Unless things have changed, it seems to me that doing a
board in AutoCAD would be nothing more than a glorified
drawing.
Nothing WRONG with that, but to me, the ability to package
footprints from schematic symbols and have netlists would
be a huge advantage over "drawing" a circuit board, regardless
of what output format could be generated.

Just for the record, my company (Caterpillar) pays six figures
a year for our Mentor Graphics tools, and I have access to
some very sophisticated stuff in the normal course of my day,
so I'm not a hobbyist looking for old Bishop decals (funny guy.)

Saying "nothing is free" is meaningless.

We have partnered with an assembly company who has test
engineers using ExpressPCB to crank out boards for far less
than we could. Our fast-turn prototype house has a $1200
minimum order, and ExpressPCB is offering deals for $51 ???

My interest is in finding out if there is a better alternative than
ExpressPCB (free). Thanks for the tip about Pad2Pad. All three
of these look about the same (with PCB123) Is there anything
to differentiate between them?

freePCB http://www.freepcb.com/ looks better, because it is an
open source project that has no restrictions (makes real Gerbers,
higher layer count, etc) but I don't know anyone that has ever
tried it.
Jack


On 2/7/07, John Parsons <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Using Autocad to do PCB layout can work just fine (assuming the fab shop
> can
> accept this input) if some basic rules are followed.  If these rules are
> not
> followed it can be a royal PITA.  A good source for this info (rules) is
> here
> http://www.artwork.com/acad/pcb_app/pcb.htm
>
> While of course you will not have the power of a good layout package it
> can
> be a quick convenient way to go if you need just a few, simple boards and
> you already know Autocad.  I have made the suggestion a number of times to
> some of my customers.  Of course the other option is to enlist the
> services
> of a subcontract designer.
>
> Regards
>
> John Parsons
>
>

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------