Good tool for Mac OS X to draw circuits

Question

I am looking for tool to draw circuits on Mac OS X. I mostly need it so I can add it into presentations. So the requirements are that it looks preety.

Answer 1

For drawing circuits I use Omnigraffle and the Electronics Extra.

alt text http://www.damhave.com/Stencils/files/page3_1.jpg

For physical hardware diagrams I use Fritzing.

Checkout a video on Fritzing here.

Answer 2

There is also OSX version of Eagle Cad. Although software itself is not very Mac-like nor exactly easy to use.

Answer 3

There is always XCircuit and MacSpice. They maybe overkill for whatever your needs are, but might as well learn from them too.

Answer 4

I recommend Eagle from Cadsoft. It's the best free schematic/layout editor there is in my opinion.

Answer 5

I use Omnigraffle for drawing the simple circuits I use in my Arduino classes. For circuit design, I use Eagle. It's a "real" schematic capture program (i.e. CAD program for circuits) that you can also use to produce circuit boards.

Omnigraffle is great for producing really nice looking schematics, as long as they are not too complex, because it doesn't have the intelligence that a real schematic capture program does on how to maintain connection between components. Omnigraffle also doesn't have very many components in its library so you have to make your own for even simple things. Eagle's part library is so big it's daunting.

Answer 6

I've found that DigiKey's SchemeIt editor online works quite well, with export to PDF and PNG.

I wish that there was an agreed-upon exchange format for schematic diagrams, so that circuits could be moved easily from one schematic capture tool to another.

I use Eagle CAD for board design, but their schematic capture tool is awkward and produces ugly schematics—they look like they were designed for 1970s-style pen plotting. I wish that I could move Schematics from SchemeIt into Eagle CAD (and vice versa). I also have a number of schematics in CircuitLab that I had to abandon when they started charging for the service—it would have been nice to move them to another schematic capture system.

Answer 7

Have you given Upverter a try? It has a mac app as well as runs in the browser so you can try it out without installing anything.

[I work at Upverter]

Answer 8

Someone asked Make a similar question (that was not Mac-specific). Their answer suggests Fritzing, too, and there are other tools mentioned in the post and in the comments.

Answer 9

I think the gEDA package will compile under Mac OS X.

Answer 10

You may be able to access some of the Linux stuff which is around, through things like MacPorts.

Answer 11

I tried an evaluation version of McCAD and was quite pleased with it. I found it significantly more Mac-user-friendly than Eagle (which I also tried). YMMV, of course…

Answer 12

Libear Tech has a Mac Ox version of its Spice simulator probably the best spice simulator out there

http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/

Answer 13

If you don't specifically need the program to be on your physical computer, CircuitLab and 123D Circuits (formerly Circuits.io) are both excellent web applications. Both have paid plans, but the free functionality on 123D is all you'll ever need.

Answer 14

Try Lucidchart. You can download a circuit maker for free.

Answer 15

I offen used idraw or Super Vectorizer to create my own vector graphics. If you are interested, here you go http://effectmatrix.com/mac-appstore/Super-Vectorizer.htm