Best PCB Design Software with a Free Trial of 2025

Altium Designer® offers a unified design environment backed by over 35 years of innovation and development. From schematic to PCB layout and interactive differential pair routing, to design documentation and a seamless ECAD/MCAD integration, Altium Designer empowers engineers with a single view of every aspect of the PCB design process. By accessing all design tools in one place, engineers can complete their entire design process within the same intuitive environment and deliver high-quality products quickly. Features of Altium Designer include stackup planning, anonymous sharing, data management, 3D visualization, multi-board assembly, documentation, output configuration, and more. With the addition of Altium 365, users can choose between accessing the program online and on-premises.

OrCAD® X is a unified PCB design software platform. It offers significant improvements to ease of use, performance and automation. Our product suite includes applications for schematic, PCB layout, simulation and data management. OrCAD X Capture, a schematic design solution for electrical circuit creation and documentation, is one of OrCAD's most popular products. PSpice®, our virtual SPICE simulation engine integrated into Capture, allows you to prototype and verify your designs using industry-leading native analog, mixed signal, and advanced analysis engines. OrCAD X Presto and OrCAD X PCB editor are two PCB layout tools that allow designers to easily collaborate between ECAD/MCAD teams and build better PCBs faster. OrCAD X Presto is our new, simplified interface for novice designers, electrical engineers and PCB designers focused on quick turn PCB designs.

You can design, share, and manufacture all from one place without having to install or configure anything. Altium Designer allows you to connect directly to the platform without having to change the way that you design electronics. Altium 365 doesn't require additional licenses and is included in your subscription. Transparency in reviews and design sharing will help you bring better-quality products to market quicker than your competitors. You can share, in real-time and without leaving your design space, the status and progress of your projects with your team members, manufacturers, clients, and anyone else who can review and comment. Anybody with Internet access can view, compare, contrast, and comment on your projects without the need for additional Altium Designer licenses. You can make electronic and mechanical collaboration challenges a competitive advantage by working seamlessly between domains without losing sight or time.

CircuitMaker is more than an Altium EDA software tool. It's a community of creative people, sharing design content, and working together to create circuits and electronic products for a better tomorrow. You need tools that don't limit your creativity or hold you back from turning great ideas into products. CircuitMaker gives you all the power to create high-quality schematics and Printed Circuit Boards. There are no artificial limitations on board area or layer count. It's also free. CircuitMaker is a place where you can find great reference designs and promote and rate other projects. You can even create teams to collaborate on design projects. We believe you deserve better tools to help you turn your great ideas into reality. CircuitMaker was born. CircuitMaker is not only a community for electronic design content but also Schematic and PCB design software.

You can quickly design advanced board layouts using interactive routing and the intelligent SitusTM Autorouting technology. With Native 3D™, PCB editing and STEP support, you can collaborate effortlessly with your mechanical design team. Advanced electronics can be accurately simulated and shipped using integrated XSPICE digital and analog simulations. With hierarchical schematic capture and constraint-driven PCB layout technology, you can quickly transform your ideas into reality. With an intuitive interface and customizable workflow, you can instantly get started on your next design project. Altium designer and EAGLE compatibility allow you to access your entire design history. With real-time availability and pricing data from hundreds of suppliers, you will never miss another deadline. With the Circuitstudio content library, you can quickly create custom parts.

Fusion 360 seamlessly integrates design, engineering, electronics, and manufacturing into one cohesive software environment. It offers a comprehensive suite that combines CAD, CAM, CAE, and PCB capabilities within a single development platform. Additionally, users benefit from features like EAGLE Premium, HSMWorks, Team Participant, and various cloud-based services, including generative design and cloud simulation. With an extensive range of modeling tools, engineers can effectively design products while ensuring their form, fit, and function through multiple analysis techniques. Users can create and modify sketches using constraints, dimensions, and advanced sketching tools. It also allows for editing or fixing imported geometry from other file formats with ease. Design modifications can be made without concern for time-dependent features, enabling flexibility in the workflow. Furthermore, the software supports the creation of intricate parametric surfaces for tasks such as repairing or designing geometry, while history-based features like extrude, revolve, loft, and sweep dynamically adapt to any design alterations made. This versatility makes Fusion 360 an essential tool for modern engineering practices.

PCB Layout is an advanced engineering tool designed for creating printed circuit boards, incorporating intelligent manual routing for high-speed and differential signals, a shape-based autorouter, thorough verification processes, and extensive import/export functionalities. The design specifications are established through net classes, class-to-class regulations, and precise settings tailored to various object types within each class or layer. DipTrace enhances the design workflow with real-time design rule checks (DRC), instantly notifying users of errors before they can be committed. A 3D preview of the board is available, allowing for exportation to mechanical CAD systems for further modeling. The thorough design rule checks, net connectivity validations, and comparisons with the source schematic guarantee the highest quality output of the finished product. Operating within a unified environment, DipTrace allows seamless transitions from circuit designs to board layouts, with capabilities for updating from the schematic and performing back annotation. Nets are categorized into net classes that come with customizable settings, alongside class-to-class rules for enhanced organization. Additionally, vias are systematically arranged according to their styles, including through and blind/buried types, ensuring a structured and efficient design process. The comprehensive features of DipTrace make it an essential tool for engineers looking to streamline their PCB design efforts while maintaining high standards of quality.

