Mac Schematic program

[jleaman]

Does any one out there use a mac and have or know about software to make pcb's and schematics. I guess my soloution might be to buy virtual pc and run windows on my mac.. can anyone Help.!

J'

[ThingyNess]

Dave (planet10) would be the person to talk to on this, I believe.

I'm sure there are some -- whether they're free or readily available remains to be seen, of course.

You may well end up being far better off running virtualPC.

Heck, you can get a good PC for doing stuff like that for $299cdn these days (without a monitor), which might end up being the best route. For that price, I wouldn't bother with something like VirtualPC.

[jleaman]

i have a laptop and dont want any more pc's but if i have to ill do it.. id like to stick right to the laptop with the mac os.x ill contact dave thansk i forgot that he is mac..

[peranders]

JasonL, I use RUN Electronic Design System on Mac.

See:

Spam, Spam, Spam, Lawsuits and Spam....

[jcarr]

I use both PC and Mac for various tasks. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, electronic circuit development isn't one of the Mac's strong points.

EWB4 (Electronic WorkBench, aka MultiSim) used to be available for the Mac. Easy enough to use, but not very accurate.

Kiva Design Groupe offers a port of Berkeley Spice 3f4 for the Mac, but I don't think this includes a schematic capture module.
http://www.kivadesigngroupe.com/softwareproducts.htm

Beige Bag Software offers B2 Spice Version 2 for the Mac. http://www.beigebag.com/spice2.htm

I haven't found any usable pcb layout packages on the Mac.

Maybe there are other programs that I don't know about. Now that OSX is the recommended OS, perhaps we will start to see some ports of UNIX and Linux programs.

As an aside, I would love to see the latest version of Spectrum's MicroCap http://www.spectrum-soft.com/index.shtm available for the Macintosh once again.

regards, jonathan carr

[transducer]

Try Osmond PCB, it's free! http://www.swcp.com/~jchavez/osmond.html I haven't used it in a while, and there is a new build available.

RonS

[peranders]

I know two programs besides my RUN, Douglas CAD and McCAD, both of the programs are old in almost every respect.

There has been also Protel, not any more...

I know one more program
http://www.designw.com/

Try also
http://www.versiontracker.com/mp/new...+board&x=9&y=7

PCBWarrior 1.3.3b6

[pinkmouse]

Hi Jason

I am just getting into this electronics side of things, and have used two packages, Osmond, which seems basic, and EDSCad lite, which is a cut down version of an expensive but powerful commercial package.

Both have problems- mainly with parts libraries, you have to define just about any part you use apart from a 1/4w resistor, and both seem clunky to me, but as I have never used any other PCB software I don't know if this is a generic thing across platforms or not.

Both are free downloads, so I would just get them both and give them a go.

[jcarr]

http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/CDHW/MacSpice/

Freeware.

hth, jonathan carr

[john curl]

A GREAT schematic program for the MAC is 'Designworks Lite 4.0' Check it out on the web. It is a download, and in two versions. An expensive one that will give you everything, and a cheap one that draws great schematics.