VeroDes - Veroboard design software

Welcome to VeroDes
latest version 1.27 (2009/06/07)

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!

There isn't one. There are only three little things that you should be aware of. Other than that, feel free to download, install, and use VeroDes!

This is an early version of VeroDes. It should behave as described in the help file, but it may not. There are several known bugs, none of which are deemed 'critical' (refer to the help file for details); and I would appreciate it greatly if you could let me know of anything - from a definite bug right down to a typo...
Having said that, I use VeroDes myself and have not encountered any jaw-dropping issue (else I'd have fixed it!!!).
While I ask you for bug/quirk reports, and welcome your wishlist ideas - please note that this in no way constitutes a form of support contract. I do this sort of stuff as a hobby... If you would like to employ me to develop VeroDes, then that's a whole different story! :-)
This version of VeroDes is NOT to be (re)distributed.
The early versions are only to be available from my website (i.e. here!).
If I find anyone making this software available for download for any reason whatsoever without having obtained my permission first... well, that is specifically prohibited in the software licence (and here) so I guess my legal guys will want to talk to your legal guys and they'll get richer at your expense... So don't do it, okay?

The previous version was v1.26 released 2009/03/14.
This is what has changed since then.

More work on tracking down the Vista "permission denied" (70) error. Fixed a small bugette in the GetCompID function, and added increased logging.
You can now choose to show component labels (default) or values. Click on the Info button (leftmost), the option is on the Info window.
NOTE: This affects printing as well.
In order to help suppress the "you already have..." message that may keep appearing if you use user-defined components, there is an extra configuration option whereby if the user component already exists, the one held within the board file will be ignored and the existant component loaded. This can be set to happen automatically so no messages will appear upon loading a valid board with user defined components on it.
The options of how to handle user defined components will make themselves inactive in a way that is most logical for the option(s) chosen. This should aid clarity.

VeroDes v1.27 download

verodes127.exe (1,334K)

Version 1.27
2009/06/07

Latest VeroDes distribution. Self-installing .EXE file, just download it and run it. Follow the on-screen instructions.

THIS SOFTWARE IS INTENDED FOR WINDOWS 98 OR LATER...

This is not "public domain" software!
DO NOT (RE)DISTRIBUTE THIS SOFTWARE!

VeroDes v1.27 DEBUG version

verodesdebug.exe (605K)

Version 1.27D
2009/06/07

For people having difficulties under VISTA.
This is the actual VeroDes executable. Copy this program into the folder where VeroDes is installed and run this instead.
A file called "vlog.txt" will be created, in said-same folder. It documents the activity at the point of choosing to place a component, along with all attempts to access files.
The logs can be fairly large, though if too big (say >32K) you perhaps ought to try to make the problem manifest more quickly.
Once you get VeroDes to abort with the "Permission Denied" error, please zip up the "vlog.txt" file and send it to me.
[note that due to the risk of things being badly garbled in transit, by Yahoo mail, etc etc, any logs sent in plain text form will be ignored and won't even be read - please zip it so I know what I'm receiving is what you sent!]
You do NOT need this version if you are not experiencing the Permission Denied problem. · This version does not cure the problem, it only adds tracing to try to locate the cause. · The logging CANNOT be disabled - use the proper version!

VeroDes v1.26 (previous version) download

verodes126.exe (1,333K)

Version 1.26
2009/03/14

Previous VeroDes distribution. Self-installing .EXE file, just download it and run it. Follow the on-screen instructions.