The Cadence Allegro X Design Platform is the best solution to navigate modern electronic complexity and support any PCB needs. It is a full-stack platform that provides a highly integrated and scalable environment for advanced system design. The Allegro X Design Platform allows your global teams to collaborate effectively and simultaneously to reduce project risk, lower production costs and guarantee design compliance. With Allegro X, electrical engineers and PCB designers can make data-driven decisions using integrated analysis workflows and constraints to reduce turnaround time, ensure product reliability and first-time right manufacturing success.

CADISON E&I Designer emerges from a wealth of engineering knowledge and the advanced technical skills of Electrical Engineers and Developers, all rooted in Object Oriented Technology. The tool was created with the goal of enhancing efficiency in electrical engineering while addressing project lifecycle hurdles such as managing changes, maintaining centralized documentation, providing real-time updates, and achieving a seamless integration of information and data with visual elements. Two key components that define CADISON E&I Designer are its scalability and customization, which facilitate its alignment with your business model and systems in a straightforward manner. Our primary aim is to ensure precision, speed, and timely project completion for our users. The unique offerings from the CADISON Team set it apart in a competitive landscape. By prioritizing user needs, the CADISON E&I Designer transforms how engineering projects are managed and executed.

SOLIDWORKS PCB streamlines the process of designing Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) efficiently while fostering exceptional collaboration between electrical engineers and 3D mechanical design teams. This integration provides a significant benefit in scenarios where close ECAD-MCAD cooperation is vital for the successful development of electronic products. Users can define rigid-flex areas, layers, and stack thicknesses, facilitating the design of single board rigid-flex PCBs. Additionally, the regions of the rigid-flex layer stack can be specified with bend lines and angles, which can then be validated through 3D folding and component clearance checks to ensure the accuracy of the layout. Project management, design files, and documentation are seamlessly handled with the SOLIDWORKS PCB-PDM Connector, which enhances the PDM-based design and data management workflow. This system securely stores and organizes design data for quick access, alleviates worries related to version control and potential data loss, and allows for collaborative work on design data from various locations. The unmatched integration and collaboration between ECAD and MCAD offered by SOLIDWORKS ensures that all design data is unified, promoting efficiency and innovation in the product development process. This powerful synergy ultimately leads to improved product quality and faster time-to-market.

As the amount of electronics content grows, so does the complexity of design processes. This video illustrates how PADS Professional offers robust PCB design functionalities in a cost-effective and user-friendly package tailored for hardware engineers. The Siemens product suite plays a crucial role in facilitating the digital transformation of electronic systems design. Discover how it is ideally suited to provide digitally integrated platforms for product ideation, paving the way for the next generation of successful market products. By participating in this experience, you can learn how to create a design from inception to completion, showcasing the ease of utilizing its sophisticated technology, which includes features like rigid-flex design, RF design, and advanced routing techniques, such as HDI and area rules, all aimed at enhancing your workflow efficiency. With intuitive navigation for projects and designs, comprehensive hierarchical support, and advanced tools for managing rules and attributes, you will be well-equipped to achieve your PCB design objectives more effectively than ever before. Engage with this content to elevate your understanding of modern PCB design strategies and technologies.

Altium's PDN Analyzer tool integrates with Altium Designer. This allows you to easily troubleshoot issues such as insufficient or excessive copper or uncontrolled voltage drops. You can also detect marginal voltage at critical power points, copper islands or peninsulas, and other issues that could be present in your PCB power system. PDN is the power system for active circuits on printed circuit boards. This includes all interconnections between the voltage regulator module, the metallization pads and die on integrated devices that are used for supply and return power. The entire length of the power delivery network must meet the IC supply voltage limits. Validating your power budget accurately means taking into account the minimum and maximum device limits, worst case voltage drops, combined return-path currents, and other factors. PDN Analyzer will show you exactly where these problems are.

