Before proceeding, please read the following copyright
notice.
Downloading this software constitutes acceptance by you of the terms
and
conditions of the GNU General Public License. You can view the full
license here.
Copyright:
FreePCB: a PCB layout editor
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 by Allan Wright
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
Installation:
You must start by
installing a complete distribution, as described below. Then check for
updates,
which are installed on top of the distribution. The easiest way to
bring the
distribution to the latest recommended version is to use the Combined
Update.
Complete
Distributions:
Here are the
instructions for installing the complete FreePCB distribution.
- Download the latest version of the software using one of the
links for "Complete Distributions" below. You can choose from:
- An installer application, with a name like FreePCB_1200_setup.exe.
- A self-installing archive, with a name like FreePCB_1200_bin.exe.
- A zipped archive, with a name like FreePCB_1200_bin.zip
- Install the software into a folder on your hard drive such as C:\FreePCB or C:\Program Files\FreePCB.
This folder should now contain subfolders as shown:
- The subfolder bin contains the FreePCB.exe executable and the
default configuration file default.cfg.
- The subfolder doc contains documentation (such as this User Guide)
- The subfolder lib contains the core footprint libraries.
- The subfolder lib_contrib contains footprint libraries contributed
by users.
- The subfolder lib_extra contains less commonly used footprint
libraries.
- The subfolder projects contains folders for each project
- The subfolder src will be empty. You can install the source code
into it using one of the "Source Update" links below.
- If you used the installer application, you were prompted to
create a desktop shortcut to start FreePCB. If you used one of the
archives, you can make a shortcut manually. Open the .\FreePCB\bin
folder in Windows Explorer, and drag the file FreePCB.exe onto the desktop with
the RIGHT mouse button. You should be prompted with a list of options
including creating a shortcut.
Updates:
These are updates to selected files in FreePCB (usually
just the executable, FreePCB.exe).
You must
have previously installed a complete package, as described above. Then
you can
download the update, unzip it, and replace the appropriate
file(s). The Combined
Update includes all of the files necessary to bring the
distribution to the
latest recommended version.
Downloads
Complete
Distributions:
Combined Updates:
These combine all of the files needed to update the 1.2
distribution to
the latest recommended version.
The files listed in the Contents column
below should be installed in the FreePCB\bin folder, except for the *.pdf files which should be installed in
the FreePCB\doc
folder. If you already have some of these files, you only need to
reinstall them
if the versions have changed. The files that have changed in each
version are marked with *.
| Version |
Contents |
Link |
|
1.359
|
FreePCB.exe
(debug version 1.359)*
FpcROUTE.exe (version 1.303)*
freeroute.jnlp
Hershey.xtb (version 1.1)
Hershey.smf (version 1.1)
freepcb_user_guide.pdf (version 1.4)
freepcb_user_guide_supplement.pdf (version
1)*
freeroute_user_guide.pdf (version 1.3)
GerberRender.exe
(P3 version 0.8.5)
libpng3.dll
zlib1.dll |
FreePCB_1359_combined_update.zip |
Executable Updates:
Executable updates are classified as "stable" or
"unstable".
- Stable updates are based on the standard distribution.
They contain bug-fixes and minor improvements, but no major new
features.
- Unstable updates are based on the current development
version. They contain new features, and possibly bugs. The new features
may not be documented in the User Guide. You should use them if you
need the new features, or would like to participate in the development
of FreePCB by testing the code and reporting bugs. If you use an
unstable version, remember to save often and check your Gerbers!
Also, each version may be compiled as a "debug" or
"release" version.
- Debug versions contain debugging information, so that
error messages are more informative. Also, certain run-time errors may
be prevented by the debug code. They require the files MFC71D.DLL and MSVCR71D.DLL,
which are included in the download for the complete distribution.
- Release versions don't have the debugging code. They may
be quite a bit faster for some operations. To run a release version,
you need the files MFC71.DLL and MSVCR71.DLL on your system. If you don't have
them, there is a download in the next section (Microsoft DLLs).
See the "Latest News" sections of the Home
page and User Forum for specific
details about these updates. This is the only way
to find out about some of the new features that have been added, since
the User
Guide was written for version 1.2.
Unstable:
Stable:
Currently, there is no recommended stable version. New users
should
install 1.2 and then update to the latest unstable version using the Combined
Updates section above.
Footprint Libraries:
IPC-7351:
These libraries are from the new IPC-7351 standard for SMT land
patterns.
