Schemes were made by any person who did at least something more or less complicated in electronics. But to draw them by hand is a long time, in addition, any mistake will ruin the workpiece. Therefore, special programs for designing circuits are used for this. What are they? What opportunities do they provide? First, several commercial projects will be considered, and then free.
Software from Mentor Graphics
This is a successful company that develops its products - PADS PowerPCB and Expedition PCB. A lot of their success contributed to the orientation on the development environment for Windows. The PADS PowerPCB package offers a relatively cheap and high-quality solution for creating boards. So, there is an autorouter that supports all the necessary functions for high-frequency boards. The package also includes modules for posttopological and pretopological analysis. This is useful when working with a constraint control system. The Expedition PCB package is more advanced and one of the most powerful design solutions. The system is based on the AutoActive environment, which allows you to analyze the integrity of the system, take into account the requirements and special technological limitations. It is also convenient to simulate interference here. The circuit design software available here will help you create a quality project. There is only one significant drawback - its high cost.
Software from Cadence
As an easy and cheap solution for creating electronic circuits, they offer the OrCAD package. It is considered as a priority project input system. The latest version added the ability to synthesize and model digital logic circuits. The editor has three different configurations, each of which is characterized by its own special features. You can create up to thirty layers in a project. There are also built-in auto-tracking and auto-placement tools. For more expensive work, PCB Design Studio is offered. It is convenient to create high-speed multilayer circuits in which high component density is present. It is also possible to conduct an analysis of electromagnetic compatibility and a preliminary check of a developed project. But, guided by our realities, it is difficult not to notice that the most popular are free computer programs where you can create electronic circuits.
Easyeda
This program is based on cloud technology and WEB. It has a functional description input, wiring of electronic circuits, as well as a mixed simulation mode. And with all this you can work in your browser. Oh yes, this program for creating electronic circuits is completely free. The resulting result can be made open to all (or vice versa - close it). Libraries and ready-made schemes from Eagle, KiCad, LTspice and Altium can be imported as needed. In addition, if necessary, the resulting result can be exported to many formats. Given that other programs for designing circuits can work with it (albeit not directly), this software can claim to be universal.
ExpressPCB
This editor supports the manual creation of double-sided
printed circuit boards that can contain parts with pin and planar leads. It implements the ability to import a list of goals, as well as highlighting pads that are not connected. To simplify the search and purchase of electronic components, they are numbered with a digital code (though not all). Also here you can place the components on the circuit with high accuracy. After creating the finished project, she will inform you about the estimated cost of the items and even help you place an order. Moreover, this program for creating circuits is completely free. But it was developed by a small group of American volunteers, so it has several drawbacks. So, there is no link checking function to select the optimal placement of parts, Cyrillic characters are not supported, and there is no autorouter. In general, it is designed to quickly solve various production problems by quickly creating high-quality two- or four-layer electronic circuits.
Diptrace
If you need free and good software for designing electrical circuits, then here is one of them. It consists of several modules, each of which is responsible for a certain functionality. An important advantage is that it is a domestic development. Therefore, this software and accompanying information in Russian. Thanks to this, it will be easy to understand the nuances of creating circuits here. During operation, editable objects have a backlight. Thanks to this, you can visually assess the state of affairs. The existing autorouter is good at coping with multi-layer complex boards that host different types of parts. What is important for inexperienced people is that here you can run your project under numerous checks, so that the detection and correction of errors occurs on the fly. To have an idea of ββthe final result, there is a built-in simulation program in three-dimensional space. True, in fairness, it should be noted that the free version is a bit limited (as opposed to the paid one). But even such functionality makes it possible to work conveniently and efficiently.
Eagle
This is a full-fledged software package that has a paid and free version (they differ in the size of the created schemes). This includes three main components, which allow you to draw electronic circuits using standard elements, create your own drawings and trace without involving the user. If you are just starting to design electronic circuits, this program can be of significant benefit due to its wide functionality. But the size limit makes it unlikely to be used to create complex products.
Conclusion
So we looked at commercial and free computer programs. It should be noted that the former, as a rule, have wider functionality. And this is not surprising - because these programs for designing circuits bring profit to their developers, so they are the first to get various innovations.