Electronic Circuit Drawing for High School Project

[Bernhard Krämer]

Hello,

I want ask you a question that certainly has already been asked a thousand
times. Even so, I didn't find a satisfying answer by googling.

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project. So for
just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD software is not an option.
Although, I have been very inspired by such beautiful schematics as you
find them e.g. in "The Art of Electronics".

For the moment, the best solution I know is to use Xfig, where you can even
export the schematics to a special PDF/LaTeX Format which allows you to use
formulas and overall the LaTeX-Font within. But Xfig, as far as I know it,
has two major drawbacks in schematic drawing:
1) If you move a part, the wires will not follow,
2) You can't see how much place the labels will take in the final document.
For example, when naming a part $R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$, this string will take
much space in the drawing but less space in the final, LaTeX-compiled
version.

So I am looking for a program or kind of enhancement to make low-cost,
high-quality circuit design for my report.

Yours,

Bernhard

 

[Chuck Harris]

Hello,

I want ask you a question that certainly has already been asked a thousand
times. Even so, I didn't find a satisfying answer by googling.

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project. So for
just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD software is not an option.
Although, I have been very inspired by such beautiful schematics as you
find them e.g. in "The Art of Electronics".

For the moment, the best solution I know is to use Xfig, where you can even
export the schematics to a special PDF/LaTeX Format which allows you to use
formulas and overall the LaTeX-Font within. But Xfig, as far as I know it,
has two major drawbacks in schematic drawing:
1) If you move a part, the wires will not follow,
2) You can't see how much place the labels will take in the final document.
For example, when naming a part $R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$, this string will take
much space in the drawing but less space in the final, LaTeX-compiled
version.

So I am looking for a program or kind of enhancement to make low-cost,
high-quality circuit design for my report.

Yours,

Bernhard

Download the gEDA project. It has a high quality, unlimited schematic editor
called gschem, simulators, and a PCB layout package. It is free. It runs
natively under linux and other unix systems, but will also run under Cgywin
for those stuck on the windows system.

-Chuck

 

[Ingo Cyliax]

Hello,

I want ask you a question that certainly has already been asked a thousand
times. Even so, I didn't find a satisfying answer by googling.

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project. So for
just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD software is not an option.
Although, I have been very inspired by such beautiful schematics as you
find them e.g. in "The Art of Electronics".

For the moment, the best solution I know is to use Xfig, where you can even
export the schematics to a special PDF/LaTeX Format which allows you to use
formulas and overall the LaTeX-Font within. But Xfig, as far as I know it,
has two major drawbacks in schematic drawing:
1) If you move a part, the wires will not follow,
2) You can't see how much place the labels will take in the final document.
For example, when naming a part $R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$, this string will take
much space in the drawing but less space in the final, LaTeX-compiled
version.

So I am looking for a program or kind of enhancement to make low-cost,
high-quality circuit design for my report.

Hi Bernhard,

here are some options that might work for you, depending on
your requirements, time (installation/learning/etc) and platform
(Windows/Linux/Mac).

1. Eagle Cad - they provide a free (limited) version which can be used
to generate nice looking schematics, both Windows/Linux/Mac OS-X versions
exist. It also let's you design circuits and genertes layouts. At one
time Circuit Cellar Magazine used this to generate the schematics for
the articles. This is probably the easiest way to get something up an
running.

2. Xcircuits - this a schematics capture program especially suited for
producing documentation. GNU license, and should compile for Linux or
Windows under Cygwin. I think it has LaTex output capabilties as well..
I used to use this for documentation, but now I use gschem (below).

3. gEDA - collection of tools that allow you to capture schematics
(gschem), simulate and design PCBs. GNU license and should build under
Linux or Windows/Cygwin. The whole package is large and you'd only need
the schematics capture, but for that you will need a bunch of libraries.
Although, the build from their CDROM distribution is relatively painless.

Later, -ingo

 

[Joerg]

Hello Bernhard,

I'd take the first suggestion from Ingo and obtain the free copy of
Eagle here:

http://www.cadsoft.de/

The freeware is only for non-profit use but a high school project
probably fits that requirement.

Then when you become an engineer you will already know your way around
with an integrated CAD system and can buy one of the full versions.

