PCB Design Tools

Comments recommend and compare PCB/EDA software like KiCad, Eagle, Horizon EDA, LibrePCB, EasyEDA, and Altium, discussing UI, ease of use, libraries, and suitability for hobbyists and professionals.

📉 Falling 0.4x Hardware
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Keywords

e.g LLM FOSS DipTrace UltraLibrarian youtube.com WIP UI DesignSpark eda.org kicad pcb cad design footprint circuit mechanical tool ui library

Sample Comments

IshKebab Aug 9, 2022 View on HN

Check out Horizon EDA. It's basically Kicad with a much saner UI.

mdp2021 May 2, 2022 View on HN

T#;DR : also try KiCad (or Eagle).

IshKebab Sep 17, 2014 View on HN

DesignSpark PCB for me. Eagle has probably the worst UI in existence. I've not used Fritzing but it looks overly simplistic.

drunkonvinyl Feb 6, 2024 View on HN

this resonates. i will share that i'm trying out and having luck with flux.ai. it's not perfect, but for a small hobby project and someone with little experience and not getting far quickly in kicad, it works. i have a pcb in-hand from jlcpcb right now and it works. it also introduces some of the shared features discussed above. (i don't work for them, just looking for something that would let me do a fairly fast PoC)

mikecoles Sep 25, 2023 View on HN

Has anyone had the chance to compare with kicad?Found in prior HN comments: (2020) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23059615librepcb 'comparison': https://librepcb.org/faq/#why-should-i-use-librepcb

keenerd Jan 24, 2013 View on HN

You should try Kicad. Similar problem with libraries, except making new footprints is my favorite part of the suite. It is a pleasure to use.

dbrgn Jan 11, 2019 View on HN

Shameless plug: Also check out https://librepcb.org/ :)

andyl Dec 4, 2015 View on HN

How does KiCad compare to Eagle?

gedy Feb 19, 2021 View on HN

+1 for EasyEDA, way simpler to learn for me as well.

cobrabyte Sep 27, 2024 View on HN

I'd love a tool like this for PCB design/layout