DIY Layout Creator: point to point and perfboard drawing, aimed at stompboxes

The canvas is a physical medium, not a schematic sheet

The stated target is hobbyists and electronics enthusiasts building layouts on stripboard, perfboard, PCB and point to point wiring, and that list is the product definition. Most schematic tools describe what a circuit does electrically; this one describes where the parts and the wires physically go on the board you will actually drill and solder. The interaction is drag and drop for placing components and arranging connections, with a built in component library and per property defaults you can save so a common part stops asking the same questions every time. Output goes to image, PDF or a printer. The audience the README keeps naming is guitar pedal builders and guitar, synth, audio and ham radio people, and the sample gallery is tube amplifiers, a guitar wiring diagram, a PCB tube amp and a perfboard guitar effect, which tells you what the software was grown on.

Guitar wiring analysis is the feature no PCB tool bothers with

The Guitar Wiring Analyzer analyses guitar wirings and visualises detailed pickup configurations for each switch state. DIYLC treats that as something to compute and show rather than something to draw by hand. Alongside it sit the Virtual Multimeter and Netlist generation mentioned in the guide, SPICE netlist export so a simulated circuit can leave the drawing tool, and a set of circuit analysis tools aimed at debugging what you built. For an instrument builder, that combination replaces a schematic program plus a multimeter plus a diagram you redrew every time.

A Java runtime of 21 is the whole install requirement

There is no install command on this page, and the README's own answer is a download: the latest release link for all platforms, a Quick Start Guide in the wiki, and the wiki itself for user and developer documentation. The one stated requirement is that the app runs on any machine capable of running a Java JRE or JDK of 21 or newer. The repository shows the shape of the project: diylc/ for the application, diylc-server-api/ as a separate server interface, diylc-regression-data/ for test data, and snap/ for Snap packaging. One practical warning is called out for Mac users, because Gatekeeper may block DIYLC as it comes from an independent developer, and the README links Apple's guidance on allowing the app.

Export targets tell you which kind of DIY you are doing

The export list is where the tool separates hobby from profession. You can export PCB trace masks for toner transfer, which is how you get a home printed layout onto copper clad board, or Gerber files for fabrication, which is how you hand the design to a fab house. Bill of materials can be built inside the project or exported in several file formats, so a parts list is a by product of drawing rather than a separate spreadsheet. Schematics and custom faceplates are drawn with the same tool, which means a project file can hold the wiring diagram, the board layout and the panel artwork together. SPICE compatible netlists close the loop with simulation. Note what is not listed: there is no mention of a fabrication output for assembly drawings beyond the Gerber and toner transfer masks.

Extending it means writing against two documented APIs

The extensibility claim is backed by two wiki pages you can read before deciding: a Component API for adding new components and a Plugin API for creating plug-ins. That is the important distinction for anyone evaluating it as a platform. Components extend what can be placed and what properties they carry, which suits your own parts library with the right pin count and footprint. Plug-ins extend what the application can do, which suits a tool that does not exist yet. The repository also carries AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md at the root alongside an .vscode directory, so anyone working on the code will find the project already set up for tooling assisted development. Documentation contributions are listed as a first class way to help.

The licence has two halves and the guide is paid

The source is released under the GNU General Public License version 3, and the README adds the sentence that matters for anyone outside hobby use: contact the project owner to obtain a commercial licence if you plan to use the source code, or any part of it, for commercial purposes. GPL-3.0 governs the source code, while the project asks commercial users to contact the owner for a commercial licence. No legal advice here, but read the COPYING file and the licence section together before shipping anything built on it. Alongside the licence, the project asks for support rather than payment for the software itself, which it calls free for life with files you created remaining yours. The paid item is the 174-page Official DIYLC Guide; the project also lists Patreon and PayPal as support options.

The offline promise has two networked exceptions

The headline claim is that this is a true old school offline app: what you download is yours forever and the files you created are yours. Two features sit outside that. Cloud integration lets you share projects, search the cloud and download other users' designs, and the community project browser at diy-fever.com is a separate site from the application. A built in AI assistant answers general electronics questions, guides you through the interface and offers troubleshooting for the circuit you are designing, which is a network call with a third party in the path. Neither breaks the offline promise for a single user drawing a layout, and both are worth disabling if you are working on a design you do not want leaving the machine.

Against a PCB first EDA tool

The alternative for someone who designs circuit boards is a PCB oriented EDA suite, and the difference in approach is which medium the software treats as primary. Those tools assume a manufactured board with layers, design rules and a fabrication output, and their schematic editor is built around netlists feeding a layout. DIY Layout Creator assumes the opposite: perfboard grids, stripboard cut points, point to point wiring between holes, and hand assembly, with Gerber and toner transfer export added when you want a board made. DIY Layout Creator also supports guitar wiring and custom faceplates alongside its board layout formats. Choose accordingly: if the artifact is a fabricated board, use the PCB tool; if the artifact is a soldered afternoon on a stripboard, this is the one built for it.

Editorial conclusion

DIY Layout Creator fits a hobbyist or small shop building stompboxes, tube amps or one off instruments, where the work is point to point or perfboard and a PCB tool would be the wrong instrument, and its guitar wiring analyser plus netlist export close the gap between a sketch and a build. Skip it for production PCB work with a fab house, and read the licence paragraph before using it commercially, because the source is GPL-3.0 while the project asks you to contact the owner for a commercial licence. Before your first session, install a Java runtime of 21 or newer and read the Quick Start wiki, and if you are on a Mac expect Gatekeeper to block the download until you allow it through the guide the README links. The last push was on 2026-10-15 and v6.7.0 was released on 2026-10-09.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. bancika/diy-layout-creator on GitHub
2. License: GPL-3.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases