Called Designspark PCB, it is part of the company’s Designspark online design environment, also introduced this month with the aim of providing a community and gateway to resources for engineers.
“Designspark PCB is the world’s most powerful free PCB design tool,” bragged Martin Keenan, technical marketing engineer at RS Components. “Free tools used to be limited in terms of functions or licence period. This one is unlimited. It is professional standard and it is free for anyone to download.”
The only limitation is its ability to work with other PCB design tools. It will allow Eagle and netlist files to be imported but very little else.
“There are products we can’t import from,” said Keenan. “And there are no export facilities in the product.”
On the plus side, though, he said it was easy to use, easy to learn and easy to get.
“There are no limitations on board sizes or what parts you can use,” he said. “We believe this will encourage engineering design activity. There will be more designs taking place in a shorter period of time. This will lead to more prototypes and ultimately more sales of parts.”
The Designspark environment is an online gateway that gives engineers information and resources, bringing together design information, user generated reviews and free-of-charge tools to speed up the design process. The library of independent reviews covers development kits and evaluation platforms, provided by engineers for engineers.
This feature will allow users to post comments and star ratings for each kit. Initially, it will cover a range of up to 1100 microcontroller, microprocessor, analogue and FPGA development kits, with more kits being regularly added.
“For the past three months, we have been working with 150 to 200 engineers, getting their feedback on the tools and the site ready for it to go live on 5 July,” said Dave Tarrant, technical community manager at RS Components. “People can put their own tools on there as well to share with other people.”
He said that the amount of mediation done with other people’s tools was limited.
“We do checks, but we can’t check every design,” he said. “There will be a virus check when they are uploaded.”
Designspark also gives users’ access to a dedicated design centre, containing technology tips and hints posted by members. The centre will keep engineers up-to-date with the design trends, as well as containing links to the range of RS web site tools.