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:

• Download the latest version of the software using one of the links for "Complete Distributions" below. You can choose from:
  • An installer application, with a name like FreePCB_1200_setup.exe. 
  • A self-installing archive, with a name like FreePCB_1200_bin.exe.
  • A zipped archive, with a name like FreePCB_1200_bin.zip
• Install the software into a folder on your hard drive such as C:\FreePCB or C:\Program Files\FreePCB. This folder should now contain subfolders as shown:
         
  • The subfolder bin contains the FreePCB.exe executable and the default configuration file default.cfg.
  • The subfolder doc contains documentation (mainly this User Guide)
  • The subfolder lib contains the core footprint libraries.
  • The subfolder lib_contrib contains footprint libraries contributed by users.
  • The subfolder lib_extra contains less commonly used footprint libraries.
  • The subfolder projects contains folders for each project
  • The subfolder src will be empty. You can install the source code into it using one of the "Source Update" links below.
    
• If you used the installer application, you were prompted to create a desktop shortcut to start FreePCB. If you used one of the archives, you can make a shortcut manually. Open the .\FreePCB\bin folder in Windows Explorer, and drag the file FreePCB.exe onto the desktop with the RIGHT mouse button. You should be prompted with a list of options including creating a shortcut.

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 freepcb_user_guide.pdf 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.

• Stable updates are based on the standard distribution. They contain bug-fixes and minor improvements, but no major new features.
• Unstable updates are based on the current development version. They contain new features, and possibly bugs. The new features may not be documented in the User Guide. You should use them if you need the new features, or would like to participate in the development of FreePCB by testing the code and reporting bugs. If you use an unstable version, remember to save often and check your Gerbers! 

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

• Debug versions contain debugging information, so that error messages are more informative. Also, certain run-time errors may be prevented by the debug code. They require the files MFC71D.DLL and MSVCR71D.DLL, which are included in the download for the complete distribution.
• Release versions don't have the debugging code. They may be quite a bit faster for some operations, so I've started posting them beginning with version 1.302. To run a release version, you need the files MFC71.DLL and MSVCR71.DLL on your system. If you don't have them, there is a download in the next section (Microsoft DLLs).

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
1.350a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1350a_exe.zip
1.349a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1349a_exe.zip
1.348a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1348a_exe.zip
1.347a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1347a_exe.zip
1.346a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1346a_exe.zip
1.345a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1345a_exe.zip
1.344a	FreePCB.exe (for comments and testing only)	FreePCB_1344a_exe.zip
1.343	FreePCB.exe	FreePCB_1343_exe.zip	FreePCB_1343_release_exe.zip
1.342	FreePCB.exe	FreePCB_1342_exe.zip	FreePCB_1342_release_exe.zip
1.341	FreePCB.exe	FreePCB_1341_exe.zip	FreePCB_1341_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:
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.

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.

Source Updates:
Source code for recent versions is now 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
You can also use TortoiseSVN to access the repository (highly recommended!). Note that the revision numbers in this repository don't match the build numbers in the FreePCB releases, since I am still using my home repository for actual development.

User Guide:

Version	Contents	Link
1.4	User Guide (PDF). These files should be installed in  doc	FreePCB_1400_User_Guide_Pdf.zip

Contributed Software:

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
1.02	Executable and documentation	FpcRef_1.02.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
1.211	Executable and documentation	FpcROUTE_1211.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.

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.

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.

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