DIY Layout Creator

DIY Layout Creator (DIYLC in short) is freeware drawing tool developed with help of a large online community of DIY electronics enthusiasts. It incorporates many ideas that came from people using older versions of the application. The goal is to provide a simple interface and enough power to let the user draw schematics, board/chassis layouts and guitar wiring diagrams quickly and without a steep learning curve. Also, it is build around the flexible open source framework that may be used to draw pretty much anything. Below is a sample board layout drawn in DIYLC3.

DIY Layout Creator 3.x

The latest and greatest multi-platform Java version. Works on Windows, Linux, MacOS…anything that can run Java JRE. Mostly backwards compatible with the previous two versions and offers better performance, improved stability and higher flexibility due to the open source API. It’s got it’s own site now where you can grab the latest version report a bug or suggest new feature. The address is bancika.github.io/diy-layout-creator/.

To get the latest build, visit Download Page
To file a bug report or issue request visit Issue Page

diylc_3_36_rangemaster
DIY Layout Creator 2.x beta

Multi-platform Java version. At this point, I would NOT encourage anyone to download or use 2.x beta because it’s just too buggy and slow compared to 3.x. Once I add all the components into 3.x, version 2.x will be officially retired.

diylc_2
DIY Layout Creator 1.18

The very first version of DIYLC, written in Delphi and runs only on Windows. At this time I do not support or update this version, it’s been almost a decade since I last played with it. You can still find a bunch of layouts online drawn with this version of the software. It’s pretty easy to use and can draw smaller PCBs, Perfboards or Stripboards quickly. It has simple yet very effective interface which makes job much easier. Placing a component on board takes only 2-3 mouse clicks. You need to click on source and destination hole and program will place component between them. Placing polarized components is the same, but then you need to take care about hole order because program takes source hole for positive and destination hole for negative side. It’s similar with IC: pin 1 goes in source hole and last pin goes to destination hole. When working with PCB layouts you can set width of each trace and solder pad! Also, there’s “Print PnP” which gives printout ready for transfer on blank board (laser printer required). However, it’s not very flexible and it’s written poorly, I keep it here because it’s kind of retro cool, but I don’t use it anymore these days.

diylc_screenshot

Download version 1.18
Download complete layout collection for version 1.x

v1 Layout Collection (works with v3 too)

Right click on a file and click “Save Target As…” to save a layout.

DIYLC 3 is profiled with YourKit!
YourKit is kindly supporting open source projects with its full-featured Java Profiler. YourKit, LLC is the creator of innovative and intelligent tools for profiling Java and .NET applications. Take a look at YourKit’s leading software products: YourKit Java Profiler and YourKit .NET Profiler

Comments
141 Responses to “DIY Layout Creator”
  1. digthisbigcrux says:
    10/03/2010 at 04:00

    i was wondering if in the new version you are working on if there was a way to make it so that if you click and drag a trace it doesnt drag the whole trace but just that point and stretches/angles the trace. if that makes sense.

  2. Bancika says:
    09/03/2010 at 17:48

    It has to do with compatibility with Vista. I wrote DIYLC 1 long before Vista was released. If you’re not after old layouts from the gallery you could try Java version. It works on any machine with Java installed.
    Cheers

  3. muhd85 says:
    09/03/2010 at 01:37

    Hi bancika, thanks for replt earlier. Well the problem still persist. i tried both the compatibility mode above and all the rest. Still no luck. Btw im using windows vista home premium. Nt sure whether thats the problem. Any other method that i could try?

  4. muhd85 says:
    07/03/2010 at 17:56

    Hi this my 1st time installing diy layout creator v1.x . after installing it, i open and it pop a window saying no active document. when click “ok” it still keep popping up, this will not allow me to use the program with this matter. Is there any wrong?

    • Bancika says:
      07/03/2010 at 20:00

      Hi, try to run the app in compatibility mode. Right click on the EXE file -> Properties -> Compatibility -> choose windows XP or 98.
      That should solve the problem.
      Cheers,
      Bane

  5. JMFahey says:
    26/02/2010 at 04:30

    Hi Bancika.
    I have just drawn a Layout using your excellent Layout Creator, but used version 1 (Windows only) Want to upload the layout to Project Library but it sends me to your old Storm Software address.
    I don’t want to upgrade to the Java version.(Old timer, he he)
    Any suggestions? Thanks a lot for your great work.
    It was amazing to see it being born step by step and your interaction with the masses.
    JMFahey (Argentina)

