Before proceeding, please read the following copyright notice. Downloading this software constitutes acceptance by you of the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License. You can view the full license here.

Copyright:

FreePCB: a PCB layout editor
Copyright (C) 2003-2007 by Allan Wright

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.

Installation:

You must start by installing a complete distribution, as described below. Then check for updates, which are installed on top of the distribution. The easiest way to bring the distribution to the latest recommended version is to use the Combined Update.

Complete Distributions:
Here are the instructions for installing the complete FreePCB distribution.

Updates:
These are updates to selected files in FreePCB (usually just the executable, FreePCB.exe). You must have previously installed a complete package, as described above. Then you can download the update, unzip it, and replace the appropriate file(s). The Combined Update includes all of the files necessary to bring the distribution to the latest recommended version.

 



Downloads

Complete Distributions:
Version Contents Link

1.2

Installer FreePCB_1200_setup.exe

1.2

Self-installing archive FreePCB_1200_bin.exe

1.2

Zipped archive FreePCB_1200_bin.zip


Combined Updates:
These combine all of the files needed to update the 1.2 distribution to the latest recommended version. 

The files listed in the Contents column below should be installed in the FreePCB\bin folder, except for the *.pdf  files which should be installed in the FreePCB\doc folder. If you already have some of these files, you only need to reinstall them if the versions have changed. The files that have changed in each version are marked with  *.

Version Contents Link

1.359

FreePCB.exe (debug version 1.359)*
FpcROUTE.exe
(version 1.303)*
freeroute.jnlp
Hershey.xtb
(version 1.1)
Hershey.smf
(version 1.1)
freepcb_user_guide.pdf
(version 1.4)
freepcb_user_guide_supplement.pdf (version 1)*
freeroute_user_guide.pdf
(version 1.3)
GerberRender.exe (P3 version 0.8.5)
libpng3.dll
zlib1.dll
FreePCB_1359_combined_update.zip


Executable Updates:
Executable updates are classified as "stable" or "unstable". 

Also, each version may be compiled as a "debug" or "release" version. 

See the "Latest News" sections of the Home page and User Forum for specific details about these updates. This is the only way to find out about some of the new features that have been added, since the User Guide was written for version 1.2.

Unstable:
Version Contents Debug version Release version

1.359

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1359_exe.zip

FreePCB_1359_release_exe.zip

1.358

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1358_exe.zip

FreePCB_1358_release_exe.zip

1.357

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1357_exe.zip

FreePCB_1357_release_exe.zip

1.356

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1356_exe.zip

FreePCB_1356_release_exe.zip

1.355

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1355_exe.zip

FreePCB_1355_release_exe.zip

1.354

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1354_exe.zip

FreePCB_1354_release_exe.zip

1.353

FreePCB.exe

FreePCB_1353_exe.zip

FreePCB_1353_release_exe.zip

Stable:
Currently, there is no recommended stable version. New users should install 1.2 and then update to the latest unstable version using the Combined Updates section above.
Version Contents Link


 

 


Footprint Libraries:

IPC-7351:
These libraries are from the new IPC-7351 standard for SMT land patterns. They were created from data extracted from the PCB Libraries LP Viewer (version 6.20.00). They are provided for three different pad sizes, Least, Nominal and Most (i.e. small, medium and large). If you use these libraries, I would strongly suggest that you download the LP Viewer application from PCB Libraries (now called PCB Matrix, I think). With the viewer, you can browse and search the libraries, with excellent graphics and dimensional information provided for each component and land pattern. Then you can easily find the corresponding footprint in the FreePCB libraries, from the name  and description.

Version Contents Link

6.20.00

IPC-7351 footprints (Least pad size) IPC7351-Least_v2.zip

6.20.00

IPC-7351 footprints (Nominal pad size) IPC7351-Nominal_v2.zip

6.20.00

IPC-7351 footprints (Most pad size) IPC7351-Most_v2.zip

New header footprints with larger hole and pad sizes:
The original library for these footprints used 28 mil holes, which are too small for the 25 mil square pins that are usually used with these packages..

File Contents

th_header_40_mil_holes.fpl

through-hole headers, 100 mil spacing, 40 mil holes, 60 mil pads

th_sip_40_mil_holes.fpl

through-hole SIPs, 100 mil spacing, 40 mil holes, 60 mil pads


Microsoft DLLs:
These .dll files are required to run the release versions of FreePCB. If they are not already installed on your system, you will need to add them. You can put them either in your System folder or the FreePCB\bin folder.

Version Contents Link

7.1

MFC71.dll, MSVCR71.dll Release_71_dlls.zip


Font Files and Tools:
These files contain the Hershey font that FreePCB uses for text, and the tools for editing and adding characters. There are also some documentation files.

