Re: SolidWorks is cool, sort of (but FreeCAD might be better)

On 6/20/2025 1:59 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Being old and cantankerous that is exactly how I do my simple PCBs to this day, except that I use Corel draw and layers.
 I spent a week trying to get a PCB cad program to work, gave up and did the PCB in a day.

The amount of effort you put into setting up and learning a tool depends on
the amount of work you, later, expect the tool to do for you.  (obviously,
you spent some time learning Corel... likely NOT for PCB layout!)
If I need to dovetail two pieces of wood together, I might opt to
just drag out a coping saw and hand chisel/mallet; it's quick and easy.
OTOH, if I am going to assemble a set of drawers for a cabinet, I'll drag
out the dado jig and a router and plan on investing the time to get *them*
set up, properly.
Schematic capture, PCB layout, mechanical CAD, thermal analysis, etc.
all have high initial overheads that you have to overcome.  But, can
reap great rewards depending on the frequency of their use and the
sophistication of the problems addressed.
Sadly, this also acts to tether folks to particular solutions -- perhaps
longer than common sense might dictate.  E.g., I quickly left DASH-PCB
behind -- and, with it, the rest of the design suite :< -- when it
just wasn't the "right" tool for SMT work (~1990) and SMT was the obvious
"future" for my designs!
But, it had more than paid for itself with the time saved and increased
billings it allowed in the few years I used it!  (and, the hardware had
still more uses going forward)

There is an online website that will convert Corel drawings to the correct format for PCBs.

You might want to chase down an ancient (40 year old) copy of Wintek's
smARTWORK.  It was a toy layout package that was a breeze for small jobs
(I think it ran on a single floppy!)  Definitely more "value" than Corel
when it comes to PCBs.