Copperhead
Copperhead is an open source AI engineering platform that helps hardware teams design, verify, and ship circuit boards. You describe a change or provide a product brief, and the agent edits real KiCad files, updates the documents that reference them, and runs KiCad’s own checks until they pass. Its end-to-end workflow moves through specification, architecture, parts selection, schematic, layout, outputs, firmware, and development planning, with each stage required to leave a real artifact on disk before the next begins. Gates verify budgets, subsystem reasoning, datasheet-backed part numbers, ERC-clean schematics, DRC-clean layouts, generated Gerbers, firmware sources, and written bring-up plans. Copperhead is also designed for existing boards: point it at a KiCad repository, initialize the project, and ask for changes. Edits are surgical changes to KiCad source files, keeping diffs small and reviewable while untouched portions remain unchanged.
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KiCad EDA
With the schematic editor you can create your design without limit, there are no paywalls to unlock features. An official library for schematic symbols and a built-in schematic symbol editor help you get started quickly with your designs. Make professional PCB layouts with up to 32 copper layers. KiCad now has a push and shove router which is capable of routing differential pairs and interactively tuning trace lengths. KiCad includes a 3D viewer which you can use to inspect your design in an interactive canvas. You can rotate and pan around to inspect details that are difficult to inspect on a 2D view. Multiple rendering options allow you to modify the aesthetic appearance of the board or to hide and show features for easier inspection. KiCad’s schematic capture is efficient, with all the tools you can expect for such a task. The interface focuses on productivity. There are no complexity limits, as large designs can be divided into hierarchical subsheets.
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ProtoFlow
ProtoFlow is an AI-native desktop electronic design automation (EDA) tool for schematic capture and PCB design. Describe a circuit in plain language to create an editable first draft, search real electronic parts and footprints, inspect datasheets, clean up wiring, and continue manually in familiar schematic and board editors. ProtoFlow supports ERC/DRC review, 3D board inspection, Git-backed versioning and visual diffs, comments and collaboration, plus manufacturing outputs including Gerber, drill, BOM, and placement files. Designs remain normal editable geometry, and users should verify symbols, footprints, connections, and manufacturing data before production. ProtoFlow can read and write native KiCad files and export to established EDA workflows. A free plan is available without a credit card, with paid options for higher AI usage. It is built for hardware engineers, makers, students, educators, researchers, and electronics startups.
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OrCAD X
OrCAD® X is a unified PCB design software platform that offers significant improvements in ease of use, performance, automation, data management, and collaboration. Our cloud-enabled product suite contains applications for schematic, simulation, and PCB layout. OrCAD X Capture is one of the most widely used schematic design solutions for the creation and documentation of electrical circuits. PSpice® is our virtual SPICE simulation environment integrated within Capture that allows you to prototype your designs using the industry-leading, native analog, mixed-signal, and advanced analysis engines to deliver a complete circuit simulation and verification solution. Our two PCB layout environments, OrCAD X PCB Editor and OrCAD X Presto, allow designers to easily collaborate between ECAD/MCAD teams and build better PCBs faster. OrCAD X Presto is a new user-friendly option offering a simpler interface for quick-turn PCB design.
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