PCB design that is free and very similar or cheaper than Altium

I wanted to know if that is an alternative type of PCB design that has a similar interface and design like Altium because the price is ridiculous

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e14softwareuk over 6 years ago in reply to Sean_Miller +4

Eagle is a great product and is free if you are working on small designs or very low cost subscription if only needing 4 copper layers and limit board size. The new Eagle under Autodesk is very different…
Sean_Miller over 6 years ago +2

Before KiCAD came along, Eagle was the Go-To free PCB design software from Cadsoft. Today, Autodesk owns Eagle and they have integrated Autodesk Fusion 360 with it. KiCAD does great to render a 3D asset…
14rhb over 6 years ago in reply to e14softwareuk +2

Eagle has a area on E14 Community Autodesk EAGLE And an Autodesk rep you can ask questions of Jorge_Garcia

rusgray over 6 years ago

There are lots of other EDA options out there. The most popular free one is probably KiCad. There are a number of commercial products that are not as expensive as Altium Designer.
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e14softwareuk over 6 years ago

If you already know Altium Designer than why not consider CircuitStudio. Think of it as an older version of Designer with a restricted feature set and new ribbon interface but the concepts behind it all should be familiar and it's great for many types of design work. We have a forum dedicated to supporting this product right here on element14.
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Fred27 over 6 years ago

I was also going to suggest Circuit Studio. I've not used it myself, but I know it's intended to be a subset of AD.
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michaelkellett over 6 years ago in reply to Fred27

Before rushing into that I suggest you check out the discussions re. Circuit Studio on E14 - the purchasers of that product do not seem very happy.

@ Jack, if you must have free then Kicad is almost certainly the way to go.

If mere cheap might do then take a look at EasyPC, easy to use and in my experience it's been very reliable. Very few crashes or problems of any kind in more than 10 years of using it. Much simpler and less ambitious than Altium and other big ticket products but that'll be why it's cheap but actually works.

MK
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Sean_Miller over 6 years ago

Before KiCAD came along, Eagle was the Go-To free PCB design software from Cadsoft. Today, Autodesk owns Eagle and they have integrated Autodesk Fusion 360 with it.

KiCAD does great to render a 3D asset from your board design, but I have found the Fusion solution more streamlined if you are one to make your own enclosures. You can go straight from the PCB design to Fusion 360 Design. So, I'm back to Eagle as my primary.

See ya',
Sean
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e14softwareuk over 6 years ago in reply to Sean_Miller

Eagle is a great product and is free if you are working on small designs or very low cost subscription if only needing 4 copper layers and limit board size. The new Eagle under Autodesk is very different to the old days as there are many, many releases of the software each year with both bug fixes and new features regularly getting added.
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Fred27 over 6 years ago

Eagle is good and it's what I use, but the one requirement the OP has is "has a similar interface and design like Altium"
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14rhb over 6 years ago in reply to e14softwareuk

Eagle has a area on E14 Community Autodesk EAGLE

And an Autodesk rep you can ask questions of Jorge_Garcia
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Jan Cumps over 6 years ago in reply to michaelkellett

michaelkellett , the thing is that there are tons of these kind of posts for each of the EDA packets. When they are written in that tone, I shift them aside.
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michaelwylie over 6 years ago

I use CircuitStudio all the time and I've only had minor issues. The problems people have are usually stemmed from buying CircuitStudio and expecting the functionality of Altium Designer.
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