PCB layout software for Mac?
Kim Fallstrom
##follow-up directed to sci.electronics##
I have used (not very heavily) Vamp Inc. McCad PCB-1 Design v. 4.02 and
I just got Douglas CAD/CAM Extended Layout 7.0 and do not have yet much
experience with it. Both programs are priced around $400 - $500, depending
on options.
NOTE: These are the non-professional packages. I'm not in a position to
easily spend thousands of $$ for a professional package. I just want a
reliable and easy-to-use basic PCB design program for our electronic
workshop prototype production. Both Douglas and Vamp Inc. do have
nice professional packages.
Some info on the non-professional programs:
***************************************************************
Program: Douglas CAD/CAM Extended Layout 7.0 (06-Jul-92),
Print 7.0
Pen Plot 7.20 (separate product)
$395 (layout), add $125 for pen plot option
Douglas Electronics Inc.
2777 Alvarado St.
San Leandro, CA 94577
(510) 483-8770
grid size: 0.001 - 1.000 inch. Display scaling 20% to 1000%
line width: 0.001 - 0.250 inch.
pad size: 0.001 - 0.250 inch (size, hole size and shape adjustable)
hole size: 0.020 - 0.250 inch
All sizes are adjustable in steps of 0.001 inch.
Templates:
There are no ready-made IC or SMT component templates. For that purpose
you will have to build your own patterns and pads. Not a big problem, unless
you mix lots of different DIL and surface-mount components on the same
circuit.
Layers:
Component side and solder side. One or both can be visible at the same time.
- Text can be placed only on component side.
+ Customization is possible.
The basic elements are lines (rounded ends), holes and squares. A zero
length lines is a round pad. You can have a set of 7 lines, 7 squares,
7 holes, 35 pads and 35 patterns. A pad or a pattern is anything you
can create from lines, holes, squares, other pads and other patterns.
- There is no way of copying or pasting stuff from one drawing to
another one (unless you use a copy of the first one as a template).
Reliability:
I haven't used the program enough to comment on reliability.
***************************************************************
Program: McCad PCB-1 Design v. 4.02 (31-May-93)
$400 - $500 for the program, pen plotter support built-in
Vamp Inc.
6753 Selma Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(213) 466-5533
grid size: 10, 20, 25, 50, 100, 125, 150, 156, 200 and 250 mils
auto-grid can be switched off.
line width: 0.007 - 0.5 inch, a set of 22 widths
pad size: 0.030 - 0.5 inch, a set of 22 pad sizes
available pad shapes are round, square, rectangular (2:1)
and elliptical (2:1).
hole size: 0.012 - 0.500, a predefined set of 22 sizes ("zero" included)
Templates: DIL for normal and surface-mounted IC:s
16 - 58 pin LCC and 28 - 56 mini flat pack SMT components
DB-9, DB-15, DB-25, DB-37 connectors
"Lines" - fill area with lines spaced at 1 grid unit
"pads" - fill area with pads placed at every grid point
Layers:
There are 9 different layers (top silk, top, top pads, inner-1, inner2,
common, bottom silk, bottom pads, bottom) and you can set the visibility
and drawing colors for each layer separately. You can also specify
multiple layers to be printed in the same printer/plotter image.
- Not customizable. Fortunately the template selection is quite large.
+ Copying and pasting between drawings is possible in McCad PCB.
Reliability:
- I have found the McCad PCB-1 v 4.04 to be a fine but unreliable program.
We have spent lots of hours and days trying to figure out ways of
circumventing different bugs in the program. The resulting PCBs from a
PostScript printer can differ quite a bit compared to pen-plotter output.
Every other time when trying to create HPGL plotter files for our PCB lab
the program crashes completely and screws up its own settings. So
we end up copying a "fresh" version of the program to the hard disk
quite often... Our problems might be related to out operating system
(6.0.7 Finnish version) or equipment (mac plus, mac II) or something
else. If anyone has information on these problems please tell me...
On the other hand, another lab here uses the McCad PCB ESD "professional"
version with no problems. Alas, there is more than one order of magnitude
difference between the prices of the McCad PCB-1 and McCad PCB ESD.
***********
We have had some problems in communicating with the Vamp Inc. No such
problems existed with Douglas Eletronics. Maybe Vamp was not interested
in selling low-end programs.
If there is need I'll post this subjective and biased comparision of
the two programs again in beginning of September after getting some
experience with the Douglas package. Someone else with more experience
on these non-professional programs might want to comment on this
subject too. Any comments are very welcome!
--
Kim Fallstrom I email: k...@hut.fi
HUT Laboratory of Physics I tel: 358-0-451 3143
Finland I fax: 358-0-451 3116