count. It also means it is straightforward enough to use with other software as well, like integrating LTspice with Python for some interesting signal processing circuit simulation.
https://acidbourbon.wordpress.com/2019/11/26/seamless-integration-of-ltspice-in-python-numpy-signal-processing/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Debugging PCBs With Augmented Reality
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/05/debugging-pcbs-with-augmented-reality/
Mihir Shah has designed many a PCB in his time. However, when working through the development process, he grew tired of the messy, antiquated methods of communicating design data with his team. Annotating photos is slow and cumbersome, while sending board design files requires everyone to use the same software and be up to speed. Mihir thinks he has a much better solution by the name of InspectAR, it’s an augmented reality platform that lets you see inside the circuit board and beyond which he demoed during the 2019 Hackaday Superconference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ7MdUl63FU
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reverse Engineer PCBs With SprintLayout
https://hackaday.com/2019/12/31/reverse-engineer-pcbs-with-sprintlayout/
Bwack] had some scanned pictures of an old Commodore card and wanted to recreate PC boards from it. It’s true that he could have just manually redrawn everything in a CAD package, but that’s tedious. Instead, he used SprintLayout 6.0 which allows you to import pictures and use them as a guide for recreating a PCB layout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0nkLJ4YQ2c
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/hacksterio/videos/135086707745986/
In a hurry and don’t want to re-learn PCB design for your latest project? Build a simple PCB with Patchr: this young tool holds promise, but be careful with saving!
// https://patchr.io
// https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2407066
// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9bYTeK1fvg
// https://www.hackster.io/news/introducing-the-hackjack-with-neosound-a-revolutionary-cyborg-device-by-hackster-io-d6dc73936547
// https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/free-trial
// https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/free-download
// https://kicad-pcb.org
// https://contextualelectronics.com/courses/getting-to-blinky/
// https://www.hackster.io/contests/nxpcrossover
Tomi Engdahl says:
Altium’s A365 Viewer Brings Interactive PCB Schematics, Layouts, and 3D Visualization to the Browser
Altium’s new view utility is impressive, though work still needs to be done to achieve its “CAD-agnostic” goal.
https://www.hackster.io/news/altium-s-a365-viewer-brings-interactive-pcb-schematics-layouts-and-3d-visualization-to-the-browser-a4a76501cb13
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Last Scientific Calculator?
https://hackaday.com/2020/03/02/the-last-scientific-calculator/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Solid State Relay Simulation, Explained
https://hackaday.com/2020/02/19/solid-state-relay-simulation/
[SaltyPuglord] needed a solid state relay for a project. We’d have just bought one, but he decided to design his own in LTSpice. Along the way he made the video below, which is pretty informative and a good example of a non-trivial design in LTSpice.
MOSFETs have made designs like this a lot easier, to the extent that it should be as easy as putting a pair of beefy fets in-line with the AC source and load. However, that has a few ramifications that [Salty] covers in the video.
MOSFET-based solid state relay for AC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-De7jaC-R8
Tomi Engdahl says:
x48 (HP48 S/SX/G/GX Emulator)
Hn HP48 emulator of X Windows.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/x48/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quickly Convert Bitmaps Into PCB Artwork
A step-by-step guide that turns any color image into a silkscreen masterpiece.
https://www.hackster.io/news/quickly-convert-bitmaps-into-pcb-artwork-8a143787f3d9
https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Master-Bitmaps-in-Eagle/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Altium Has Its 2kicad Moment
https://hackaday.com/2020/04/14/altium-has-its-2kicad-moment/#respond
Around these parts we tend to be exponents of the KiCad lifestyle; what better way to design a PCBA than with free and open source tools that run anywhere? But there are still capabilities in commercial EDA packages that haven’t found their way into KiCad yet, so it may not always be the best tool for the job. Altium Designer is a popular non-libre option, but at up to tens of thousands of USD per seat it’s not always a good fit for users and businesses without a serious need.