They were created from data extracted from the PCB Libraries LP Viewer
(version
6.20.00). They are provided for three different pad sizes, Least,
Nominal and
Most (i.e. small, medium and large). If you use these libraries, I
would
strongly suggest that you download the LP Viewer application from PCB
Libraries
(now called PCB Matrix, I think). With the
viewer, you can browse and search the libraries, with excellent
graphics and
dimensional information provided for each component and land pattern.
Then you can easily find
the corresponding footprint in the FreePCB libraries, from the
name and
description.
New header footprints with larger
hole and pad sizes:
The original library for these footprints used 28 mil holes, which are
too
small for the 25 mil square pins that are usually used with these
packages..
Microsoft DLLs:
These .dll files are required to run the release versions of
FreePCB. If
they are not already installed on your system, you will need to add
them. You
can put them either in your System folder or the FreePCB\bin folder.
Font Files and Tools:
These files contain the Hershey font that FreePCB uses for text,
and the
tools for editing and adding characters. There are also some
documentation
files.
Source Updates:
Beginning with version
1.356, I'm using a a Subversion repository at
https://freepcb.googlecode.com/svn.
The source code for the 1.356 release is at "tags/version_1356".
Source code for versions prior to 1.356 is available from FreePCB's
public SVN repository at www.berlios.de.
The
SVN command-line for anonymous checkout is:
svn checkout
svn://svn.berlios.de/freepcb
Note that the revision
numbers in
this repository don't match the build numbers in the FreePCB releases.
User Guide:
Contributed Software:
fpcb2cad:
This is a utility for converting FreePCB *.fpc files to GenCad format,
which is supported by various PCB layout programs and other tools for
interchange of PCB data. Contributed by "edeheld" of the User Forum.
TinyCad:
This is a version of TinyCad, modified by Gil (gldf in the User
Forum). He has added a new option "PADS-PCB-WITH-VALUE" to the menu of
file formats for exporting netlists. With this option, if the "Value"
attribute is added to parts in TinyCad, it will be included in the PADS
netlist. He has also added a checkbox that allows selection of all
component libraries.
NetValue:
This is a program for converting TinyCAD netlists to PADS-PCB
netlists.
For parts, it sets the package name to the "Package" attribute
of the TinyCAD symbol, if it exists. Using the extra information
available, it can set the FreePCB "Value" of a part to be a
comma-separated string containing any or all of the attributes attached
to a
TinyCAD symbol including the Symbol name and Package. It was written by
Phil Walker, whose username on the
Forum is "philboard".
FpcPoly:
This is a command-line utility for translating some of the
Gerber files
produced by FreePCB into a form usable by Guillaume Rosanis' PCB-Render
to
create very photo-realistic images of the top and bottom of a PCB. It
was written by Bruce Parham.
FpcLib:
This is a command-line utility for editing FreePCB library
files, written by Bruce Parham.
FpcRef:
This is a command-line utility that replaces the reference
designators in
a FreePCB project file with text strings, so that they won't change
when copying
and pasting groups of parts for the purpose of panelizing. It was
written by Bruce Parham.
FpcROUTE:
This is a command-line utility for interfacing FreePCB to the
on-line
autorouter FreeRoute, written by Bruce Parham. It generates .dsn files
for
importing into the autorouter, and merges the .ses file from the
autorouter into
a FreePCB project. It can be used from the command-line, or invoked
from FreePCB. To use it from FreePCB, it should be placed in the freepcb\bin folder.
FPCcombine:
This is a program for panelizing multiple PCBs, written by Bob
Thakkilapati.
It reads the project file for each PCB, and combines into a single
project. Then
you can open the combined project in FreePCB, perform further editing
if needed,
and generate the Gerber files.
| Version |
Contents |
Link |
|
0.2
|
Source code, executable and documentation in a
zipped archive |
FPCcombine_020.zip
|
PCB-Tools:
This is a set of command-line tools for rendering and printing
Gerber files,
contributed by Guillaume Rosanis. There are 3 separate applications:
GerberRender, PCB-Render and PCB-Print. GerberRender.exe is called
directly from
FreePCB when you select the option to generate .png files in the CAM
dialog, so
it should be placed in the freepcb\bin folder if you want to use this feature.
| Versions |
Contents |
Link |
|
0.8.5
|
Documentation and executables (versions for both
P3 and P4 CPUs) |
PCB-Tools_14072008.zip
|
FPCfab:
This is a command-line application that generates fabrication
drawings from a
Gerber file or template file, written by Bruce Parham. In the
documentation,
there is also an application note that describes a method for creating
great-looking assembly drawings.
FpcPlace:
This is another command-line application by Bruce Parham. It
generates a
component placement listing from a project file.