VeroDes - Veroboard design software

Welcome to VeroDes
latest version 1.34 (2009/11/22)

HOT NEWS!

As VeroDes now does more or less what was intended in the original spec, its licence has been altered to permit (re)distribution.
Note - terms apply, read the licence!

VeroDes is an easy-to-use design program for those wishing to design circuits on "veroboard"™ (also known as "stripboard").

Now veroboard is great for putting together prototype circuits, but it has one big disadvantage. Because the copper tracks are fixed, it can be a real pain to convert schematics to veroboard. I know, I’ve had to do it numerous times.

This is where VeroDes comes in!

Not only can you make good looking board designs – quite an improvement over diagrams scribbled onto graph paper – but you can also instruct VeroDes to print out an "overlay" of either side of the board. This can then be stuck to the board to guide you to placing components and cutting tracks.

With VeroDes you can...

Create veroboard circuit designs with ease! Board sizes up to 70 holes by 70 tracks can easily be accomodated (in fact, VeroDes will go as far as 120×128).
View both sides of your circuit; with links, breaks, and component pins clearly marked in either view.

Here is the top, component, side of the board. This is probably how you will use VeroDes most of the time.

Here is the bottom, copper, side of the board. This will be useful for placing track breaks (you can place those in the other view too!) and for checking the board without the clutter of the component side view.
Print the circuit in a variety of ways. Perhaps you wish to look over your design as it appears on screen (as above) without the tiring effects of staring closely at the screen. No problem!
You can also draw on, mark off, or make notes on a paper copy!

Perhaps you'd like to print a 'template' so that you may rough out your design before working on it in VeroDes? No problem!
VeroDes can print a template sheet that is around 5/6ths larger than actual veroboard; so it is big enough to work with easily, yet covers enough board space to be useful. You should be able to print around 90 holes by 55 tracks (depending on the margins of your printer) onto a piece of A4.
Click to view or download a 92×57 template as a PDF document (242Kb)
The above document was printed to a PDF generator directly from VeroDes.

How above going for the whole "Blue Peter" vibe and printing out an overlay of either side of the board, precisely matched to the board scale, so you can Pritt-Stick™ it to your board and know exactly where to place your holes, links, and components? Say it with me: No problem!
Here's what the component-side overlay looks like:
The above picture is not very good as the display bitmap offers a resolution of 96dpi. Printing this to a printer that can achieve better, 300dpi at least (which is most printers!) will produce much nicer results. This picture is only an example so you can see what I mean.
Why didn't I print an overlay to paper and scan it? It'd be a piece of cake, but the image filesize will be somewhat larger than 5K for both images. Oh yes, I'll show you the copper side overlay too. Here it is:
There are lots of useful little features. For example, in the picture below we have asked VeroDes to highlight everything that is directly connected to the GND pin. You will notice that it has followed a wire link too, of course.
If you think the magenta is too garish for words, you'll be pleased to know that you can tweak the colours as you see fit. Perhaps highlighting would be better in brown... or Hello Kitty™ bright pink? Your choice!
For the more advanced, you can create your own components, up to 25 pins by 25 pins (dimensions, or up to 600 pins in total) along with lines and rectangles and circles for drawing the component 'body'.
You can easily share your designs with others, including any custom components that you design.
For the geekier among you, board files are textual 'descriptions' which may be read, edited, or created in a text editor. The specification is completely documented in the help file. You can read an example file if you like!

Amendment to the "Shrink" option so it will reposition everything to expunge spaces on the left and top, which were previously not handled. Now the board can be completely shrunk to fit your circuit exactly.

The changes in the previous version (v1.33/v1.32 released a day apart):

Internet auto-update facility.
Check-for-updates at startup.
Tidyup and revisions to the languages files (for the prompts and messages).
Fixed component rotation quirk with line-drawn components.
Released VeroDes from no-distrib status. It has matured enough that it can "go wild". I'd like to have made an HTML help file and added auto-updater, but didn't have time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this version of VeroDes "call home"?
Yes, but you can disable this if you want. Simply configure it not to.
However, please read the specifics of this before disabling it.
When I design new components, ones already placed on the board seem to randomly change!
This is a fairly major problem that affected all versions prior to (and including) v1.30, but did not get spotted earlier as, in questioning users, it was common to design the components and then the board.
SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest version of VeroDes.
Rotated components look weird on screen...
Known bug, fixed.
SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest version of VeroDes.
If my board is 15×20, I can't click beyond 15×15.
Known bug, fixed.
SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest version of VeroDes.
Can I change a component's rotation?
No. Delete it and place a new copy of it, with the desired rotation.
What gives - how do I delete stuff?
Right-click a component's pin, it will appear in magenta. You can now use the cursors (up/down/left/right arrows) to move the component around, or you can press DELete to erase the selected component from the board.
How do I unhighlight something?
Right-click an unused hole.
Why are left and right rotations in lighter grey?
As a note that these are less useful. Such rotations might be useful for relays, but for many things a 90° rotation is not terribly helpful. Consider an IC with pins placed along a track...
I can place components under other components!
While VeroDes has no conception of height so you can do mad things like putting a reed relay "under" an IC, there are times when putting one component under another can be useful - for example pull-up resistors under IC holder, or even small smoothing capacitors across an IC's power inputs under the IC holder...
VeroDes keeps asking me if I wish to overwrite existing components whenever I load up my project.
This is a design feature - because extracted components would overwrite ones currently installed on your system with the same component ID.
You can select a configuration option to not overwrite existing files. In this case, the version(s) held in the board file will be silently discarded and the existing version(s) loaded instead.
VeroDes reports "Run Time Error '70': Permission Denied" when trying to place a component...?
This is a problem with Vista's UAC.
SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest version of VeroDes.

What you'll need

Windows 95 OSR 2 or later.
Earlier (16 bit) versions will not work, at all.
Please note - Windows 7 ... you're on your own!
You may need my various dependencies pack. This is linked below, after the software download.
If you have any of my other software installed (i.e. Alarm, TechnikaTweak, WinTTX, VideoList2, etc etc) then you probably won't need this.
About 1Mb of space on your harddisc (plus ~4Mb if you need the dependencies).
A display of 800×600 in 256 colours, or better. Also a mouse or touchpad.
Hands up anybody stuck in the eighties with a VGA 640×480? That's nobody? Thought so! Windows looks pretty awful in only 16 colours.
Some time, to read the help, get to know the software...

Download it!

WARNING! Privacy nuts should be aware that this version of VeroDes, and ALL future, have the ability to communicate with this server. Please read the specifics before sending nasty emails! ☺

VeroDes v1.34 download

verodes134setup.exe (1,360K)

Version 1.34
2009/11/22
Latest VeroDes distribution. Self-installing .EXE file, just download it and run it. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Gratuit - free for personal use.
THIS SOFTWARE IS INTENDED
FOR MICROSOFT WINDOWS

If you experience problems using VeroDes (missing DLL, missing OCX),
then you need to download and install the Various Dependencies, 3,240K.

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