EFY Plus DVD

What is Inside This Month’s DVD

This month’s DVD includes an EDA package with a professional standard printed circuit board design and layout tool. If you are a programmer, we have also included handy HDl simulators and an Arduino IDE

pankaj V.

Logisim

Logisim is a very useful software tool that allows you to design simple as well as complex logic circuits. The architecture is highly modular, such that it allows you to add new modules without the need of recompiling the program. you can also add new modules even at runtime. Logisim can be used as an effective educational tool, as it calculates the logic flow through all gates recursively and redraws the screen at the end of all calculations, allowing for better understanding of any circuit simulation. Supported OS: Windows, Linux and MacOS Link: http://sourceforge.net/ projects/circuit/files/2.7.x/2.7.1/logisimwin-2.7.1.exe/download

Arduino IDE for windows

Arduino IDE for windows provides support for a wide array of your favourite Arduino boards, including Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega, Esplora, Ethernet, Fio, Pro or Pro Mini as well as LilyPad Arduino. The software works in conjunction with an Arduino controller and can be used to write, compile and upload code to the board. It is a modern alternative to other IDEs offering features such as syntax highlighting, automatic indentation and brace matching. It provides a streamlined interface with all of its features hosted inside a few buttons and easy-to-navigate menus, especially for professional programmers. Supported OS: Windows Link: http:// www.softpedia.com/dyn-postdownload. php?p=104657&t=4&i=1

KiCAD

KiCad is an open-source electronics design automation (EDA) package. It is a handy toolset for the design of electronic circuits schematics and their conversion to printed circuit boards (PCBs). With KiCad, you can create schematic diagrams and PCBs up to 16 layers. Apart from the included set of libraries, you can create your custom components as well. An integrated environment for all of the stages of the design process, namely, schematic capture, PCB layout, Gerber file generation/ visualisation and library editing along with 3D PCB viewing function makes this tool appropriate for any kind of project. Supported OS: Windows Link: http://iut-tice. ujf-grenoble.fr/cao/KiCad_stable2013.07.07-BZR4022_Win_full_version.exe

ZamiaCAD

ZamiaCAD is a handy tool that provides a modular and extensible platform for your advanced hardware design, analysis and research. With its core components including a language-independent instantiation graph (IG) data structure, language-dependent frontend and the applications working on the IG data structure, it converts a hardware description (VHDL or Verilog) into a language-independent IG structure. The language-dependent frontend is extensible. Supported OS: Windows, Linux and MacOS Link: http:// sourceforge.net/projects/zamiacad/files/ win32.win32.x86/zamiaCAD-0.11.3win32_64.zip/download

PVSim

PVSim is a portable and intuitive emulation utility for Verilog HDL. It features a fast compile simulate display cycle providing a fast simulation runtime with a user-friendly interface which allows you to open and simulate PSIM files and view the results within its main window along with all the simulation parameters and the event log. Supported OS: Windows, Linux and MacOS Link: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pvsim/files/ PVSim/6.0.2/PVSim-6.0.2-win-setup. exe/download

PCBColorizer

PCBColorizer is a small and useful tool that can be used to colourise your PCBs. This open source application can perform automatic scheme colouring of circuit boards. It works on the basic principle of marking each identical component with a unique colour and style, thus simplifying the visual search component on the board as well as the installation process. Supported OS: Windows Link: http:// sourceforge.net/projects/pcbcolorizer/files/ PCBColorizer_1.07.zip/download

ZenitPCB

ZenitPCB Layout is an excellent tool to create professional PCB. It is a flexible easy-to-use CAD program, which allows you to realise your projects in a short period of time. You can find an entire article on this software in this month’s EFy Plus magazine. Supported OS: Windows Link: http://www. zenitpcb.com/ZenitSuiteSetup180.zip 

The author is a technical journalist at EFY

Create PCbs up to 16 Layers with kiCad

Operational on Apple OS X, Linux and Windows, KiCad is an electronic design automation software tool to design and generate professional schematics and printed circuit boards. A well-known software tool, KiCad is released under the open source General Public Licence v2 (GNU GPL). Try out KiCad included in this month’s DVD exclusively available with EFY Plus

Abhishek A. MuthA

Designed and written by JeanPierre Charras, and under active development by the KiCad Developers Team, KiCad features an integrated environment that allows you to create schematic diagrams and PCBs up to 16 layers.

KiCad can be implemented and interoperated on multiple computer platforms. It is an open source software suite for EDA and it facilitates the design of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCB designs as well. Basically, it provides the user with an integrated environment for PCB layout design and schematic capture.

Tools exist within the package to create a bill of materials (BOM), artwork and Gerber files and 3D views of the PCB and its components too. A number of component libraries are available with the ability to add custom components by the users.

Interestingly, there are tools avail-

KiCad is considered mature and can be used for the successful development and maintenance of complex electronic boards. KiCad does not present any board-size limitation, and it can easily handle up to 16 copper layers and 12 technical layers. KiCad can also create all the files necessary for building printed boards like Gerber files for photo-plotters, drilling files, component location files and a lot more. able to assist with importing components from other EDA tools like Eagle, for example. With multiple language support and 3D PCB viewing, there is a built-in basic autorouter as well.

Features and functionality in three steps

Kicad main window KiCad allows you to develop your printed circuit board (PCB) via three interconnected and independent main applications: Eeschema, Cvpcb, Pcbnew. This is simply done in three steps.

Step 1: Schematic cap-

ture. With the KiCad schematic editor Eeschema, you can create a sophisticated electronic sheet or a group of hierarchical sheets. Several schematic components come with the default KiCad library. An Electrical Rules Check (ERC) tool is available too.

Step 2: Component association.

Cvpcb allows you to associate