PCB CAD Programs

[J. Peterson]

Hi,

>     Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced schematics
>capture and layout program for either Windows or Mac OSX that can autoroute
>do boards up to say 6² x 8²? When I say reasonable, I¹m thinking $250 or
>less.

A couple years ago when I was getting back into 
circuit design I looked into a few packages in 
some detail.  I came to the same conclusion about 
ExpressPCB, it's just too limited.

I looked into Eagle, and while it's popular on 
the web and very functional, I found the user 
interface just too clunky to deal with.  It's 
clear it started life as a DOS program, and the 
designers just haven't moved it forward.

I finally settled on Target 3001.  It's done by a 
small crew in Germany.  While it has it's small 
quirks, it's very complete (it has an 
auto-router!) and quite easy to use.  The parts 
library is reasonably extensive, though it does 
have a distinctive European accent.

Here's the URL:  http://www.ibfriedrich.com/english/

When I was actively using it a year or two ago 
the customer support was fantastic: email 
questions answered in a day or two, and in one 
case where'd I found a bug, they sent a new executable with a fix the next day!

They have a free download for small designs (< 
200 pins/pads), I've done fairly extensive 
designs with the "smart" edition (< 700 
pins/pads) for less than $200.  This version 
outputs standard Gerber files you can send to any 
PCB fab house.  There's also a free version that 
outputs exclusively to a European PCB house (www.pcb-pool.com)

The card for the PDP-11/70 panel controller I did 
a few years ago was done in Target 3001:

http://www.saccade.com/writing/projects/PDP11/PDP-11.html

I'd be very interested to hear feedback on other 
similar CAD packages - it's very difficult to 
find review material on stuff like this.

Cheers,
jp