Schematic Drawing Software

[wiredmonkey]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone knows any schematic drawing software that will output images of the same quality as seen in silicon chip (australian elec magazine)... I'm trying to find a good package fand really like the look of what they do.

Thanks

[sparkle]

i am using Microsoft Visio 2003 for the schematics....but, this program is not intended to be used only with electronics so i made my lybrary of parts that i need...it is really easy to use (similar logic as for example Corel Draw)...also it will output the quality of the images that you want - you decide - you can save the files as *.jpg and tell to the program in which resolution you want them to be saved.....very nice, good and easy......i recommend it for sure

[planet10]

Originally posted by wiredmonkey
images of the same quality as seen in silicon chip (australian elec magazine)...

Do you have any examples?

I used Vectrorworks. The quality of the schema i can generate is only limited by the operator.

dave

[suzyj]

I've been using xcircuit for publishable schematics and diagrams (for my thesis). It's open source, and makes really beautiful postscript output.

Inkscape is also really useful for diagrams, and with a little mucking about, you can get xcircuit schematics into inkscape. The combination is really unbeatable.

Xcircuit is also able to export spice netlists, though I've never used it for that, as I use LTspice, which has its own editor.

I've included an example of the output, in .pdf format. This is a fast frequency divider circuit.

[derguteton]

Try "sPlan" from www.abacom-online.de/uk/

I like it:

[PigletsDad]

I use gschem on Linux. It is free, and part of the Geda project.

Exported schematics seem fairly nice.

[Greg Erskine]

I've always liked the look of SiliconChip schematics.

Can you blokes post examples like Suzy did? Thanks Suzy.

[myhrrhleine]

I used to use VISIO.
Now I use LtSpice.
Drawings are pretty good and the SPICE is handy too.

[planet10]

Originally posted by suzyj
I've included an example of the output, in .pdf format. This is a fast frequency divider circuit.

That is pretty good. The other features are interesting although i do find the UI on most X11 software to be kinda crude.

Note: whatever you are using to generate pdfs is generating a pdf that turns out as a white sheet in my prime pdf reader (OS X's preview). It took a pass thru acrobat to fix it.

dave

[suzyj]

Originally posted by planet10
That is pretty good. The other features are interesting although i do find the UI on most X11 software to be kinda crude.

Xcircuit is no exception. It takes a little bit of time to get used to the interface, but once you do it's very fast to use. It doesn't appear to have the font support that I need, so I use it to draw the actual circuit, and use Inkscape to add the labels.

Inkscape has a really wonderful user interface, at least by open source standards. It's a fantastic vector editor - I'd put it in the same league as commercial offerings like Corel, except that it uses open formats for files and is a lot less bloated.

Originally posted by planet10
Note: whatever you are using to generate pdfs is generating a pdf that turns out as a white sheet in my prime pdf reader (OS X's preview). It took a pass thru acrobat to fix it.

Thanks for that. The figure I posted is one from my thesis (a 10GHz CMOS divider). I'm writing my thesis in Latex, using pdf figures. I'll have to do some checking to ensure that the final Latex output is widely readable, not just with the tools that I'm using to create it.