Version Contents Link

1.1

Font files Hershey.xtb, Hershey.smf Hershey_11.zip

1.0

Font editor FontManager.exe Font_manager_10_exe.zip


Source Updates:

Beginning with version 1.356, I'm using a a Subversion repository at https://freepcb.googlecode.com/svn. The source code for the 1.356 release is at "tags/version_1356".

Source code for versions prior to 1.356 is available from FreePCB's public SVN repository at www.berlios.de. The SVN command-line for anonymous checkout is:
        svn   checkout   svn://svn.berlios.de/freepcb
Note that the revision numbers in this repository don't match the build numbers in the FreePCB releases.


User Guide:

Version Contents Link

1.4 Supp 1

Supplement to User Guide (PDF). FreePCB_1400_User_Guide Supplement 1.zip

1.4

User Guide (PDF). These files should be installed in  doc FreePCB_1400_User_Guide_Pdf.zip


Contributed Software:

fpcb2cad
This is a utility for converting FreePCB *.fpc files to GenCad format, which is supported by various PCB layout programs and other tools for interchange of PCB data. Contributed by "edeheld" of the User Forum.
Version Contents Link

2.01.24

Executable

freepcb2cad_2.01.24.zip

 

TinyCad: 
This is a version of TinyCad, modified by Gil (gldf in the User Forum). He has added a new option "PADS-PCB-WITH-VALUE" to the menu of file formats for exporting netlists. With this option, if the "Value" attribute is added to parts in TinyCad, it will be included in the PADS netlist. He has also added a checkbox that allows selection of all component libraries.

Version Contents Link

-

Executable

TinyCad.zip

 

NetValue: 
This is a program for converting TinyCAD netlists to PADS-PCB netlists. For parts, it sets the package name to the "Package" attribute of  the TinyCAD symbol, if it exists. Using the extra information available, it can set the FreePCB "Value" of a part to be a comma-separated string containing any or all of the attributes attached to a TinyCAD symbol including the Symbol name and Package. It was written by Phil Walker, whose username on the Forum is "philboard".

Version Contents Link

1.0

Executable and documentation

NetValue100.zip

 

FpcPoly: 
This is a command-line utility for translating some of the Gerber files produced by FreePCB into a form usable by Guillaume Rosanis' PCB-Render to create very photo-realistic images of the top and bottom of a PCB. It was written by Bruce Parham.
Version Contents Link

1.13

Executable and documentation

FpcPoly_V1.13.zip

 

FpcLib: 
This is a command-line utility for editing FreePCB library files, written by Bruce Parham.
Version Contents Link

1.30

Executable and documentation

FpcLib_Ver_1.30.zip

1.20

Executable and documentation

FpcLib_Ver_1.20.zip

 

FpcRef: 
This is a command-line utility that replaces the reference designators in a FreePCB project file with text strings, so that they won't change when copying and pasting groups of parts for the purpose of panelizing. It was written by Bruce Parham.
Version Contents Link

1.20

Executable and documentation

FpcRef_V1.20.zip

1.10

Executable and documentation

FpcRef_V1.10.zip

 

FpcROUTE: 
This is a command-line utility for interfacing FreePCB to the on-line autorouter FreeRoute, written by Bruce Parham. It generates .dsn files for importing into the autorouter, and merges the .ses file from the autorouter into a FreePCB project. It can be used from the command-line, or invoked from FreePCB. To use it from FreePCB, it should be placed in the freepcb\bin folder.
Version Contents Link

1.303

Executable only

FpcROUTE_v1.303.zip

1.301

Executable only

FpcROUTE_v1.301.zip

1.3

Executable and documentation

FpcROUTE_v1.300.zip

 

FPCcombine: 
This is a program for panelizing multiple PCBs, written by Bob Thakkilapati. It reads the project file for each PCB, and combines into a single project. Then you can open the combined project in FreePCB, perform further editing if needed, and generate the Gerber files.

Version Contents Link

0.2

Source code, executable and documentation in a zipped archive

FPCcombine_020.zip


PCB-Tools: 
This is a set of command-line tools for rendering and printing Gerber files, contributed by Guillaume Rosanis. There are 3 separate applications: GerberRender, PCB-Render and PCB-Print. GerberRender.exe is called directly from FreePCB when you select the option to generate .png files in the CAM dialog, so it should be placed in the freepcb\bin folder if you want to use this feature.

Versions Contents Link

0.8.5

Documentation and executables (versions for both P3 and P4 CPUs)

PCB-Tools_14072008.zip


FPCfab: 
This is a command-line application that generates fabrication drawings from a Gerber file or template file, written by Bruce Parham. In the documentation, there is also an application note that describes a method for creating great-looking assembly drawings.

Versions Contents Link

1.40

Documentation and executables

FPCfab_1.40.zip


FpcPlace: 
This is another command-line application by Bruce Parham. It generates a component placement listing  from a project file.

Versions Contents Link

1.41

Documentation and executables

FpcPlace_V1.41.zip

1.30

Documentation and executables

FpcPlace_1.30.zip