[sdiy] Re: Swapping copper layers in Eagle

[Matthew Smith]

Quoth Ian Fritz at 2009-01-08 00:44...
> Ditto. I'm totally amazed that people keep struggling with that ... that 
> ...  Oh well.

OK, some people like Eagle.  For those who are indifferent to it or 
don't like it, there may well be reasons to keep on with it:

1) Skills investment - do not want/can not afford the resources involved 
in re-education of self or staff with a different product.

2) Investment in licenses.

3) Investment in part libraries.

I purchased the minimum non-for-profit license about 18 months ago to 
gain extra board area (although it doesn't look much bigger.)  I was 
supposed to get a printed manual but, despite a couple of chasing 
e-mails, have had nothing but excuses.

As regards part libraries, I find creating parts the most time-consuming 
and unpleasant of tasks in the design process; the worst part of this is 
the painstaking process of creating packages.  (I reckon that only about 
0.0000000000000000001% of SMD packages in use are in the standard Eagle 
libraries.  OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but...)  The fact 
that there are libraries - both from Cadsoft and contributed - for so 
many parts has always been a point in Eagle's favour.  I find it hard to 
face the idea of having to re-create all my components.

There is, of course, a major 'con' as regards contributed 
libraries/parts: I have heard horror-stories about Eagle files that are 
created on 'cracked' versions of Eagle than will completely trash any 
legal/licensed installation if loaded.

Eagle's other 'pro' point for me is the fact that there is a Linux 
version so I don't have to face the tiresome issue of having to fire up 
a Windoze XP session under VMWare, slowing down everything else I am 
doing on the machine.

If I were to change, I'd be moving to a free/libre OSS solution which 
would have to be as well or better featured as Eagle.  There would also 
need to be a user-contributed devices repository available as I have 
neither the time nor the inclination to create all the devices/packages 
that I use from scratch.

If anyone can point me at such a wonder, I am certainly willing to be 
persuaded.

Cheers

M

-- 
Matthew Smith
Smiffytech - Technology Consulting & Web Application Development
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