Jack -

FWIW - I have 2 problems with the freeware layout tools that you
mention.  First, they are captive to the manufacturer providing them so
that once your design is done there is no choice in fabricator. We
require competitive bid on all deliverable PCB so that means we cannot
deliver any thing designed in one of these tools. Second, there is no
easy way to capture the design for documentation.  This is a major issue
for us since we are primarily a research and development facility; our
product is the technical documentation required to put a unit in to
production.

We have on occasion when doing internal research and development work
used ExpressPCB. According to the engineers that have used it, it is the
simplest to learn and has the largest library.

 
Good luck,

Jeffrey McGlaughlin, CID 
Engineering Designer 
Battelle 
505 King Avenue 
Columbus Ohio 43201-2693 
(614)424-7582 Phone 
(614)458-7582 Fax 



-----Original Message-----
From: DesignerCouncil [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jack
Olson
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 11:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [DC] Freeware Layout Tools

Greetings,

I have an engineer who wants to use something like
ExpressPCB or PCB123 or FreePCB to design
easy-cheesy test boards.

Does anyone have experience with any of these
packages? best libraries? hidden "gotchas"?

I hate to do a long evaluation process before he dives
headfirst into something, so I thought I'd ask ya...

Jack

------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using
LISTSERV 1.8d
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text
in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil.
To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET
DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL)
Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases
> E-mail Archives
Please visit IPC web site
http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional
information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100
ext.2815
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DesignerCouncil Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8d
To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in
the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF DesignerCouncil.
To temporarily stop/(restart) delivery of DesignerCouncil send: SET DesignerCouncil NOMAIL/(MAIL)
Search previous postings at: www.ipc.org > On-Line Resources & Databases > E-mail Archives
Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------