dip trace

[pucho812]

anyone using it?  I downloaded a demo, mac and or PC compatible.  looking promising.

 

[john12ax7]

Not at the moment, but tried it in the past. Would say it's the best in it's price range.

 

[pucho812]

well I am exploring mac  options at the moment and  I never got into eagle.

 

[midwayfair]

I generally prefer Eagle's UI*, and it's more ubiquitous (makes it easier to pass files around), but some people find Diptrace easier. It has some neat features, like the 3D models.

*To be fair I didn't give Diptrace a lot of time since it was One More Thing To Learn.

 

[kambo]

i use eagle for schematic, when needed larger PCB, i export it  to Diptrace.
(i am limited to PCB size on eagle)

edit: they both good... i like eagle GUI better...

 

[Andy Peters]

well I am exploring mac  options at the moment and  I never got into eagle.

The current version of KiCad is quite usable. I've done a half-dozen boards with it.

As with any PCB CAD package, you will need to sort out libraries before starting a design. There are a lot of parts in their standard library, but I don't use it.

 

[audiomixer]

I bought a 2000 pins license. had to import quite a few libraries from eagle to come up to speed, but thats ok now. I can share some libs if someome needs them. mostly switches and connectors were badly supported at least in the 2.4 version.

eagle UI is totally flawed in my opinion, Diptace is much better but still lacking in some respect. but I am not a power user in any way. there are indeed quite a few options todasy, from free altium packages to some distributors free offerings.

- Michael

 

[pucho812]

what do they mean by pins count? number of solder points? so for example a standard  throughhole resistor would  be 2 pins?

 

[Andy Peters]

what do they mean by pins count? number of solder points? so for example a standard  throughhole resistor would  be 2 pins?

Yes, basically.  The two terminals of an SMT resistor count as two pins, too.

Limiting the number of pins in a design is one way of differentiating between different "levels" of the software.  Many DIY designs don't have 2,000 pins so it's a reasonable limit.

The other way of differentiating between levels of PCB software is by board size, which is an arbitrary distinction.  I think the base EAGLE limits boards to be 120 mm by 100 mm.  That's kinda sucky if the design is a user interface with a handful of buttons and knobs but it's 8" by 5" or whatever.