I have not used Diptrace, however, over the years I have used many differen=
t PCB design packages including Protel 99SE, Altium Designer, AutoCAD (with=
 DXF to Gerber conversion), FutureNET Dash PCB and have worked with people =
that have used Eagle, Telesis, Orcad SDT, and PADS.=A0 Right now I am using=
 Kicad.=A0 There is no size limit, it has the features that I need, Gerber =
out, schematic capture, netlist transfer, pcb layout, pretty good manual ro=
uting, dxf out, dxf in, a users group on yahoo and the price is right.=A0 I=
 would compare it favorably to the Protel/Altium products for my needs.=A0 =
Right now I am designing simple boards with few parts and only two layers, =
but in the past I have designed boards with up to 1000 parts and six layers=
..=A0 These boards are mixed analog and digital and I generally do not use a=
n autorouter, but I have used them and never use autoplace.=A0 I usually do=
 a mechanical drawing of the board in CAD (EasyCAD) and export the outline
 as DXF and import it into Kicad.=A0 I also get placement coordinates from =
the CAD drawing for components whose mechanical placement is critical.=A0 I=
 typically use an iterative place and route strategy to do the boards.=A0 I=
 have found that with the boards that I do it is quicker and I get a better=
 job to hand route the boards.=A0 Any PCB design program beats red and blue=
 tape on mylar.
--=20
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