geekhack
geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: Melvang on Fri, 12 December 2014, 00:18:37
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Couple questions of PCB design software.
Has anyone used DipTrace?
How would the free version rate for working with keyboard PCBs? If not enough pins I could probably up to a non profit version of the paid software.
Has anyone done more than 2 layers for a keyboard PCB?
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I did a few qfp64 breakout boards with it a while back, and it got the job done. Haven't done a full board with it yet, so can't comment re the pin limitation. Overall I found the UI and tools much easier to use than eagle and a few other packages I tried.
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Thanks for the reply. I haven't tried Eagle yet, so far just KiCad and I can't seem to figure that software out to save my life. I have tried a couple tutorials both PDF and youtube. It might be partly due to my general lack of electronics knowledge tough.
One of my first projects with it will be single row PCBs so that should fall well within the pin restrictions.
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I've only tried KiCad. I've also only done 2 layers as the cost increases rapidly as you go for more layers, keybaord circuits aren't really complicated or extensive enough to require more than 2 layers, the electrical nitty gritties start playing a role with internal layers.
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wcass does his Model F PCB layouts in a CAD program and then imports them into DipTrace. I forget what samwisekoi uses.