Eagle is very easy to learn. Its library editor is not, in my opinion.
But you probably won't use very exotic parts in your project so the
needed components should be found in the existing libraries. Having a
large library is very important, otherwise you'll work until late at
night on this stuff.

BTW, there are instructions in English, German, I believe Spanish, and
someone on the Eagle forums has just started one in French.

Regards, Joerg

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Hello,

I want ask you a question that certainly has already been asked a thousand
times. Even so, I didn't find a satisfying answer by googling.

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project. So for
just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD software is not an option.
Although, I have been very inspired by such beautiful schematics as you
find them e.g. in "The Art of Electronics".

For the moment, the best solution I know is to use Xfig, where you can even
export the schematics to a special PDF/LaTeX Format which allows you to use
formulas and overall the LaTeX-Font within. But Xfig, as far as I know it,
has two major drawbacks in schematic drawing:
1) If you move a part, the wires will not follow,
2) You can't see how much place the labels will take in the final document.
For example, when naming a part $R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$, this string will take
much space in the drawing but less space in the final, LaTeX-compiled
version.

So I am looking for a program or kind of enhancement to make low-cost,
high-quality circuit design for my report.

See my notes and links to some 60 ECAD programs at
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/ECADList.html

Terry Pinnell
Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK

 

[Poul Bundgaard]

Hello,

I want ask you a question that certainly has already been asked a
thousand times. Even so, I didn't find a satisfying answer by
googling.

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit
schematics ? I need them for a report I am writing about my high
school project. So for just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD
software is not an option. Although, I have been very inspired by
such beautiful schematics as you find them e.g. in "The Art of
Electronics".

For the moment, the best solution I know is to use Xfig, where you
can even export the schematics to a special PDF/LaTeX Format which
allows you to use formulas and overall the LaTeX-Font within. But
Xfig, as far as I know it, has two major drawbacks in schematic
drawing: 1) If you move a part, the wires will not follow,
2) You can't see how much place the labels will take in the final
document. For example, when naming a part $R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$, this
string will take much space in the drawing but less space in the
final, LaTeX-compiled version.

So I am looking for a program or kind of enhancement to make low-cost,
high-quality circuit design for my report.

How about trying KiCad - free package, seems very nice....

 

[Colin Seymour]

On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:21:32 +0200, Bernhard Krämer

Hi Bernhard,

Hello,

... My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project...

I have released a program called Circuit Scribe that is designed to
produce decent looking circuit/schematic drawings, as well as
netlisting
(downloadable from http://www.cjseymour.plus.com/software.htm,
which also has online help,
http://www.cjseymour.plus.com/layin/help.htm, with sample drawings so
you can see what sort of results you can achieve before trying the
program)

If you move a part, the wires WILL follow.

The labels are drawn in true scale, i.e. their size is specified in mm
or inches, and they are scaled in proportion to the rest of the
drawing when you scale print or zoom the display.

You can use any installed font on your machine.

There isn't an explicit support for subscripting or math formatting,
and you won't however be able to use constructions like
"$R_{\mathrm{Shunt}}$", although you could use a separate string
with a Roman font and a smaller size to obtain a subscript or
superscript effect, and math fonts for math symbols.


Colin

 

[Andrew Sterian]

My question is: How can I draw high quality electronic circuit schematics ?
I need them for a report I am writing about my high school project. So for
just a few schematics, buying an expensive CAD software is not an option.
Although, I have been very inspired by such beautiful schematics as you
find them e.g. in "The Art of Electronics".

I agree with others that Eagle is a good, free (for educational use) schematic
editor for the purpose of building circuits. You seem, however, to want to
publish schematics for publication, for which Eagle is not intended.

Your use of Xfig is a step in the right direction. I would encourage you
to look into TGIF:

http://bourbon.usc.edu:8001/tgif

It does not drag wires around with parts, but it does have one very useful
feature: you can embed LaTeX equations into figures and have them graphically
rendered so you can see exactly how they show up. (Press Ctrl-i in the editor,
or the Special->Instantiate menu, then select eq4.sym, right-click on the
newly-instantiated object, select "Edit attribute in editor-->eq=" and
enter your equation...then exit the editor, double-click on the object and
the equation will render. Press Alt-Cntrl-h (or Special->Attributes->Hide
Attributes) and the LaTeX source is hidden).

