Beginner PCB designers always ask which is the easiest PCB design software to use. This will mainly factor in the ease of use and also the intuitiveness of the user interface to give maximum positive user experience.
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Best PCB design software for beginners
If you are a beginner and looking to start PCB designing then you may be looking for some software to help you out. Here is a list of some of the best PCB design software for beginners.
- KiCAD
- EasyEDA
- DesignSpark PCB Software
- PCBWeb Designer
- ExpressPCB
- Osmond PCB
- TinyCAD
- Autodesk Eagle
Best free PCB design software
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people are looking for the best free PCB design software. For most beginners and low-income earners free is good. Luckily there are some good developers out there ready to give you a helping hand in your PCB design journey. Listed here are some of the best free PCB design software available on the market now. Once you have a steady income stream please try upgrading to paid software as they are more geared to providing more reliable and feature-rich software.
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1. KiCAD
Kicad is a free beginner-friendly PCB design software. The software is completely free for any user and makes its money from voluntary contributions from users. It is highly advised to support such projects who provide freeware. Some of its features include:
- Gerber file viewer
- A schematic and component viewer
- A 3d circuit board viewer
- PCB calculator and a page format editor
2. EasyEDA
EasyEDA is a cloud-based PCB editing and creation software. You do not have to install any software for the program to run. You only have to download the Gerber file once it is done and upload it to any PCB manufacturer’s website. Some of its Key Features include:
- A cloud-based simple to use interface
- A manufacturing option once the design is complete(How they monetize themselves)
3. DesignSpark PCB Software
DesignSpark PCB Software offers the ability to 3D diagrams and designs. One of its most notable features is its unlimited size of schematics and its display of multiple layers. Some of its features include:
- User-friendly and intuitive design.
- No limitation to the size of the diagrams
- User-defined formatting
- Its ability for a user to create their library
4. PCBWeb Designer
Although easy to use PCBWeb designer lacks automatic circuit monitoring. Most of its tools are web/cloud-based and can be accessed via its website. Some of its key features include:
- Allows creation of up to 16 copper layers on PCB boards
- Design circuits have maximum dimensions of 152cm X 152 cm (Will accommodate beginner projects and some industrial projects)
5. ExpressPCB
ExpressPCB software is among the beginner-friendly versions with its extensive youtube tutorial that should help you in setting up and interacting with the software: some of its features include:
- Amazing support should you experience any problems
- A wide library of components
- Tutorial videos for beginners
- A blog post for answering common problems that you may experience
6. Osmond PCB
Osmond PCB design software is built for the mac operating system. It offers most of the features available in all free PCB design software. If you are running the Mac operating system, you should look into trying out this software
7. TinyCAD
This is a schematic-free PCB design software for Windows. It supports standard and special character libraries. TinyCAD is mostly used to create:
- PCB flow charts
- Single line diagrams
- Technical drawing for development or presentation purposes
8. Autodesk Eagle
Eagle is an acronym standing for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor. They tried hard to fit that in and we will give them points for that. The Autodesk eagle software is a relatively popular PCB design software that is praised for its low cost and abundant features. Some of its features include:
- schematic editing
- Automatic schematic routing(important for creating optimum connection paths)
- PCB editing(With a wide component Library)
On top of this Autodesk Eagle also provides features like
- Online forward and backward marking function;
- Batch processing command execution script file;
- Copper pour and interactive follow-up router;
- You can directly modify the design;
- Import information from other designs and even convert other formats.