Advance your approach to RF simulation by focusing on the comprehensive design, analysis, and verification of radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). Gain assurance through the use of steady-state and nonlinear solvers for both design and verification processes. The availability of wireless standard libraries expedites the validation of intricate RFICs. Prior to finalizing an RFIC, it is essential to confirm IC specifications through RF simulation. These simulations take into account various factors such as layout parasitics, intricate modulated signals, and digital control circuitry. With PathWave RFIC Design, you can perform simulations in both frequency and time domains, facilitating seamless transitions between your designs and Cadence Virtuoso. Achieve accurate modeling of components on silicon chips, and enhance your designs using optimization techniques like sweeps and load-pull analysis. Integration of RF designs into the Cadence Virtuoso environment is streamlined, while the implementation of Monte Carlo and yield analysis can significantly boost performance. Additionally, debugging is made easier with safe operating area alerts, allowing for immediate utilization of cutting-edge foundry technology to stay at the forefront of innovation. This holistic approach to RFIC design not only improves efficiency but also elevates the overall quality and reliability of the final products.

Electromagnetic (EM) simulation provides valuable insights prior to the physical prototyping stage. Tailor your EM simulations to enhance both speed and precision. Seamlessly integrate EM analysis with your circuit simulations to boost overall efficiency. While EM simulations can often require several hours to complete, you can significantly reduce both import and export times by linking your EM simulation software with PathWave Circuit Design software. This integration allows you to maximize your workflow by combining EM analysis with circuit simulations effectively. The 3D EM solid modeling environment enables the creation of custom 3D objects and supports the import of existing models from various CAD platforms. This is essential for preparing a 3D geometry for 3DEM simulation, which involves defining ports, boundary conditions, and material properties. Additionally, the environment includes a Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulator, which is vital for compliance testing regarding Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC), ensuring that your designs meet necessary regulatory standards. By utilizing these advanced features, you can streamline your design process and enhance the effectiveness of your electromagnetic analysis.

Examine RF and microwave circuits and systems using rapid simulation and robust optimization tools that enhance your design process. Delve into performance trade-offs through the integration of automatic circuit synthesis technology. PathWave RF Synthesis (Genesys) offers foundational features that cater to all designers of RF and microwave circuit boards and subsystems. With PathWave Circuit Design, you can uncover RF design mistakes that conventional spreadsheet analyses often overlook. This introductory design platform, which encompasses circuit, system, and electromagnetic simulators, enables you to approach design reviews with greater assurance prior to the realization of hardware. With just a few clicks, you can observe the automatic synthesis and optimization of your matching network. After that, easily transfer your design to PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS) to incorporate it into more intricate designs, ensuring seamless integration and enhanced functionality. By leveraging these tools, you can streamline the design process and enhance the overall efficiency of your RF and microwave projects.

FloWare is a collection of useful enhancements that increase productivity in CAD Flow, PCB Design with OrCAD or Allegro. These enhancements were created to meet specific customer needs in the areas of Setup, Display and Edit, Draft, Shapes. Check/Review, Documentation. Installation of FloWare modules requires no technical knowledge. The wizard guides you through the FloWare installation process. The tool bar shows the menu structure that PCB Editor recognizes. You can choose from the available modules to increase your PCB design productivity. The license is sent by email and is valid at the location of your company. Each module contains detailed documentation.

Seamlessly repair damaged copper regions during interactive editing sessions, allowing for easy refinement of user-defined design selections. Components and enclosures can be moved within the 3D space while enjoying real-time clash detection for any violations. When faced with specific technological demands, you can take advantage of cutting-edge features like flexi-rigid design, embedded components, and chip-on-board technology to fulfill your functional needs. Pulsonix simplifies the process of generating a comprehensive Bill of Materials (BOM), pick and place lists, PCB acceptance reports, and netlists in various formats, whether you choose to use our pre-defined options or design your own. A standout feature of Pulsonix is the use of construction lines, which allow users to define guiding lines within their design, facilitating the creation of complex board outlines and aligning unconventional shapes or items. Additionally, you can establish rules for the automatic generation of naming conventions for both new and existing styles, enhancing organization and consistency in your design process. This comprehensive approach ensures that users can achieve a high level of precision and efficiency in their design workflows.

Engineers at leading electronics firms around the globe utilize Quilter for their design needs. Fully compatible with your pre-existing designs and libraries, Quilter ensures that all completed projects are returned in the original file format for easy inspection, modification, and export. To begin, simply design your schematic with your preferred ECAD application, such as Altium or KiCAD, and upload both your schematic and an empty board file. Quilter automatically identifies the relationships between components, allowing you to define any design constraints for your board with ease. We rigorously validate tolerances against top fabrication houses to ensure reliability. Quilter evaluates numerous candidates and confirms that every design meets design rule checks (DRCs). Once you have reviewed the options, you can select your preferred design and download the necessary files for fabrication and testing. Unlike traditional auto routers, Quilter operates more like a human designer, effectively managing all PCB design elements, including the routing of traces, placement of components, board stackup management, and the generation of custom pours. This innovative software makes the entire design process more intuitive and streamlined, enhancing productivity for engineers.

