I have used Eagle for a few years now. It's not the best but the price is
good for what it can do, (it's always able to cope with our designs) There
is a great user group for it to, loads of people use it and are always
helpful. Every PCB house I have used can always read the files or you can
make boards yourself.

eagle.suggest.eng
eagle.userchat.eng
eagle.support.de

The auto router is not that great, it does not ripup and retry and leaves
tracks at odd angles as do many low cost routers. (I never the AR in
production designs).

You can spend a lot of money on this type of software but I think Eagle is a
good starting point.

It depends a lot on the work you want to do? I think you can use a limited
copy free. No gerber generation.

Geoff.....


"JeffM" wrote in message
om...
need...a nice basic schematic drawing and pcb creation software
package
iLLuSioN

Free lite version:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=g:...lang_en&ie= U
TF-8&selm=3F5CC364.1B0F27BE%40azglobal.com

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&...&selm=f8b945bc.
0310072126.1aaeca93%40posting.google.com

For simulation (100% free):
SwitcherCAD (LTSPICE) from Mike Engelhardt and Linear Technology.