Eagle or another package for PCB design?

Hi,

I have been using Eagle for some time but only to draw schematics and basically make them look nice. Never did any PCB fab house design. So now I need to make a board and I would like to know what your opinion on Eagle might be. I dont really find it easy to use on the schematic side of things but that is mostly my lack of exeprience. Nonetheless I would like to know what you think - what is the easiest package to use, in terms of GUI and intuition. I am looking at basic stuff - dual layer, some SMT some DIPs. Traces and spaces 8mm is cool but I do need the usual - silk screen, solder screen, stencil for solder-pasting. I think those are pretty basic requirements but even now, I cant seem to figure the most basic stuff in Eagle PCB design - for example I want to know the distance between mounting wholes and the software doesnt show that?

How can one design the case (I use emachineshop.com, really nice) if the PCB would not show dimentions of the board. Not to mention the lenght of each side and .. well real basic stuff like that. I know its probably me but do express your opinion

What is the easiest (and free) package to use for basic PCB design.

Ahh and yes, it needs to be able to spid gerbers for the fab house

Thanks
~B

I recommend you Altium Designer or PADS

Orcad ...
Protel ...

bauer said:

Orcad ...
P*otel ...

Click to expand...

Hi

Protec and Altium both appear to be the same product. I looked at their stuff and it is pretty complex? Isn't that an overkill for my at-most-2-layer project?

Would someone post an example project for Altium Designer that I can open and play with? I'll be happy to re-post on an outside server for those with few download credits

Anyway, I really need something basic yet able to provide the silk screen, solder mask and the usual DRC core

Thanks
~B

orcad+pads

use zuken products