Circuit Diagramming software

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Hi All,

Does anyone konw of a cheap, or free, circuit diagramming software? I want to start recording my projects and posting some of them here before I pull the components off the breadboard.

Thanks

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Hi Scott,

For basic circuits, I’m a huge fan of Paul Falstad’s Circuit Sim:
https://www.falstad.com/circuit/
It runs in a browser which means no software to install, and it’ll even work on a phone or tablet. Sharing your “files” is just sharing a URL.

For more serious circuit design and Schematic Layouts, checkout KiCad:

And for circuit simulation, you can’t go past your favourite flavour of SPICE:

Personally, I like LT Spice from Analog Devices:
https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.html

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If you want nice and pretty ones I would recommend fritzing: https://fritzing.org/

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Have a look at this web site ELECTRONIC-SOFTWARE-SHOP
I have been using Splan, Sprint layout and to a lesser extent Profilab Expert 4 for some years now and found it very easy with only a small learning curve.
Splan is the circuit drawing software, from the simplest to pretty complex. I currently have version 5.
Sprint layout is the PCB design package. I note the current issue does auto route. Earlier versions did not. I think the philosophy was that users spent so much time sorting out the auto placement and route mess that you may as well start manual from scratch. These 2 programs did not communicate together so you could not import a circuit and have it automatically design a PCB. The latest versions may, I don’t know.

Profilab is pretty clever in that you can design your own data logging devices and communicate with multimeters via USB and Serial ports for logging multimeter readings. Of course the multimeter has to be capable of this. All sorts of control etc devices can be built up with the library of bits. The really useful part is when you have your device all ready to go that file can then be transported to any windows computer and run without having profiles installed on this slave machine.

Bad part. None of this is free although for what it does is not expensive. The last time I purchased from Abacom they did not charge me the 19% VAT which saves some $$$.

You may find it worth a look. The bad part for me is I have been using Mac for some time now and last time I enquired this was still Windows only.
Cheers Bob

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hmm looks Schmick - haven’t heard of that one before

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No I don’t think this is widely known. The company is Abacom in Germany. I think I came across it by accident on one of my trips to UK some years ago and have used Splan and Sprint Layout extensively and was able to lay out PCB manually quite quickly and no trouble then had PCB’s made in Melbourne with the produced files with no hassle. This manufacturer was even quite happy with the bare Sprint Layout files as he was familiar with the software. I found it pretty good anyway and worth the money.
Cheers Bob

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TinyCad is my choice.

https://www.tinycad.net/

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Hi James.
Looks interesting but Windows only. I already use Splan on a windows machine. Do you know anything about Mac. I have been using EasyEDA but searching through all those components is a bit tedious when you want a simple circuit. I have Tina simulation software which will print your circuit but once again on Windows but they have now a cloud based version on subscription but I don’t use it enough these days to warrant this.
Cheers Bob

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Sorry Bob, never had a MAC or any experience with Apple PCs.