Free Online Schematic Creator

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Many people have inquired here about schematic-creation tools, specifically free ones. DigiKey to the rescue!

http://www.digikey.com/schemeit

Scheme-It is the first browser-centric schematic CAD app that, IMO, is worth considering. It has a natural interface that most people will pick up without assistance, a fairly complete repertoire of component symbols, and it supports rubber-banding of the connection wires. Most importantly for this forum, it's easy to export the resulting schematic as a PNG or PDF file for posting here. 'No more excuses for not posting a schematic with your circuit design queries or answers!

I particularly like the context menu that pops up when you right-click on a component, allowing you to set component names, values, even DigiKey part numbers. The latter, of course, is DigiKey's incentive for providing the tool, since it also creates a BOM from which you can order parts.

Here's what the screen looks like after I created a simple circuit:



Here's the exported image, which I converted from PNG to GIF:



Thanks to an article in the most recent Nuts & Volts for bringing this app to my attention.

-Phil

ElectricAye

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

...'No more excuses for not posting a schematic with your circuit design queries or answers!...

Thanks, Phil, this looks great!

No longer will anyone be subject to my hand-scrawled schematics. On the down side, maybe I'll post more requests for help since I've got this nifty-looking tool now.

Cool!

GordonMcComb

And the art looks good, too! I've never liked the look of the schematics you get from Eagle, paid version or not.

Now, do they have a simulator to go along with their drawing tool? That would be cool.

-- Gordon

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

GordonMcComb wrote:

And the art looks good, too! I've never liked the look of the schematics you get from Eagle, paid version or not.

I agree. (Eagle schematics are bloody awful.)

I don't see a simulator among the options. Another thing I need to explore is whether there's a way to share custom symbols (e.g. Propeller chip) with other users.

-Phil

Zoot

Very sweet! Very easy to use. Good looking menus and such on screen, too.

Duane Degn

Darn it.

I drew the circuit I'm about to ask a question about and saved it but now it's gone.

The screen has my name up in the top right corner so it know who I am but when I tried to export the schematic as a png file, the screen went blank after clicking the "allow download" button.

I'd imagine a saved schematic should be somewhere on Digi-Key's server? I didn't have an option to select a folder when I saved it so I assume it stayed with Digi-Key.

Clicking the "Open" button doesn't do anything.

I'd suggest others do a quick test save and export before drawing a full schematic to make sure it will save correctly.

Martin_H

Cool, thanks for the pointer and I will give it a try. But can it export to ASCII art?!

Ken Gracey

GordonMcComb wrote: »

And the art looks good, too! I've never liked the look of the schematics you get from Eagle, paid version or not.

Now, do they have a simulator to go along with their drawing tool? That would be cool.

-- Gordon

I agree with you, Gordon. I'll look into whether or not Education can use this tool for our books and on-line content, too.

I think Phil may have set a new standard for us. I can hardly keep up with being a mere user of Phil's creations, let alone discover and unleash my own contribution (at the rate of once per ten years).

Ken Gracey

Dr_Acula

Great find - well done PhiPi.

@Martin_H, re ascii art, I seem to recall a few years back finding some software (I think it was even an online program) that would turn jpegs and bitmaps to ascii art. So you could maybe to a screen capture of the schematic and run it through an ascii art converter. Then all us old guys will be able to read the schematic too!

jrjr.

Thanks Phil for pointing that out.

I didn't see any netlist output...yet.

jr

Duane C. Johnson

What does this mean?

8. Rights to End User Content. By posting, uploading, or transmitting any data or other content on or through the Application, or causing any data or content to be posted, uploaded, or transmitted on or through the Application (the "End User Content"): (i) you represent and warrant that you are the owner of the End User Content and/or that you have the right to grant the licenses to Digi-Key contained in this Agreement; and (ii) you grant to Digi-Key a fully-paid, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, transferrable, sublicensable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to maintain a copy of the End User Content (in whole or in part) solely for the purpose of operating the Application and storing content posted by registered users for their use with the Application.

Does DigiKey retain ownership to my work product once it is posted to Schemeit?

Duane J

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Duane C. Johnson wrote:

Does DigiKey retain ownership to my work product once it is posted to Schemeit?

As I read it (but I'm not a lawyer), no. To me, it means that you certify that you are the owner of your work and that, as the owner, you give DigiKey permission to maintain a copy of your work for the sole purpose of operating the schematic software and storing your work in their "cloud." They need to cover their butt to keep someone from claiming, for example, "You possess a copy of my design, so now you owe me royalties."

-Phil

ElectricAye

....solely for the purpose of operating the Application and storing content posted by registered users for their use with the Application...

I'm not a lawyer, either, but I agree with Phil. The above qualifier appears to back away from making any claims on the actual design, its functionality, etc.

jmg

Martin_H wrote: »

Cool, thanks for the pointer and I will give it a try. But can it export to ASCII art?!

If you want SCH to ASCII this one works well

http://www.tech-chat.de/download.html

It has symbols, and lines, and a sheet edit mode, once you have copied it into Clipboard, you paste into a CODE window on here.
Not as pretty as Digikey's, but you can also paste it into any source code, and Digikey's cannot do that

Martin_H

jmg wrote: »

Not as pretty as Digikey's, but you can also paste it into any source code, and Digikey's cannot do that

Thanks. The ability to paste into source code is probably the best reason to use ASCII art. That way the two never get separated.

ratronic

Thanks Phil I tried this today and it is simple enough for me to use, no more drawing schematics with Paintbrush!

EDIT: The nice thing is you can additionally customize with Paintbrush once you have downloaded the .png file of your schematic.

Mickster

This is a great find! Thank you!

I'm at the point where I need to think about creating documentation for a new product and this looks just the ticket.

Cheers!

Mickster

xanadu

Having never used it I made this in about 5 minutes. Thanks for posting the link it's fun to do examples with.

piguy101

It's definitely the darlington transistor.

ratronic

Could you explain your answer of the darlington transistor symbol and how it would make the led light in xanadu's posted example piguy101?

piguy101

Well...if you hook up the darlington correctly and put a little current through the base, it will make the LED light up. Ha ha.

piguy101

On a side note, how do you make the little dots that show there is a connection appear?

ratronic

I looked just now and I couldn't find how maybe Phil will pop in and explain. Also xanadu didn't point out the battery voltage or whether the test was multiple choice!

idbruce

Phil

I must have missed this thread when originally posted, but thanks for referencing back to it. I will have to check this out when I have more time.

Thanks for the link

Bruce

PThompson509

If you don't want online, check out PCB123 - very nice software. I've used it to create only 1 small PCB, but my coworker (who does this for a living) uses it at home for her fun projects. www.sunstone.com.

Cheers, Peter