To the PCB designers, the design software is pretty important to them and the manufacturing process and the quality of the finished boards. PCB design software aids electronic engineers in designing layouts for printed circuit boards. PCB design software is often implemented as a part of other design software systems such as product and machine design software and general-purpose CAD software.

PCB Instant Quote

In this passage, we will provide you top 5 PCB design software. If you are curious about which is the best software for PCB designers, welcome to check and read the content below formore information.

What are the top 5 PCB Design Software?

EAGLE

EAGLE is a PCB design software developed by the German CadSoft Computer GmbH created by Rudolf Hofer and Klaus-Peter Schmidiger in 1988. The company was acquired by Farnell in 2009 and by Autodesk in 2016, a world class software heavyweight with over 2 billion euros of turnover. EAGLE stands for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor.

The software is available in 3 versions:

·  EAGLE Free: the limited trial version for DIY fans

·  EAGLE standard: 99 diagram sheets, 4 signal layers and a 160 cm² printed circuit area

·  EAGLE Premium: the professional version with 999 diagram sheets, 16 signal layers and an unlimited printed circuit area

Features and specifications

·  Diagram editor (connected to the library, electric rules, generation of an interconnection list)

·  Annotation of changes between the diagram and the PCB quote

·  Diagram hierarchy

·  Layout diagram with advanced features

PROTEL

PORTEL company introduced the circuit design software (CAD) PROTEL in the circuit industry in the the late 80s, 20th century, which is deservedly ranked highly among many EDA software and is circuit designers’ preferred software.

Altium Designer 20 has been released, with new features that improve the overall user experience, and its fluency and smoothness have been improved. In this version, the arbitrary-angle routing function is newly introduced to complete the escape routing of dense BGA packages, the routing optimization processing is also improved, the new DirectX accelerated schematic editor engine, and many other enhancements.

It is good for one or two layers’ board, however, it becomes a little bit hard to use when it comes to more than 4 layers, not to mention the PCB design in signal transmission of high frequency and high-speed digitization.

KiCAD

KiCAD is a Cross-Platform and Open Source Electronics Design Automation Suite. It includes a schematic editor for creating and editing schematic designs, a PCB Editor for making professional PCB layouts with up to 32 copper layers, and a 3D viewer which can be used to inspect the design in a 3D form. Unlike Eagle, KiCAD is entirely free, and no paywall is needed to use some of its features.

Features and specifications

·  Kicad: project manager

·  Eeschema: electric diagram editor

·  Pcbnew: printed circuit editor

·  Cvpcb: utility to select the physical imprints of components used on the diagram

·  Gerbview: Gerber file viewer

·  Pcbcalculator: design aid tool to calculate resistance values, track widths, etc.

OrCAD

Born in 1988 of the merger of SDA Systems and ECAD, Cadence Design Systems is currently a leader on the electronics CAD software market. Based in San José in California, it is a NASDAQ listed company with a turnover of about 2 billion dollars.

Features and specifications

Diagrams, layout and routing

·  Interactive, real time routing with built-in constraints

·  Automatic shape creation and update

·  Automatic BGA assistance

PCBWeb Designer

Features

PCBWeb is a free CAD program for electronic development and manufacturing. It has a multi-page design schematic shot, multilayer support for the printed circuit board layout, and a broad range of details.

By using this popular PCB program, multi-sheeted schemes can produce with a fast and easy to use wiring tool. Even you can direct multilayer boards with copper fill support and DRC checks. Additionally, you can find an integrated list of Arrow information with a specification manager.

The tool is easy to use. It lets you generate Gerbers, shares your project through Publish, and create custom parts. I think the integration of Digi-key parts in the tool is a big thing. Not all tools have this. Add to that the freedom of the users to choose from different board houses. On the contrary, there are still many areas that need improvement. But, seeing that the tool is still young, it's a nice start. I would love to see the tool to improve in the future. It has a lot of potentials