Receive immediate and actionable insights regarding the manufacturability of your PCBs prior to handoff, which speeds up the time-to-market for your prototypes and new product introductions (NPIs). Benefit from exceptional Design for Manufacturability (DFM) analysis through Valor NPI, requiring no initial setup. You can utilize DFM guidelines established by your chosen supplier and conveniently upload your designs in various prevalent CAD formats, including ODB++, IPC2581, and Gerber274x. PCBflow not only integrates precise part geometries into your designs, courtesy of VPL, but also identifies potential assembly issues, allowing you to make necessary adjustments before it's too late. This platform is crafted to enhance, streamline, and facilitate the transition from design to production. Designers and manufacturers are able to connect seamlessly, fostering collaboration and enabling instantaneous design delivery to production. Operating in a secure, cloud-based, and collaborative framework, there is no need for additional IT expenditures. Siemens places a high priority on information security, ensuring robust management of cloud environments and product offerings, delivering peace of mind to all users. By adopting these advanced tools, teams can significantly reduce delays and improve overall project efficiency.

CAM350® stands out as the recognized standard within the industry for the processes of verification, optimization, and output generation, playing a crucial role in facilitating efficient PCB fabrication as part of DownStream Technologies' comprehensive manufacturing data preparation solution. Given the intricacies of modern PCB designs, thorough verification is essential before handing them over to fabricators to guarantee a smooth and prompt production of bare boards. Issues that emerge during the fabrication phase can severely disrupt production timelines, lead to expensive design alterations, and necessitate changes that could undermine the original design's integrity and purpose. By meticulously inspecting, preparing, and validating PCB designs prior to their manufacturing release, companies can significantly boost efficiency, minimize the chances of design re-spins, and, most importantly, enhance the likelihood of delivering successful electronic products more quickly and at a reduced cost. This proactive approach not only streamlines the production process but also fosters greater confidence in the final product's quality and reliability.

BluePrint-PCB® integrates seamlessly with your PCB CAD system and/or CAM350® to facilitate the rapid generation of detailed electronic drawings essential for PCB fabrication, assembly, and inspection workflows. This innovative tool recognizes that it is generating a PCB document, allowing it to import the complete PCB CAD database in one go, which enables the automatic creation and linking of countless PCB views and details while preserving design integrity and alleviating the limitations typical of both PCB and mechanical CAD alternatives. Consequently, this process produces a comprehensive electronic document that conveys clearer instructions for efficient PCB manufacturing. It allows for the automatic generation of PCB views, details, and tables derived from PCB CAD data, while simultaneously eliminating the constraints of traditional PCB CAD systems without sacrificing design intelligence. By leveraging PCB intelligence, it creates standardized drawing components, resulting in dynamic and interactive documentation equipped with hyperlinks and multimedia elements. Furthermore, all relevant information tied to the PCB assembly can be conveniently consolidated into a single electronic “release package,” ensuring that everything necessary for production is readily accessible. This not only streamlines the workflow but also enhances collaboration among team members involved in the PCB manufacturing process.

The use of 3D visualization and documentation in manufacturing data plays a crucial role in reducing defects and production delays. DFMStream® is an intuitive and comprehensive toolset that enables engineers and designers to analyze, verify, and optimize printed circuit board (PCB) designs for effective manufacturing outcomes. This tool evaluates design and manufacturing rules across PCB design databases, Gerber files, and NC data at any point during the PCB design phase. Furthermore, DFMStream enhances collaboration between engineers/designers and fabricators. Even if PCB designs pass the standard design rule checks within the PCB CAD system, they can still harbor significant issues that can impede a smooth transition to manufacturing and assembly. Often, these issues are uncovered just before production begins, as design data undergoes processing for PCB manufacturing or assembly. Such flaws frequently lead to expensive delays in bringing products to market, necessitating design revisions and reprocessing to resolve problems identified in the pre-production stage. By utilizing DFMStream, teams can proactively address potential design issues, ultimately streamlining the production process and improving time-to-market efficiency.

Ansys Exalto serves as a post-LVS RLCk extraction software tool designed to assist IC designers in precisely identifying unknown crosstalk across various design hierarchy blocks by extracting lumped-element parasitics and creating an accurate model for electrical, magnetic, and substrate interactions. The software is compatible with most LVS tools and can enhance the RC extraction tool of your preference. By utilizing Ansys Exalto's post-LVS RLCk extraction capabilities, IC designers can effectively forecast electromagnetic and substrate coupling phenomena, enabling signoff on circuits that were previously deemed "too large to analyze." The models generated are back-annotated to the schematic or netlist and are compatible with all circuit simulators. With the rise of RF and high-speed circuits in contemporary silicon systems, accurately modeling electromagnetic coupling has become critical, as it significantly impacts the success of silicon implementations. Thus, Ansys Exalto is an essential asset for designers aiming to navigate the complexities of modern circuit design with precision.