Drawing Schematics
 

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

Pete
KB1LZH

Peter Barbella wrote:
Anyone care to weigh in on the "best" program for drawing scematics?

Pete
KB1LZH



Unless I require simulation of some sort, nothing is faster than drawing
by hand. When talking to clients, it much faster for me to do a quick
back-of-envelope sketch than it is to fire up my comp. My drafting skills
are of quite a high standard and there will be times where I won't enter
the design into my computer at all.

For final designs(paid ones) I usually use Protel. Its expensive but its
widely accepted and its a complete package, and I pass the costs onto my
customers anyway.

--

Wing Wong.

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

"Peter Barbella" wrote in message
news:7c6_d.6326$qN3.1416@trndny01...
Anyone care to weigh in on the "best" program for drawing scematics?

I use the schematic capture that comes with the Pulsonix PCB design
software. It is very slick and I can go on to make a PCB from it, of course.

73, Leon