IMHO, a schematics software should provide an easy way to draw your parts, and a clear way to manage your component library, to stay organized. However, things may get a bit trickier when it comes to adding your own components. You trace wires, add some net labels, off-page connectors. Well, a schematics editor is usually not that complex. On Altium Designer, I think I've only routed 5 or 6 PCBs, all 4 layers.įirst, I'll explain here my personal definition of a good software, starting with the schematics part. To plant the background, I've already routed 30+ PCBs on Cadence Allegro, some of them being 6 layers. It will also cover a very small portion of what these softwares can do, as I want to focus on the features you usually use the most. Therefore, it will be purely subjective even if I'll try to define objective grading criterias for schematics/PCB tools.

(3 edit: thanks to Graham and Dams for their precious remarks, this post has been updated with some additional infos)įirst of all, let's emphasize the fact that this blog post is entirely based on my experience only.

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