I'm using Windows, and am limited to free software (no AutoCAD, Orcad, Altium, Eagle, etc.) which I can share with fellow students. I've been using ExpressPCB and LTSpice. But neither one produces satisfactory looking schematics for use in a report.
The best free software I've found so far:
XCircuit
http://opencircuitdesign.com/xcircuit/
XCircuit saves files as postscript. Embed these in your LaTeX document.
For Windows users:
XCircuit is intended for Unix, so there's a lot of tools you need to get started, but once you're setup, it is a VERY powerful program, especially considering that it's free. The circuit diagrams look professional, they are hierarchical, there's a wealth of libraries of circuit elements, you can export netlists and SPICE files. There's even a library of professional-quality music notation symbols. The user interfaces in ExpressPCB, LTSpice, and KiCad are all good, but XCircuit offers the most freedom. The only downside is that the UNIX emulation environment is a little kludgey and takes some getting used to.
It will take at least a full day or two install everything and get comfortable with it, but the results are very professional. So please don't be daunted by the following long and frustrating set of downloads and installs. There are four steps.
1) Download LaTeX here -- it's the self-extracting zip file protext.exe
http://www.tug.org/protext/
Run Setup.exe -- this actually launches a pdf with links to install four programs: MikTeX, TeXnicCenter, Ghostscript, and GSview
2) XCircuit requires a UNIX emulator called Cygwin.
go to:
http://www.cygwin.com/
click on the "Install Cygwin now" button. This will prompt you to save
"setup.exe".
(Remember where you save this file. Doing a full install of Cygwin takes forever, so the following steps explain how to install only the essentials. If you really get into Unix and want to install more packages in the future, simply run "setup.exe" again to add more packages to your install.)
Run setup.exe,
follow all the prompts.
When you get to the part where you select what to install, a core of
basic packages have already been selected. There's a few things you need to add.
To add a single file to the install, simply click on the word "Skip" so that the "Bin?" column is checked. You don't need to download the source files, so leave the "Src?" column unchecked.
To add an entire folder to the install, click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install").
Paste each of the following into the "Select Packages" search bar. Install all folders for all of the following, except where noted (of course you can install as much as you want, but in the interest of saving time...).
xorg
autoconf
libtool
make
automake
tcsh
vim
m4 (next to folder "Interpreters," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
gcc (next to folder "Devel," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
g++ (next to folder "Devel," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
gdb (next to folder "Devel," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
zip (next to folder "Archive," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
unzip (next to folder "Archive," click on the word "Default" so that it changes to "Install")
Click "Next" and wait a long time while the files are downloaded and installed.
You may want to play with Cygwin a bit before proceeding. For first-time UNIX users:
**broken link removed**
3) Install Tcl and Tk:
Binaries are here:
http://opencircuitdesign.com/cygwin/tcltk.html
("Binary" just means the software is already compiled for Windows, as opposed to "Source" files which you'd have to "build" yourself within the Cygwin environment -- I found building sources too difficult, so I just downloaded the latest binaries).
scroll down to
"Tcl-Cygwin binary distribution download and install:"
Download tcltk_x11_win.tgz. Save it in the folder where you installed Cygwin (probably C:\cygwin)
(Note: DO NOT USE THE VISTA VERSION -- there is a Tcl/Tk version
mismatch (8.4!=8.5) that causes endless frustration.)
From within Cygwin, navigate to the folder where you saved the download. Assuming you saved it in C:\cygwin, type the following:
$ cd /
(now you are in the correct folder)
$ ls tcl*
(you should see the file tcltk_x11_win.tgz)
$ tar xfz tcltk_x11_win.tgz
(this unzips and installs tcltk)
4) Install XCircuit:
Binaries are here:
http://opencircuitdesign.com/cygwin/xcircuit.html
download xcircuit-3.6.129v.tgz (or whatever the latest binary is)
Follow the exact same steps from step 3 above:
--Save in C:\cygwin
--open a Cygwin bash shell and type:
$ cd /
$ tar xfz xcircuit-3.6.129v.tgz
That's it!
To run XCircuit, simply open a Cygwin bash shell and type:
$ xcircuit
To get started, the three tutorials on the XCircuit site are very good.
go to
http://opencircuitdesign.com/xcircuit/
and click on:
Tutorials
Since XCircuit saves files in postscript format, embedding the circuit in your LaTeX document is very simple. Open your LaTeX project in TeXnicCenter and select Insert -> Picture, then browse to the .ps file you created in XCircuit.