Create and customize designs for printed circuit boards. Include or exclude additional components of the suite such as a development kit for writing plugins to integrate with PCB123. Work with templates for standard materials, Protel, Tango, OrCAD and native PCB123 Netlist files.
PCB123 is developed by Sunstone Circuits, that targets Printed Circuit Board designers who want to be more pragmatic and efficient when doing their work. PCBs are the base upon which wire and other sockets or electronic components are assembled. Therefore, faster product delivery is wanted by all the parties involved.
The application comes wrapped in a standard interface, has a main grey background theme and two extra themes. The main screen has proper delimitations and nicely crafted buttons. However, its manuals are hard to dig in and a novice user will probably feel discouraged.
When it comes to its embedded functionalities, PCB123 is able to suffice various user needs. It's equipped with 3D rendering tools that let users preview how the final board will look.
More, it integrates SnapEDA, so individuals are able to search online for millions of verified and available parts. Note that PCB123 has the largest at-install parts library in the industry:750000 parts.
To conclude, PCB123 is a reliable design tool that can be used in various academic, industrial or leisure applications. It's free and though it does take some time to learn it, it manages to check all the right boxes that a user needs.
v5.0 [Aug 25, 2013]
1. The program now allows a reference designator that includes a period so that U1 and U2 are unique reference designators.
2. Assigning pins to a net will no longer change the pads sizes.
3. Relaxed the rigor with which the auto router code creates a fan-out for different pin patterns to footprints and added logic to discover pin patterns in a new way.
4. Fixed crash when importing DXF files. DXF import/export allows users to import and export DXF drawings that include simple board outlines (arcs are not supported) and holes.
5. Improved DXF import to allow it to recognize and import more non-plated holes.
6. Increased drill to plane clearance from 10 mils to 12.5 mils for unused pads on inner layer planes.
7. V5 User's guide included with build.
8. Added rename part functionality to the context menus of the layout, BOM and schematic. Also added it to the properties dialog of the schematic's _PARTNUMMFG field.
Within the layout, the "Part Type" field of the Edit Components Edit Properties dialog page (and of the Edit Components popup pane in the Edit Panel) was renamed to "Part Name" and typing a new name into that control causes the same behavior as does the "Browse..." button beside the "Package Name" control (i.e. rather than renaming the part, it will cause a part substitution of the selected part with another part).
9. The netlist import and the global alias file now use both the netlist part-type and the netlist package as the look up key for PCB123 part associations.
10. The netlist import now recognizes spaces in parttypes.
11. Removed unused schematic menu options.
12. Fixed: DXF export creates DXF files in metric units. AutoCAD has only two systems of measurement, English and metric, while PCB123 has four, INCH, MILS, MM, CM. PCB1123 was failing to set the AutoCAD units to English when MILS was selected in PCB123. If exporting to DXF it is best to set units to either inches or mm.
13. Export netlist no longer shows an open dialog to save a netlist.
14. Corrected copy and paste issues experienced when copying objects that include the board outline.
15. Symbol editor now shows same units set throughout the program.
16. Fixed: Using the nothing selectable toolbar button in the footprint editor still allows user to select pins.
17. Fixed: Schematic does not load last edited version of a symbol. When the taxonomy tree is clicked on a part that is already in the schematic, the program now checks the libraries before placing the part and if the library symbol is different from that existing in the schematic, the user has the opportunity to place the library part or the schematic part. Should the library part be placed, the existing schematic part is renamed slightly to maintain referential integrity within the schematic.
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