free pcb software..

Am at the stage of playing with my first pcb layouts and have been trying various free programs. After spending a good time with express pcb and finding the program easy to use and with sufficient features for my needs I have hit a stumbling block....
As express pcb is tied to the online board manafacturing service it seems I can't make use of my layouts, other than to order from express pcb. The only export option is a dxf file, which I cannot view on my machine and am not at all sure that is of any use for printing press and peel sheets as I intend.
I have just been looking into other freeware and it seems most are also tied to a manafacturer with file types specific to the service. Those that aren't are eiher limited in board size or pin number.

Anyone suggest a decent free program that will allow me to print to press and peeel sheets or is anyone any wiser on how I can export the required data in expresspcb, pcb123 or similar freeware??

I use Eagle but it have some limitations in free form, max size of the pcb 10x10 IIRC.

KICAD

http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/

I haven't tried but it looks intersting.

I use 1/10 inch paper. The most flexible software, also it optimizes better than any expensive packages.

Thanks for replies...

Yep, eagle board size is too limited for my purposes. Will look into the other suggestion.
wavebourn.. I hear you but I'm just not up for hand taping designs, this is all time consuming enough as is.

There is a software meta, but the guy who runs it got smashed by a giant redwood last week.
So enjoy what is there.
Anything that spits a gerber and is free and easy, thats what you want.

yep...though seems that free and spitting gerber are mutually exclusive.. Checked through all options in the software meta (you didn't think I was one of those ask before search types did you) and no joy..

PCB123 won't give me the gerber but it does provide a print option, will this be acurate enough to print press and peel sheets??

Hmm, I thought I downloaded a version that did Gerbers from the meta, maybe scroll thru one more time?

[quote author="jeth"]yep...though seems that free and spitting gerber are mutually exclusive.. Checked through all options in the software meta (you didn't think I was one of those ask before search types did you) and no joy..
[/quote]
Check mr coffee's link in the software meta. I read from the Altium site:

Autotrax
DOS Freeware version 1.61 - Complete PCB layout package with output support for printers, pen plotters and Gerber.
To install: Download and run the file in the root directory of your hard drive to extract the install program. The install program must be run from the root directory.
Please note: we do not provide technical support for this Autotrax Freeware version.
Download (ZIP 821 KB) | View Readme


EasyTrax
DOS Freeware version 2.06 - Complete PCB layout package with output support for printers, pen plotters and Gerber. System requirements: PC-compatible; DOS 2.0 or later; 640K RAM; 2Mb of hard disk space.
Please note: we do not provide technical support for this Easytrax Freeware version.

Download (ZIP 485 KB)

Click to expand...

Been using Autotrax for years now...might seem retro to use DOS but after a while you just can't get enough of the speed with which you can do many tasks. I seem to recall that the printer support is fairly sketchy but I've got an old HP 4L that works fine for bashing out prototypes.

Downloaded KiCAD which looks good so far, apart from the component listing which uses numerical codes for each part and doesn't even display the footprint until you paste it into the board, so am spending hours hunting down what I need.

Express PCB was real nice to use, shame it doesn't export anything useful.. pcbartist and pcb123 also seem easy to get to grips with...folks don't think simply printing the copperside artwork would be accurate enough?
I don't intend to send out boards for manafacture so do I really need the Gerbers?

No, you just need a negative image, full scale of the board.
Print it on some vellum, check some dims with the calipers, as a guide as to how far off the printer is from real life.
We have a problem with that, a board comes in and you need a shoe horn to load the parts.
And pulling out a pressed fit resistor without toasting the board is a real bi-atch.

Press and Peel also requires a negative image?..I thought it ws printed from a straight positive..
It was the accuracy of a printed image I was questioning, but I assume that could be a problem no matter what file type it's printed from.

press and peel would be positive, yes.

the worst is those Radio Shack adheshive traces and thru hole thingys.

I tried them once, and that was that.
Throw in a little RS Ferric solution, and you have a real POS PCB factory.
Good weed killer, though.
Ask Bill Y.
Canada isn't as clean as you think.

[quote author="mnats"]Check mr coffee's link in the software meta. I read from the Altium site:

Autotrax
DOS Freeware version 1.61 - Complete PCB layout package with output support for printers, pen plotters and Gerber.
To install: Download and run the file in the root directory of your hard drive to extract the install program. The install program must be run from the root directory.
Please note: we do not provide technical support for this Autotrax Freeware version.
Download (ZIP 821 KB) | View Readme


EasyTrax
DOS Freeware version 2.06 - Complete PCB layout package with output support for printers, pen plotters and Gerber. System requirements: PC-compatible; DOS 2.0 or later; 640K RAM; 2Mb of hard disk space.
Please note: we do not provide technical support for this Easytrax Freeware version.

Download (ZIP 485 KB)

Click to expand...

Been using Autotrax for years now...might seem retro to use DOS but after a while you just can't get enough of the speed with which you can do many tasks. I seem to recall that the printer support is fairly sketchy but I've got an old HP 4L that works fine for bashing out prototypes.[/quote]

Been using Autotrax for over 15 years and it's like an old friend. About the only complaint is its rather agricultural ground planes. Steve Murray (Airborn, in Australia) has written a bunch of upgraded video drivers for it (It normally only goes to VGA 640-480). The best thing about it is that all the elcheapo Chinese and South East Asian board fabs know about it and can generate boards from native Autotrax .pcb files, so you don't have to go through the Gerber thing at all. It also spits out postscript (useful for DIY photoetch and silkscreening). Well worth keeping a dosbox for!.
M

[quote author="Wavebourn"]I use 1/10 inch paper. The most flexible software, also it optimizes better than any expensive packages.[/quote]

Does your PCB fab accept graph paper?

-a

[quote author="mobyd"]About the only complaint is its rather agricultural ground planes. [/quote]
That's hilarious! But a joke only an Autotrax user would get...

Still be interested in comments on wether a copper side print out is likely to be accurate enough for my small one off boards. If I'm using press and peel surely a print from a gerber or a print froma screen capture/direct from software would be no different in terms of accuracy?
Just that I'd quite like to usa a couple of the designs I put togther in expresspcb.

think green, more copper = less chemical reaction, etchant vs copper = gas = by products dig?

Now go rent Easy Rider, and forget abouyt the Busyh admin, i order you,

AH,
only windows software here...does that means I should throw my mac in the garbage?

is there anyone making gerbers on a mac ???

Best,
Mattia.

Hi Mattia

Well I home etch so I'm not doing gerbers, but I have tried the gamut of free mac pcb software, and my favorites were the gEDA suite and osmond pcb beta. Both of these can make gerbers.

A while back I did a lot of small single sided boards in osmond for guitar pedals. The free beta was fine for that and very simple and maclike, but it does not have schematic capture, forward annotation, etc. The pay version has such features available as an add on. I might consider buying this someday when it is a little more mature.

I needed something more powerful for larger projects, so I tried the gEDA suite collection of open source EDA tools. I like this software a lot. It reminds me of a old version of Orcad. The problem is it's a Linux focused project so it can be challenging to get it working on a mac. I would not recommend this to someone who has no experience installing packages from source on *nix/Xfree86 systems. I had it installed with the fink package manager on 10.3 and 10.4 but now I have a new mac with 10.5 and I haven't got gschem working completely yet. pcb seems to work fine, but it's no fun without a netlist. I think there are finally fink binaries now so I'm going to try that next.

There are more options for mac (including eagle); look at the software meta. Another option with an intel mac is running windows via paralells.