Software for constructing simple circuit diagrams

[rich t]

does anyone know of any software i could use to construct simple circuit diagrams?

(such as series and parallel circuits containing bulbs, resistors, thermistors, voltmeters, ammeters...)

i teach physics 11-18 and it'd really help with lesson planning, thanks in advance

 

[Panda]

Microsoft Visio has a good range of electrical components even in the standard package. You can get an academic version pretty cheaply (£26 ex vat from Viglen). The advantage of Visio is that you can use it for all sorts of other graphics. I use it all the time at work, and when you get used to it, it is really powerful.

Alternatively you could download the free trial version of ICAPS from www.intusoft.com, this is a full spice programme but has a nice graphical schematic builder that will allow you to build and model circuits with up to 20 components, that I assume would be more than enough for 11-18 year old circuit analysis.

 

[robphy]

Here's the less expensive http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/ (available for Linux and Windows), which claims to be inspired by visio.

There's also http://www.xfig.org/ and http://www.schmidt-web-berlin.de/winfig/ .

Of course, the above can do more than draw schematic diagrams.

This is an interesting html page: http://www.qsl.net/wd9eyb/klunky/

Other choices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Electronics/Programs

 

[ranger]

My choice would be xcircuit, its free.

 

[robphy]

My choice would be xcircuit, its free.

While xcircuit is nice, it might require a little extra setup (i.e. X-Windows) that the OP may not have or may not want to be bothered with.

 

[rich t]

thanks all, will check them out when i get a chance

 

[vanesch]

Personally, I love this one:

http://tinycad.sourceforge.net/

It's free, and windows.