What do you do as a KiCad user who encounters a design in Altium you’d like to work with? Well as of April 3rd 2020, [Thomas Pointhuber] has merged the beginnings of a native Altium importer into KiCad which looks to be slated for the 6.0 release. As [Thomas] himself points out in the patch submission, this is hardly the first time a 3rd party Altium importer has been published. His new work is a translation of the Perl plugin altium2kicad by [thesourcerer8]. And back in January another user left a comment with links to four other (non-KiCad) tools to handle Altium files.
Tomi Engdahl says:
National Instruments is releasing free community editions of LabView for personal projects. “We are thrilled to encourage the power and potential of our LabVIEW community members who are involved in home and hobby projects,” said Jeff Kodosky, co-founder of NI and inventor of LabVIEW in a press release. “We created the LabVIEW Community editions so engineers could use the software for free — to pursue their personal ventures, experiment with programming ideas and create and share IP with their peers.”
NI Releases Free Editions of Flagship Software: LabVIEW
LabVIEW Community editions help engineers and hobbyists innovate at home
https://www.ni.com/en-us/about-ni/newsroom/news-releases/ni-releases-free-editions-of-flagship-software–labview.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
I found somthing really good
https://tools.analog.com/en/filterwizard/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Electronics Online Calculation Tools
https://www.electroinvention.co.in/electronics-online-calculation-tools
Tomi Engdahl says:
Circuit Safari on google play store for mobile.
NI Multisim on the PC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.tinkercad.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.labcenter.com/downloads/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Multisim live it’s free and every circuit cheap
Tomi Engdahl says:
Simulating Arduino circuit diagram in tinkercad
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=u4bOGtOeE0A
Tomi Engdahl says:
RC Phase Shift Oscillator Simulation using LT Spice !
https://youtu.be/BfqGnwAhldA
Tomi Engdahl says:
Altium Designer Tutorial #21: How to Make a Arduino Nano Board – PART #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-wikcWXMxg
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make 12v DC power supply PCB layout at home – using Proteus software
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=X4EgdGoLTd4
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.spectrum-soft.com/index.shtm
Micro Cap 12 today. It is free.
These new versions do not require the security key, so they make Micro-Cap free to the entire engineering community.
Micro-Cap 12 is an integrated schematic editor and mixed analog/digital simulator that provides an interactive sketch and simulate environment for electronics engineers. Since its original release in 1982, Micro-Cap has been steadily expanded and improved.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Discussion:
What is the easiest pcb design software that I can learn myself in my computer ?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/electronichobycircuits/permalink/3264107816947238/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://fritzing.org/home/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make Arduino Nano Board in Altium with USB C Part I
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-wikcWXMxg&feature=youtu.be
Tomi Engdahl says:
Altium Designer Tutorial 23: How to design Field Strength Probe / RFID
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8xqnoEJOVlw
Tomi Engdahl says:
An open source tool for simply documenting cables, wiring harnesses, and connector pinouts.
WireViz Makes It Easy to Document Your Project Wiring
https://www.hackster.io/news/wireviz-makes-it-easy-to-document-your-project-wiring-a3f221dddd89
An open source tool for simply documenting cables, wiring harnesses, and connector pinouts.
WireViz, on the other hand, is a simple tool that accepts a basic text file with your wiring connections and outputs visual tables that clearly show those connections. It takes into account the connections at each end, as well as the cables and connectors you’re using in-between them.