    • Bancika says:
      26/02/2010 at 19:36

      Hi,
      there’s no upload mechanism on the new site so it’s ok to use the old one. I’ll update the zip file periodically with new layouts. The new java version will have a library on it’s own.
      Cheers,
      Bane

  6. Alvarez says:
    25/02/2010 at 13:43

    In mac if you are having trouble exporting you can always cmd/shift/4 and select the area you want to screenshot and bullseye the layout and it saves a screenshot of your selected area. Just a quick workaround

  7. wrangler says:
    12/02/2010 at 22:40

    Hey, thanks for writing this software. I use Eagle CAD for PC boards, but I’m dyslexic when trying to lay out perf boards. I just can’t visualize them 🙂

  8. Louis Kalbach says:
    09/02/2010 at 14:13

    When i like its ergonomic design. very handy andshaveso excellent.

  9. Kleuck says:
    01/02/2010 at 00:54

    Sorry for the multiple posts, but it may be interesting for Lenny users to konw that to excecute jar files, they can install “jarwrapper” package.

  10. Kleuck says:
    01/02/2010 at 00:36

    Arg, can’t launch it 🙁

  11. kleuck says:
    31/01/2010 at 22:08

    I’m glad there is a multi-platform version to use under Debian (multi language would be great 🙂 )

  12. Bancika says:
    30/01/2010 at 17:49

    Thanks for the comments Paul. The first two versions were mostly oriented towards pedal builders, thus .1″ grid that matches perf and vero board hole spacing. I wanted the new version to be friendlier to amp builders. The idea to make grid spacing configurable sounds great. Thanks!

    Bane

  13. Paul Fawcett says:
    30/01/2010 at 17:45

    Bane,

    Thanks for the offer – but I was able to get very satisfactory results from using the MacOS X screen capture as PNG, then into GIMP for scaling and printing. So all is well, and I’m drilling and soldering my PCB today!

    I’m really looking forward to the new version, let us know on AX84 when it’s ready for testing! One more comment while its on my mind- in inches mode, grid divisions should be in eighths or sixteenths instead of tenths…
    Thanks again for the great software, it saved a LOT of time relative to doing this in Canvas or Illustrator.

    Cheers,

    Paul

  14. admin says:
    30/01/2010 at 10:01

    Sorry to hear about that. I’m aware of size issues and undo issues, but not printing and export. If it’s any consolation I could try to export your layout to image and send it back to you. New version of DIYLC is under development from the scratch and those annoyances will be fixed.

    Best regards,
    Bancika

  15. Paul Fawcett says:
    30/01/2010 at 06:07

    Hi Bane,

    Just spent quite awhile playing with DIY 2.x beta. In fact, did a fairly ambitious layout with it, and was quite impressed.. And then was heartbroken to find that (at least on MacOS X) it apparently won’t export an image (never writes the file), and the print preview shows only an empty page (haven’t tried on a printer, but assume nothing there either, as printing to pdf comes up blank). Is this a known problem? I’d really like to be able to print/use my nice new layout!
    Other bugs worth reporting….it won’t remember the layout size (or cm or inch mode) between saves. It reverts to standard. Strangely, the undo feature will also always undo the layout size back to default as well as undoing the last action. A feature request would be to make it understand the ” symbol as inches in the dialogues.
    Many thanks,

    Paul

  16. Mario says:
    29/01/2010 at 12:57

    Hi, I’ve tried tu use DIY 2.x with Ubuntu 9.10, but i can’t see the icon in the Library Frame.
    How I can Fix it?
    Thanks 🙂

  17. Sebastien says:
    24/01/2010 at 18:58

    Very Nice. Thank you very much!

  18. admin says:
    22/01/2010 at 18:40

    It’s not very easy, but you could try to play with xml files in library folder. Take one that looks the closest to the thing you need, duplicate the file and edit it using the text editor. App will install the new component automatically
    Cheers

  19. Julian, G4ILO says:
    22/01/2010 at 18:37

    Nice program. Using it under Linux right now. Wondering how to add components to the library because as a radio enthusiast I need things like coils, trimmer capacitors and so on.

  20. ses says:
    21/01/2010 at 00:50

    DIY Layout Creator 2.x appears to be broken.
    ? ? ?

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  • About

    The idea behind this site is to share my experience with Do It Yourself approach to guitars, amplifiers and pedals. Whether you want to save a couple of bucks by performing a mod or upgrade yourself instead of paying a tech, or want to build your own piece of gear from scratch, I'm sure you will find something interesting here. Also, this is the home of DIY Layout Creator, a free piece of software for drawing circuit layouts and schematics, written with DIY enthusiasts in mind.