DipTrace Reviews

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There are 11 reviews with an average rating of 4.6.  

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DipTrace
Average rating:  
 11 reviews
 by Theophile Alary
Nice to use !

I use diptrace since 2010, for small & medium boards routing (up to 2000 pins & 6 layers, no BGA, some usb & ethernet).
It is a very intuitive tool which allows to quickly design boards.
To my mind, there's no major drawback excepted :
- the weak integration of the BoM generation which requires some manual operation when generating design files.
- some export seems to be a bit buggy (ODB++ for instance) (never had problems with gerbers)
- the component libraries are not very useful, but we can create component very easily using Component and Pattern editors.
I've now moved for Altium (not my decision), and I see how Diptrace was well-thinked in comparison to Altium which costs 10x more...

 by Matt
Excellent Software

I have been using Diptrace for a few years now professionally. It's easy to use, feature rich, and a great price. You don't have to pay for any add-ons to make it useful or pay a yearly subscription for anything. Any upgrade fee you may have to pay for a new version is very reasonable and far from full price.

You can import components and patterns from most major PCB layout software as well.
Their forum is very responsive and have great customer support.

Library management is easy to use and making custom patterns and components is a breeze. Making iterative changes through a product life cycle is very simple and saves a lot of time. The 3D model support (.STEP) is essential when working with a mechanical design team. They love it as well. They can create me .step files and .dxf drawing and I can make a PCB out of it that fits perfectly in the mechanical housing.

Schematic drawings are fast to make and update. PCB layout is intuitive and has a decent design rule checker.

The only thing I would say it needs is a "project file" concept or relative file paths to a project folder. This will make working with multiple layout designers easier and the version control a little easier. But they are continuously improving and listen to feedback.

It's very responsive and has never crashed on me. I have done some complex 3D renderings as well.

 by Dom
Excellent for the embedded engineer

I don't design PCB's full-time. I mostly develop embedded code, and have worked in start-ups for most of my career.

For me, I need to pick up PCB design now and again, and turn a development board and peripherals that I've probably wired up myself into a custom PCB.

So pretty much every time I'm somewhat re-learning the CAD tools again - usually a design based around a microcontroller and/or bluetooth - and an expectation of (mostly!) working-first-time design.

That's where DipTrace excelled over all the other tools I've tried - the sheer intuitiveness and ease of use.

Quite a few components and footprints I've had to create for myself, and I've never found the autorouter much use. But DipTrace has never failed to handle iterative design smoothly - go back into footprints/schematics and change stuff - and the in-progress PCB design handles it smoothly. Also a very decent design rule checker.

 by John
Fine for small projects.

Awesome for the price. Good library and exports to 3D (shapes to STEP files and graphics to VRML) if you work at it.

My following point of view is after one small (single layer, 8 SMD, 1 thru-hole) design:

It has a thorough and flexible pad and pad layout designer system. Schematic capture is adequate.

The user interface throughout is actually good; it has modality, but this is necessary when you need to move an individual feature independent of the other features with which it is grouped (like moving the reference designator in relation to the associated pads).



Once placed, moving the schematic signal lines or pcb layout traces is a little fiddly. The rubber-banding sometimes causes more work, but this is a minor issue with small, sparse projects.

 by Ueli
DipTrace

DipTrace has many nice functions. But it's less than optimal for regular application because the design process is not efficient: Sometimes cumbersome, almost no application configurations. In forums you can find many basic issues not working.

E.g. No proper pick place file including the pattern for assembly:

http://www.diptrace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=133

http://www.diptrace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10609

http://www.diptrace.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10076

 by Sia
Couldn't be happier

I have used DipTrace to design small but dense mixed signal 4 layer boards for consumer electronic products since 2012. It has all the features I need, and it was really easy to learn. It's a joy to use. I can't really think of anything to complain about

 by Erics
Diptrace

This is a very user friendly software. Get used to the way it's working in less than an hour.



We are currently considering the purchase of this product, but the lack of updates to fix the bugs reported on the forum make me think twice.

 by Rumburack
Great software, dead product

Diptrace is a real pleasure to work with compared to other pcb cad programs. Drawing the schematic and layouting the pcb is easy.



Missing parts can be build very fast and really easy. I was surprise how clear and straight the process is, if you never understood the process in other products, try this. I love it.



But there are some drawback:

- autoplacement and autorouting. just don't use it, it does not work very well.

- mine didn't save settings like turn on/off layers, screen positions and sizes etc.

- like all pcb cad programs, the GUI is sometimes cumbersome, illogic and inconsistent, most of the time all three together.



The major drawback: the company has almost no public activity. Forums are dead, latest news is more than 5 month old, latest version is almost a year old (as today, 2015-05-29). So minor problems are not addressed (traces sometimes look wrong/connect wrong) etc etc.



My verdict: if you can live with the freeware version (2 layers, 300 pins) it is a very good choice for a beginner. But at the current state I wouldn't put any money into it.

DipTrace Response 5/29/2015:The product is not dead, though we really have not published any upgrades for a long time. We are currently working on high-speed routing - the task is quite complex and is taking much time. We hope to publish a beta version with differential pair routing within a few months. The forum and support are not dead though - just see the response time for this post and check the forum yourself.Stanislav RuevDipTrace Team

 by PedroDaGr8
Excellent Software

One of the best programs out there. Easy to use by a novice but powerful enough to be used by a professional. It is still under VERY active development, with features being added and bugs being fixed at least several times a year. I really find that this program works well with the way I think and design schematics and boards. The updated library manager solved one of the biggest issues with this software. Also, the 3D board preview is great for seeing how a board might look when finished.



This is also by far the easiest software to make your own component libraries. It is so easy to do that I seldom look for aftermarket libraries anymore. It's often quicker to just make the part myself.

 by Johnathan Conley
Diptrace

I have 25+ years doing PC layout. Diptrace is easy to learn and powerful.

If it had "push and shove" manual routing, it would be better than Mentor Graphics PADS, at a much lower cost. Library/parts creation is a very easy.

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