Electrical CAD help

[fletch]

I have gotten my little Arduino project to behave as desired at the breadboard stage. Now it's time to create something a bit more robust than wires stuck into holes. I'm quite comfortable with hand-soldering through hole & larger SMT parts. What I don't have the know-how to do yet is turn a hand-drawn schematic into a PCB layout with mounting holes, pads, etc.

Is there anyone out there who could help me by laying out the board in a freeware product or talk me through the process of doing it myself? I'm willing to put in the effort. Be warned... I use Mac. I can always install a Windows VM if necessary, but am guessing there are decent web-based alternatives. I would appreciate any help offered.

[narly1]

Hit up your local college electronics program?

[jab351w]

The basic process is:

1) Draw your schematic in a schematic capture tool
2) Generate a netlist from the schematic that can be imported into a PCB layout tool (if not the same tool)
3) Using the imported netlist, lay out your PCB design
3a) Find/create footprints for any non-standard components or components without existing footprints in the library used by the PCB layout tool
4) Generate the files (i.e. "Gerber" and drill files) used to fab the PCB
5) Send the files to the PCB fab house
6) Wait
7) Receive your new PCBs
8) Test your new PCB and realize you made a routing/footprint mistake
9) Goto step 1 :)

In a previous life I used to do this professionally and have used some of the pro ($$$) tools. But for for small hobby PCB projects I've personally used TinyCAD for schematic capture and FreePCB for layout. They're both free, but are Windows-only and fairly limited and somewhat quirky (especially FreePCB). Some years ago Eagle used to be the one of the popular hobbyist schematic/PCB tools, but it looks like Autodesk bought them and may have changed the license structure so that you now have to sign up for a subscription. KiCad is another one that's free and works on Win/Mac/Linux. A web search will likely turn up some others as well.

I may be able to help if you have other specific questions about the process.


Jeff

[FF33rod]

Jeff did a great job of listing the steps.
One of the more difficult aspects of the process may be how much is in the "library" for both the component itself and the associated PCB footprint.
May I ask what you're trying to make? if it's relatively small and if the components are all available in leaded through-hole form factor then a universal prototyping PCB like the following may work
https://www.amazon.ca/ElectroCookie-Snappable-Arduino-Electronics-Gold-Plated/dp/B081QYPHHP/ref=sr_1_12?crid=37VK8UY97DFDQ&dchild=1&keywords=prototype+pcb+board&qid=1632411823&sprefix=Prototype+PCB%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-12

Steve

[fletch]

Thanks for the list of steps and the suggestion of the prototype board. I may go that route simply because it's easier. I'd prefer to learn how to layout the board, etc., but I'm not sure I want to spend the time right now. Here's a gruesome picture of the breadboard setup. 16 solid state relays with TH resistors, 1 AND gate on an interposer, and an SSM to k-line converter on the other tiny board. So everything's through hole now.
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