I’m interested in learning how to make a proper PCB rather than perf board with wires all over the place.
I would recomment to try Kicad for this. It is free and should do just what you want.
Kicad is great. It also has a huge community behind it so there are plenty of tutorials and ways to get help
Second that. Did my own Keyboard design with it with zero preknowledge and available community resources.
Yeah! I tried it years back, and it was not so good.
Fast forward to this month. I try it again and am really impressed! It’s great now!
I was using it on client work within hours.
Another vote for Kicad. I have done a small project with it and it worked perfectly.
KiCad. Stay away from closed-source tools. They’ll all try to press out the max amount of money sooner or later. Or get bought and discontinued for eliminating competition.
KiCAD is good and has no vendor lock-in.
There are very good beginner tutorials and videos explaining typical workflows.
It features also stuff like auto-routing, error checking, part lists and 3D previews.
Another Kicad vote here. Note that even if you don’t like it and move away from it eventually, the fact that it’s open-source and the file format is documented means you’re capable of taking your designs with you.
Kicad. Capable and free as in freedom and it just keeps getting more and more capable. Install size with all the libraries and models can be pretty massive, though. https://kicad.org
I also tried Horizon EDA recently and it’s very impressive. Perhaps simpler and easier to use but still feels very full featured. Certainly a smaller install. https://horizon-eda.org
I use Altium Designer and KiCAD. KiCAD isn’t as good by just a hair but makes up for it by being free and open-source. Altium Designer is also crazy expensive for hobbyists.
Another tool worth exploring is EasyEDA. The fun part is you can even run it as a webapp.
It’s tightly linked with the JLCPCB/LCSC ecosystem, so there’s a lot of libraries of parts and it scans for their design rules, if you want to use their services.
There’s also a somewhat basic auto-router baked in, which is harder to integrate in KiCAD.
I do agree that KiCAD is the consensus “full fat” tool these days, but I’ve put together decent projects in both.
KiCad. Is there a place to import more models from? Like say the esp line?
Or can I download it from something like Mouser when I find the part I need?
I’ve been looking into KiCad lately (thanks to this thread) and this guy seems to sum it up pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaCVh2SAZY4&list=PL3bNyZYHcRSUhUXUt51W6nKvxx2ORvUQB&index=1&pp=iAQB
Looks good. Enjoying the little history lesson there :D