WireViz is open source and built around Graphviz, which is open source graph visualization software.
import that text file into WireViz and it will spit out a graphical representation in whatever format you like (SVG, PNG, etc.). You can then use your documentation to make your cables!
https://github.com/formatc1702/WireViz
WireViz is a tool for easily documenting cables, wiring harnesses and connector pinouts. It takes plain text, YAML-formatted files as input and produces beautiful graphical output (SVG, PNG, …) thanks to GraphViz. It handles automatic BOM (Bill of Materials) creation and has a lot of extra features.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seven ways automation design software helps IIoT
Electrical and automation design software can help with Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) automation implementations in seven ways. See product examples.
https://www.controleng.com/articles/seven-ways-automation-design-software-helps-iiot/?oly_enc_id=0462E3054934E2U
Tomi Engdahl says:
LT Spice – Op-Amp RC Phase Shift Oscillator Simulation || Design & Simulation of RC Phase Oscillator
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=BfqGnwAhldA
Tomi Engdahl says:
What programs do you all use to create your circuit pictures.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/electronichobycircuits/permalink/3360695190621833/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.suigyodo.com/online/e/manual/bsch3v/setcol/oldcol.htm
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.electroinvention.co.in/electronics-online-calculation-tools
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Release Of FidoCadJ Draws Schematics Everywhere
https://hackaday.com/2020/07/26/new-release-of-fidocadj-draws-schematics-everywhere/
Do you remember drawing your first schematic? Presumably you used a pen or a pencil and some kind of paper. Schematic capture software, though, makes it so much easier to draw schematics. There are many to choose from, but we spent some time checking out FidoCadJ and found it capable. Of course, there are many other options, but we did like that FidoCadJ runs locally and since it uses Java will run on just about any computer. Since it is open-source, you can modify it and you don’t have to worry about licensing it for your many computers or your team.
The program is a JAR file, and our first attempt to run it ran afoul of our older Java version that was the default Java Runtime Environment.
FidoCadJ
a free graphical editor for (more than) electronics
http://darwinne.github.io/FidoCadJ/index.html
FidoCadJ is a free user-friendly vector graphic editor for macOS, Linux, Windows and Android:
A simple schematic capture with a built-in set of electrical symbols and footprints;
A versatile graphical editor with user-defined libraries;
Easy-sharing text format for web forums and blogs;
Export in several graphical formats: PDF, EPS, SVG, PNG, JPG, and PGF/TikZ for LaTeX;
User interface in English, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Spanish, Czech, Japanese and Dutch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LT Spice Simulation
https://elecrtonicscircuithub.blogspot.com/2020/09/lt-spice-simulation-12v-power-supply.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
TI And Cadence Make PSpice Free
https://hackaday.com/2020/09/20/ti-and-cadence-make-pspice-free/
We like simulation software. Texas Instruments long offered TINA, but recently they’ve joined with Cadence to make OrCAD PSpice available for free with some restrictions. You’ve probably heard of PSpice — it’s widely used in academia and industry, but is usually quite costly. You can see a promotional overview video below.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/11/improved-part-searches-for-jlcpcb-parts/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rockin’ Out In LTSpice: Simulating Classic Guitar Pedals
https://hackaday.com/2020/10/29/rockin-out-in-ltspice-simulating-classic-guitar-pedals/
http://cushychicken.github.io/ltspice-boss-ge7-equalizer/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux circuit simulation
but you can try Qucs (Quite Universal Circuit Simulator), or try circuitjs1 Circuit Simulator. Both available on Github.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TOP 10 FREE PCB DESIGN SOFTWARE FOR 2019
https://www.electronics-lab.com/top-10-free-pcb-design-software-2019/
Tomi Engdahl says:
12 BEST FREE PCB DESIGN SOFTWARE
https://fixthephoto.com/best-free-pcb-design-software.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/electronichobycircuits/permalink/3815768585114489/
If you’re wanting to design a power distribution or power supply for your circuit you could do worse than use TI’s WebBench Power Designer automated design system. It hands you the schematic and component values, and even shows you the recommended PCB layout and thermal diagnostics to boot!
https://webench.ti.com/power-designer/switching-regulator
Analog Devices has some great design tools as well, LTspice and PowerCAD.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2020/12/04/circuit-vr-squaring-with-schmitt-triggers/