Another possibility is EasyPCB as a starter program. Haven't tried it, so c=
an't comment on how good it actually is.

The other major player that competes with Protel is Orcad. They do have a g=
ood priced entry level package - at least here in the UK.

The actual layout part of Orcad is PCB Editor, which is a cut down version =
of Allegro. However it is upwardly compatible with Allegro, allowing one to=
 have multiple seats of the basic PCB Editor and a single seat of the highe=
st featured Allegro giving all the fancy features of differential pairs and=
 modelling and ... for use when absolutely essentially needed.

We used to use Layout that came with Orcad, but support for Layout stopped =
with Orcad 16.2, so we had to learn PCB Editor. After much grumbling we got=
 used to PCB Editor, but I am in the middle of a process of dealing with so=
me changes to an old PCB done with Layout, and it wasn't until I got stuck =
into this I realised just how much better and flexible product PCB Editor/A=
llegro is, having grown from a product that is also used for IC layout and =
modelling.
>=20
> The big boy is of course Protel now Altium, however it is not for non
> professional users, is extremely expensive, and has a very expensive
> maintenance contract price in order to keep using it.
>=20


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