PCB (software)

Updated on Oct 22, 2023

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Developer(s) Thomas Nau Stable release 2.0		Initial release 1990

Operating system Unix-like (BSDs, GNU/Linux, Solaris, OS X (experimental) and Microsoft Windows Type Electronic design automation (EDA) License GNU General Public License

PCB is a free and open-source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA) - for printed circuit boards (PCB) layout. It uses GTK+ for its GUI widgets.

History

PCB was first written by Thomas Nau for an Atari ST in 1990 and ported to UNIX and X11 in 1994. Initially PCB was not intended to be a professional layout system but as a tool for individuals to do small-scale development of hardware. The second release 1.2 introduced user menus. This made PCB easier to use and increased its popularity. Harry Eaton took over PCB development beginning with Release 1.5, although he contributed some code from Release 1.4.3

Features

Scalable fonts

Layer groups to keep signals together

Add on device drivers

Gerber RS-274X and NC Drill output support

Centroid (X-Y) data output

PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript output

Rats-nest generation from simple net lists

Automatic clearance around pins that pierce a polygon

Flags for pins and vias

Groups of action commands can be undone by a single undo

Simple design rule checker (DRC) - checks for minimum spacing and overlap rules

Drawing directly on the silk layer

Viewable solder-mask layers and editing

Netlist window

Netlist entry by drawing rats

Auto router

Snap to pins and pads

Element files and libraries that can contain whole sub-layouts, metric grids

Up to 16 copper layer designs by default

Trace optimizer

Rats nest

Connectivity verification

Can interoperate with free schematic capture tools such as gEDA and XCircuit

GNU autoconf/automake based build system

PCB is Free Software

References

PCB (software) Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

History

Features

References