There are some publicly-available libraries of electronic part symbols for
use with TGIF. I didn't really like them, and they weren't complete, so I
started drawing my own. I can mail them to you if you decide to use TGIF.

 

[Bernhard Krämer]

Your use of Xfig is a step in the right direction. I would encourage you
to look into TGIF:

http://bourbon.usc.edu:8001/tgif

It does not drag wires around with parts, but it does have one very useful
feature: you can embed LaTeX equations into figures and have them
graphically rendered so you can see exactly how they show up. (Press
Ctrl-i in the editor, or the Special->Instantiate menu, then select
eq4.sym, right-click on the newly-instantiated object, select "Edit
attribute in editor-->eq=" and enter your equation...then exit the editor,
double-click on the object and the equation will render. Press Alt-Cntrl-h
(or Special->Attributes->Hide Attributes) and the LaTeX source is hidden).

Tgif is a very nice program. Thank you for this hint. And especially for the
manual how to write a first equation with tgif! Usually, these things take
time if you have to find it out by yourself.

I tried to convert the output to PDF. The formulas, looking ugly in the
tgif-editor, are just as I want them in the PDF! Perfect. Just one little
drawback, perhaps you could help me? The PDF has the size of an A4-Page,
and not just the size of the circuit I draw. If I would include that in
LaTeX as a figure, the circuit would be a small part only of the figure,
and the whole rest would be white. Is there a way to change this behavior?

There are some publicly-available libraries of electronic part symbols for
use with TGIF. I didn't really like them, and they weren't complete, so I
started drawing my own. I can mail them to you if you decide to use TGIF.

I guess you use standard US symbols, whereas I am going to use the european
ones. But nevertheless, I am very interested, and if it's only to learn!

Yours,

Bernhard

 

[Andrew Sterian]

Tgif is a very nice program. Thank you for this hint. And especially for the
manual how to write a first equation with tgif! Usually, these things take
time if you have to find it out by yourself.

I tried to convert the output to PDF. The formulas, looking ugly in the
tgif-editor, are just as I want them in the PDF! Perfect. Just one little
drawback, perhaps you could help me? The PDF has the size of an A4-Page,
and not just the size of the circuit I draw. If I would include that in
LaTeX as a figure, the circuit would be a small part only of the figure,
and the whole rest would be white. Is there a way to change this behavior?

It's not a good idea to try to include PDF files within a LaTeX document.
I would recommend printing the output of the TGIF file as an encapsulated
PostScript file (EPS) and including that in LaTeX. It will then appear as
you expect.

BTW, if you have not already investigated the use of LyX as an editor for
LaTeX, I would strongly recommend it.

I guess you use standard US symbols, whereas I am going to use the european
ones. But nevertheless, I am very interested, and if it's only to learn!

Coming by e-mail!

 

[Bernhard Krämer]

It's not a good idea to try to include PDF files within a LaTeX document.
I would recommend printing the output of the TGIF file as an encapsulated
PostScript file (EPS) and including that in LaTeX. It will then appear as
you expect.

I tried printing it in EPS and then converting it to PDF. This works much
better. I am using pdflatex instead of latex, and this is the reason why I
directly use pdf files instead of eps files.

BTW, if you have not already investigated the use of LyX as an editor for
LaTeX, I would strongly recommend it.

I tried LyX more than a year ago. I didn't find it very beautiful, but
perhaps my configuration was bad. Nevertheless, I think it is one of the
advantages of LaTeX that you don't see what you type. Me personally, I can
concentrate better on my text when I absolutely don't have to care how the
layout might be. (This doesn't mean that I don't care about the layout, it
is quite the contrary!)

Since its version 1.7., the LaTeX Editor Kile (running under Linux using
some KDE stuff) is my preferred editor. When you see what it can do with
you labels, citations and so on, you'll love it!

But hey, before I try to convert you to kile, thank you for this hint. I am
always interested in programs which could perhaps perform better (or which
I could like more).

Coming by e-mail!

Great thanks!