EAGLE (Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor) is an ECAD program produced by Cadsoft in Germany (American marketing division: Cadsoft USA). It is very commonly used by private electronics enthusiasts, because there is a very usable free demo version for nonprofit use and is available in English and German. Cadsoft has released versions for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. EAGLE provides a schematic editor, for designing circuit diagrams and a tightly integrated PCB layout editor, which automatically starts off with all of the components required by the schematic. Components are manually arranged on the board, with the help of coloured lines showing the eventual connections between pins that are required by the schematic, to aid in finding a placement that will allow the most efficient track layout. It also provides a good autorouter, which once the components have been placed will attempt to automatically find an optimal track layout to make the electrical connections. It does not always manage to find a way of routing all the signals, although it permits manual routing of critical paths such as power and high frequency lines before letting the autorouter handle the other connections.

Program Features (Professional Edition)

General
online Forward- and Back-Annotation
context sensitive help function
no hardware copy protection!
multiple windows for board, schematic and library
powerful User Language
integrated text editor
available for Windows, Linux and Mac

Layout Editor
maximum drawing area 1.6 x 1.6m (64 x 64 inch)
resolution 1/10,000mm (0.1 micron)
up to 16 signal layers
conventional and SMT parts
comes with a full set of part libraries
easily create your own parts with the fully integrated library editor
undo/redo function for ANY editing command, to any depth
script files for batch command execution
copper pouring
cut and paste function for copying entire sections of a drawing
design rule check
interactive Follow-me Router (requires the Autorouter module)

Schematic Editor
up to 999 sheets in one schematic
electrical rule check
gate and pinswap
create a board from a schematic with a single command

Autorouter
ripup&retry router
up to 16 signal layers
routing strategy driven by user definable cost factors
CAM Processor
Postscript
pen plotters
Gerber plotters
Excellon and Sieb&Meyer drill files
configurable through ASCII file for easy definition of your own output devices