Design tools Was: Mystery IC: Allen Bradley 314B102

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Brent Hilpert

    > I need to move to something newer but I haven't evaluated current
    > schematic-drawing programs

Dave Bridgham got me started with KiCAD, and that seems like a pretty good
system to me. It has separate sub-systems for schematic capture; circuitry
checking; netlist generation; PCB layout; etc, etc. I've only worked with the
first three, but it seemed pretty good for them.

    > I'm a little concerned they won't provide the degree of control or
    > finesse I like

Well, you'll have to try it and see, but it's pretty customizable: they
provide libraries of common components, but it has a nice component editor
for drawing up new ones (or customizing the ones it comes with).

Component location and line routing (in the schematic capture) are manual,
but it's grid-based, so things line up.

	Noel