Depends on if you use leaded solder or not (and really, I appreciate why people do - unleaded solder at home as a hobbyist has been a nightmare for me so far).

There is no lead in lead solder fumes (look up the vapour pressure tables. seriously).

The only thing in lead solder fumes is the rosin, which is benign except being an asthma sensitizer, so you should probably take precautions if you have asthma. Other then that it's basically harmless.

It's the flux in solder fumes that are toxic, you shouldn't be vaporising the lead. A well ventilated room and a small fan to blow across your work area should be enough for most hobby work.

That being said, you should wash your hands after dealing with leaded solder and consider some disposable gloves if you're going to be doing a long session.

If you think Altium is bad, you've never used Orcad.

If you think Orcad is good, you've never used Eagle.

Tell me if I got this right. Altium is better then Orcad, and Eagle is better then Orcad.

So which one is better between Altium and Eagle?

Whoops, I meant to imply that Orcad is better than Eagle.

I really just find it hard to do hobby projects in Eagle because I'm so used to Orcad's workflow by now. All the shortcuts are different. :(

No comparison, Altium is much better than Eagle, especially for professional work. I haven't used Orcad in a long time, but back then, Orcad was much better than Altium. Nowadays, Orcad is priced beyond mortals, Altium is relatively affordable, and Eagle is cheap. Kicad is free and considered equivalent to Eagle.

> Altium is relatively affordable, and Eagle is cheap

For reference Altium is still around $7500 plus $1500 per year for updates and Eagle without board restrictions is $1600.

If you think eagle is good, you've never used KiCad.

Seriously, I love KiCAD. So much better than eagle, and open source.

I'd love a recommendation for a good KiCad intro tutorial. I tried to just hack through learning it once and I couldn't pick it up. Any suggestions?

I used a YouTube playlist[0] to get the basics down, goes from installing KiCad through to soldering a finished board.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2022BX6Eso532xqrUxD...

Thank you! I'll check this out!

Edit: ...is that Chris Gammell? How did I not know this was a thing he made?

He became something of a huge KiCad evangelist there a while back. I've heard that this list and Contextual Electronics are pretty good. I think he still works for parts.io too.

For home use, I use Diptrace. Bad name, maybe, but excellent software and the price is right.

Somewhat amazing that when I left hardware design more than 20 years ago we were using Orcad (Eagle existed too iirr).

What's the learning curve on newer tools for someone who has been using EAGLE for years? I'm scared of change.

> Also, solder fumes aren't toxic!

If the solder has lead the fumes are toxic. If the solder has a rosin flux the fumes are toxic, and the operator needs ventilation to keep exposure below recommended levels.

It's a bad idea to be breathing in the fumes, but obviously this depends on how much you're breathing. At most risk are people who solder all day everyday.

> If the solder has lead the fumes are toxic.

I encourage you to support this statement. Lead doesn't vaporize at anywhere close to soldering temperatures, and from what I have read there is no lead component to soldering fumes and consequently no exposure through respiration.

Rosin and particularly No-Clean fluxes do pose a respiratory hazard, so fume extraction is a good idea regardless.

Lead in the fumes is still solid particulate matter, but that's sill not something you want in you. It's not likely to be a major issue, but it's not completely safe either.

holding a pencil in one hand that has a tip at 650F isn't completely safe either.

I only tried Altium in "depth" (And some open source shallowly). It is surprising to me that competing products are even worse.