CADS

CADS is a lightweight Windows application whose purpose is to help you draw electronic or printed circuits and plans using only your keyboard. While other circuit designers rely solely on using the mouse, CADS provides a new approach that allows you to make precise pixel-by-pixel drawings via several preset keys.
The software package includes three utilities, namely PlansCircuits, PrintedCKT, and wkeyscad. They are all portable and can be opened on the fly.

Comes in a portable edition

CADS is portable which gives you the advantage of storing it on USB flash drives or other devices so you can carry it with you all the time. A double-click on the executable file is sufficient for getting access to the program’s GUI. It does not store entries in your Windows registry and leave configuration settings on the host computer so you can get rid of it using a simple deletion task.

User interface

All three tools sport a clean and simple working environment where the focus falls upon drawing. You’ve got plenty room for exercising your drawing skills using only the keyboard. Short introductions about how to make use of the preset hotkeys for controlling the drawing process are revealed in the main panel of the programs.

Drawing capabilities

PlansCircuits is designed specifically for helping you draw electronic or printed circuits, while PrintedCKT is developed only for printed circuits. Both applications give you the possibility to design circuits on a black or white background and adjust the thickness of the drawing line.
What’s more, you are allowed to erase data, change the cursor’s position in the workspace, print the circuit, export the information to BMP file format, import data from BMP files, change the color used for drawing and filling in spaces, insert custom text at the current position, as well as embed circles, rectangles, or several preset symbols.
Wkeyscad comes packed with pretty much the same set of options which can be found in PlansCircuits and PrintedCKT. In addition, it reveals a toolbar which provides access to a set of drawing and importing/exporting tools which can be accessed via your mouse.
Tests have pointed out that CADS carries out a task pretty quickly and offers very good output results. It is not a resource hog so you do not have to worry that it burdens the overall performance of the computer.

Final remarks

All in all, CADS comes packed with several handy features for helping you load and manipulate electronic circuits from your keyboard, and can be configured by rookies and professionals alike.