I remember the first I have ever heard was OrCAD running on MS-DOS, and that time it was used only for designing the layout and the routes (at least by people I know). For etching you still had to create the film manually following the design or using self adhesive material sticking it on the copper for one-off panels. Tamas Sent from my iPhone On Apr 29, 2013, at 8:33 PM, "William \"Chops\" Westfield" wrote: > On Apr 29, 2013, at 4:18 PM, IVP wrote: > >> When did (proper) PCB CAD start ? > > I find claims that Stanford's SUDS ("Stanford University Design/Drawing S= ystem) was the "first interactive CAD system for electronics/computer desig= n", and there are articles on it dating back to 1974 or so. SUDS was used = to design the DEC KL10 (1975), Foonly F1, The Livermore S1 supercomputer, E= arly SUN boards (~1982), early cisco boards (~1989), and I don't know what = else. All you needed was your own DEC PDP10 mainframe and a suitable graph= ics terminal. > > Don't forget that a "state of the art" PC circa 1989 was a 386 with 4Mbyt= e of memory and an EGA display. > > BillW > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .