Looking for a good freeware/open source PCB design software equivalent to Altium
Looking for a good freeware/open source PCB design software equivalent to Altium.


I'm unfamiliar with Altium Designer, sorry, but for what I could read I think you're not going to find such a complex software for free.


  Is there any decent enough free software which I can use at home for my pet projects?


I'm not sure what are your requirements or if you need all the advanced stuffs Altium provides (like FPGA design or the signal integrity analysis), but if you just need a good PCB designer I recommend you KiCAD. It's a very very good EDA software package, Free/Libre Software and multiplatform (GNU/Linux, MacOSX and Windows).

KiCAD is composed of 4 main programs: the schematic creator, the parts linker (logical - physical), the PCB creator and the Gerbers viewer (it's ok, but gerbv from GEDA is better).

KiCAD format is plain text and well documented, so it plays nice with version control systems, scripts and even user edition (like moving a part from one library to another). Also, the logic parts are not attached to their physical parts (like in Eagle), so you put a resistor in the schematic and you don't need to worry about if it is a SMD 0805 or a PTH, etc, you specify that later on the workflow, and that's awesome!

With KiCAD you can handle up to 16 layers, it has 3D view, SVG export, BOM export, design rules checker, filled zones, multiple export formats and some other very cool features.

You can download KiCAD from: http://kicad.sourceforge.net/

This is a good guide: http://store.curiousinventor.com/guides/kicad

I use KiCAD for all my PCBs and never had problems with anything (though I have only needed to create two-layer PCBs). If you want to see a project made with KiCAD you can check Ubertooth One (4 layers, fine pitch components): project page and where to buy.

Eagle is not an option for you I think, the freeware version is too limited for the advanced use you want.

Personally I prefer KiCAD over GEDA, but both are very good.