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:
https://etn.fi/index.php/13-news/16379-tekoaely-mallintaa-analogiapiirejae-tarkemmin
Analogia- ja sekasignaalipiirien suunnittelussa käytetään yleensä SPICE-simulaattoreita, joilla niiden käyttäytymistä voidaan matemaattisesti mallintaa varsin tarkasti. Tekoäly osaa tehdä tämän mallintamisen paljon tarkemmin, uskoo Siemensin EDA-ryhmä eli Siemens Digital Industries Software.
SPICE-simulaattori on tehokas työkalu piirin analysointiin ja vasteen määrittämiseen tietyllä tulosignaalilla. Se hyödyntää analyysin suorittamiseen tekstipohjaisia komponenttimalleja, jotka SPICE-ohjelma ymmärtää.
Siemens on esitellyt uuden Solido Simulation Suite -ohjelmiston, joka on integroitu AI-kiihdytetty SPICE-, Fast SPICE- ja sekasignaalisimulaattoreiden kokonaisuus. Se on suunniteltu auttamaan asiakkaita nopeuttamaan dramaattisesti kriittisiä suunnittelu- ja todennustehtäviä seuraavaa sukupolven analogia-, sekasignaali- ja custom-piirisuunnitteluissa.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hi guys! What do you use to simulate and build circuits in Linux? I have following issues: kicad doesn’t have a lot of IC and components models and footprints in the library. Qucs-s doesnt have any of the IC models which i want to use in my current project. Attempt to test an IC idea in a circuit turns into pain searching for models online. Still havent figured out yet how to use ltspice models in qucs-s.
I’ve only used ltspice (through wine) and circuitjs(web based) but still a newbie with circuitry so I’m also interested in this topic. Following
I use the actual components on a breadboard.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Ne16oHsAz5ukxvQ1/
Tomi Engdahl says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
AI Can Now Design Electronic Circuits
SnapMagic Copilot brings the power of generative AI to electrical engineers. Will it revolutionize circuit design?
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Tomi Engdahl says:
AI Can Now Help Design Electronic Circuit
https://www.tti.com/content/ttiinc/en/resources/marketeye/categories/new-technology/me-slovick-20240221.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2024/09/02/lisaa-tekoalya-elektroniikan-komponenttivalintaan/