A program to draw a MCPCB design

gamezawy · 2019-07-09T12:52:41.000Z

Hello everyone

Please i need a suggestion for an easy program to draw a LED MCPCB design

icpart · 2019-07-09T13:16:30.000Z

Kicad maybe. It is open source and easy to learn. Not to complicated at all. Years ago I tried Eagle but for me it is not very intuitive. I think the Kicad is better and now with latest 5 release it is great and wroth to tried it. Also Easyeda can be another choice for your first PCB design.

gamezawy · 2019-07-09T16:47:45.000Z

icpart:

Kicad maybe. It is open source and easy to learn. Not to complicated at all. Years ago I tried Eagle but for me it is not very intuitive. I think the Kicad is better and now with latest 5 release it is great and wroth to tried it. Also Easyeda can be another choice for your first PCB design.

Thank you very much

DavidEF · 2019-07-09T18:44:46.000Z

Funny, I found the opposite to be true. Eagle was super easy. KiCAD was too difficult, and I still haven’t learned it. However, since AutoCAD bought out Eagle, they’ve made some not-so-great changes. So, I’m going to make myself learn KiCAD anyway. I just haven’t yet. My main problem with KiCAD is the lack of library parts for some components we use on drivers. Eagle has plenty, and makes it easy to create new ones. Diptrace is used by a few members here, including Texas_Ace. He said it’s very easy for him. Try that one too, if you get a chance. All three of these are “free” to use.

I said all that to say this: Try several different programs, because only you will know which one is easy for you. If you do settle on Eagle or Diptrace, there is also help available here, since BLF members are very helpful and generous, and many use one of those two programs. If you learn KiCAD, come back and tell me how to use it, please!

icpart · 2019-07-09T20:41:32.000Z

DavidEF:

Funny, I found the opposite to be true. Eagle was super easy. KiCAD was too difficult, and I still haven’t learned it. However, since AutoCAD bought out Eagle, they’ve made some not-so-great changes. So, I’m going to make myself learn KiCAD anyway. I just haven’t yet. My main problem with KiCAD is the lack of library parts for some components we use on drivers. Eagle has plenty, and makes it easy to create new ones. Diptrace is used by a few members here, including Texas_Ace. He said it’s very easy for him. Try that one too, if you get a chance. All three of these are “free” to use.

I said all that to say this: Try several different programs, because only you will know which one is easy for you. If you do settle on Eagle or Diptrace, there is also help available here, since BLF members are very helpful and generous, and many use one of those two programs. If you learn KiCAD, come back and tell me how to use it, please!

Eagle schematic drawing was awful when tried to draw simple connections between electronics components sevrals years ago. It was opposite to all similar circuit drawing programs like Multisim, Orcad and anothers. Also I learned Kicad recent from that course
Also there is several third party libraries from digikey and freetronics. Also making own library components it not very difficult. So if you know which components are missing I will glad to help try to make some of them for us. It will be exercise for me. Also there is some conversion software like Ultra Librarian and Library Loader which can export to Kicad library. They are not the best approach but with little editing they do good job. Also the 3D viewer is very useful in Kicad.
Yes they have a Free mode but with some limitations in component and layers counts. Kicad don’t have any limitation with number of layers or components. Also with latest releases there are great improvements over previous versions.

DavidEF · 2019-07-09T21:17:57.000Z

Thanks icpart! The library parts that I was missing were ATtiny MCU chips and AMC7135 regulator chips. Possibly others are missing as well, but after running into those two gaping holes, I couldn’t continue anyway. I think it’s the 3D modeling of the components that makes it difficult for me to make new library parts. I tried some Eagle-to-KiCAD library converters and didn’t have any success.

I got started with Eagle by the help of the Mattaus tutorial thread here on BLF. After that, I searched online and found other tutorials, and library parts as needed. I also got help from other BLF members when I was starting. But, like I said above, I don’t like the way AutoCAD has started changing Eagle, so I’m planning to learn KiCAD. I might use that course that you linked. I didn’t know it existed!

icpart · 2019-07-12T13:52:03.000Z

Hi the Attiny library for Kicad is existing. Yesterday I checked that. Only is missing symbol for 7135 but that’s it not problem. PCb layout for AMC you can use standard library for that case. Thanks for link to Eagle tutorial. I am also new in PCB design and there are some specifics when you design LED driver especially like circle PCB and exposed circle contact points. Maybe I will try to make same driver in Kicad when watching Eagle videos.
One big advantages (dissadvantages for someone) which is unique for Kicad is that you can assign any footprint package to any component. In anothers PCB softwares any symbol component have assigned footprint. In Kicad you can have best from 2 worlds, when you create new device you can assign standart footprint to it and if you need you can after that easy to replace it with another package when you link PCB components to schematic.