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Old March 17th 05, 04:22 AM
John Popelish
 
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Peter Barbella wrote:

Anyone care to weigh in on the "best" program for drawing scematics?


For just recording circuits for later reference, I really like
DraftChoice for Windows (shareware). It is a general purpose drawing
program, but is very intuitive and fast to get something down. It
allows you to build libraries of symbols and I have a blank schematic
drawing all set up with the library included. Then, after you get
things connected up, you can select rectangular areas and stretch all
the lines passing through that boundary (but the symbols do not
stretch) allowing you to straighten the drawing up or make room for
changes. Its files are very compact. It also supports many layers
and colors and you can turn each layer on or off or protect it from
changes as needed. I often put a parts list or theory of operation or
other notes on a hidden layer.

Some of its weaknesses are that it does not export to many graphic
formats (I usually just hit the print screen key and past to some
other graphic program to email a gif) and the symbols do not have text
fields, so you have to put the values on as a separate operation.

--
John Popelish