EAGLE™ no longer sells perpetual licenses. They make you pay again and again for the same tool. The last thing you need is another deadline standing between you and your designs. Don’t pay for your time, pay for your tools. Switch today and get CircuitStudio for only $495 Learn More Buy Now. 9 Major Differences Between KiCad Vs CircuitMaker. KiCad and CircuitMaker have seen many changes over the years, and they have now developed into powerful PCB design solutions that can compete even with some paid programs. I will try to answer questions related to how an individual would value Circuit Studio vs. Altium Designer in their small-shop business. First I want to give you an idea of my experience so you know where I’m coming from. I started using EDA software in 2001 with Eagle, then made by cadsoft.
When you design a circuit board, you need to follow the PCB design rules of your manufacturer. These rules are the limits of the machine that makes the circuit boards.
The software can be set to check for new updates, on the System - General Settings page of the Preferences dialog.Use the drop-down associated to the Check fequency field - in the Automatic Updates region of the page - to specify how often a check is made. Choose from Never, On Start-up, Every day, Every 3 days, Every week, Every 2 weeks, and Every month.
The first time I looked at the rules I got really bummed out because it seemed so freakin’ complicated.
“Why can’t they just make my PCB???”
After a while I calmed down and had a look at what I was up against. And it wasn’t that bad after all ;)
Example PCB Design Rules
The above picture shows the PCB design rules of Seeed Studio.
Well, actually some of it are just specifications. For example board thickness says something about the PCB thickness they can manufacture. That doesn’t really concern you in the PCB design process.
Which rules are important to us as designers?
The rules we need to pay attention to are these:
- Minimum trace width
- Minimum trace/vias/pads space
- Minimum silkscreen width
- Minimum silkscreen text size
- Drilling hole
- Finish hole
- SMT min solder mask width
- Min solder mask clearance
Minimum trace width
The minimum trace width is the minimum width of your traces. Hmmm.. Sounds pretty obvious right?
And it is. You have to make sure you draw your circuit board “wires” with a width of more than 0.1524 mm.
Minimum trace/vias/pads space
Outside each trace, via or pad there needs to be some space. In this case it has to be at least 0.1524 mm.
Minimum silkscreen width
The silkscreen is what we use to draw or write text on a circuit board. The width of the silkscreen has to be at least 0.1524 mm.
Minimum silkscreen text size
![Eagle Eagle](https://www.altium.com/circuitstudio/sites/default/files/Outputs sch %26 PCB printouts.00_02_09_02.Still001.png)
And we can see that the text size has to be a minimum of 0.8128 mm. Not sure what they mean about that. But I have experienced several times that my PCB silkscreen text has been increased.
Drilling hole and finish hole
The drilling hole has to be between 0.3 mm and 6.35 mm. And the finish hole between 0.8 mm and 6.35 mm.
Circuit Studio Vs Eagles
Actually, I have to admit that I am not 100% sure about the difference between drilling hole and finish hole. But I have a theory. I believe the drilling hole is just a hole drilled in the board. And the finish hole is a hole with metal coating on the inside. Since the metal coating takes some space it makes sense that this hole has to be drilled bigger.
Circuit Studio Vs Eagle Rock
SMT minimum solder mask width
This is the minimum width of the solder mask. Solder mask is something that the solder doesn’t like to stick to. So it is around all pads to keep the solder on the pad.
And in this case it has to be at least 0.1 mm.
Min solder mask clearance
And the solder mask clearance is the space that is needed around the solder mask. 0.13 mm.
Circuit Studio Vs Eagle Mountain
A Simple Way Of Keeping The Rules
To make sure you follow all the PCB design rules, Eagle has a tool called Design Rule Check (DRC).
In the layout editor click on the “Tools” menu and select “DRC..”
Here you can either specify the rules by hand (which is a little bit cumbersome) or you can load a design rule file by clicking the “Load…” button.
Many manufacturers has a pcb design rules file for Eagle ready to be downloaded so that you only need to load it into Eagle.
Click on “Check” when you are ready. If there are no errors, nothing happens except for a text in the bottom of the screen saying “no errors/warnings”.
2014-11-12 06:47:42 UTC
Hi all,
*Altium and Element14 partnership*
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:24RNCM9JMkgJ:www.altium.com/en/altium/press-center/press-releases/altium-and-element14-partner-distribute-new-pcb-design-tool+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Quote*:-*
*'*Sydney, Australia – November 12, 2014 - Altium Limited
(http://www.altium.com/), a global leader in Electronic Design
Automation, native 3D PCB design systems (Altium Designer
(http://products.live.altium.com/)) and embedded software development
toolkits (TASKING (http://www.tasking.com/)), today announced a
partnership with element14 to distribute CircuitStudio, a new
easy-to-use PCB Design tool based on Altium technology. CircuitStudio
will be available in early 2015 and sold through the element14 Design
Center.'
Just wondering where this leaves Eagle Pcb......?
Ian.
--
To view any images and attachments in this post, visit:
http://www.element14.com/community/message/131099
*Altium and Element14 partnership*
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:24RNCM9JMkgJ:www.altium.com/en/altium/press-center/press-releases/altium-and-element14-partner-distribute-new-pcb-design-tool+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au
Quote*:-*
*'*Sydney, Australia – November 12, 2014 - Altium Limited
(http://www.altium.com/), a global leader in Electronic Design
Automation, native 3D PCB design systems (Altium Designer
(http://products.live.altium.com/)) and embedded software development
toolkits (TASKING (http://www.tasking.com/)), today announced a
partnership with element14 to distribute CircuitStudio, a new
easy-to-use PCB Design tool based on Altium technology. CircuitStudio
will be available in early 2015 and sold through the element14 Design
Center.'
Just wondering where this leaves Eagle Pcb......?
Ian.
--
To view any images and attachments in this post, visit:
http://www.element14.com/community/message/131099