[sdiy] PCB/Schematic software

Thu Sep 1 04:45:05 CEST 2011

I'll second the vote for Eagle. It's an expensive investment, but well worth
it. I tried KiCad, AutoDEX, Target, and some of the manufacturer specific
ones, but when I finally bit the bullet and bought Eagle for the Steiner
Synthasystem project, it was excellent. Easy to add/edit components, I find
the interface pretty intuitive and straightforward, most board houses take
the files directly or Eagle outputs Gerber files easily using a script that
comes with it.

It has great support, too.

My only complaint is it doesn't interface well to any Spice simulators. It
kind of interfaces with B2Spice, but I think it's easier to just redraw the
schematic.

Free is always good, but it's my experience (with some notable exceptions
like gnu emacs, gnu compilers, LaTeX, OpenOffice) free often means quirks,
and a lot of DIY debugging/programming which takes the fun out of using the
software to do the really fun stuff I want to do. 

David

David M. Ingebretsen, M.S., M.E.
Collision Forensics & Engineering, Inc.

Office: 801 733 5458
Cell: 801 842 5451

www.CFandE.com
dingebre at CFandE.com
dingebre at 3dphysics.net

>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl [mailto:synth-diy-
>>> bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of Tristan
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 5:04 PM
>>> To: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] PCB/Schematic software
>>> 
>>> About a year ago I looked into this issue and in the end also went with
>>> Eagle Professional Layout +
>>> Schematic. I wanted similar functionality to the old Protel Schematic +
PCB
>>> I had used in the past and the
>>> cross platform Win/Mac/Linux compatibility of Eagle was a bonus. Two
other
>>> important considerations were
>>> that Eagle is widely accepted by board houses and the company has been
in
>>> business a long time with a
>>> solid support presence.
>>> 
>>> In use I have found Eagle to be reliable and I have not struck any major
>>> bugs or instability. On the
>>> negative side, I found it has a fair learning curve (but I guess most
CAD
>>> tools do!) and some operations
>>> are not very intuitive. The supplied libraries are also a bit messy and
>>> inconsistent.
>>> 
>>> /Tristan
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Sep 1st, 2011 at 6:42 AM, Matthew Smith <matt at smiffytech.com>
wrote:
>>> 
>>> > Quoth Harry Bissell at 01/09/11 04:29...
>>> > ...
>>> > > What does anyone like these days ?
>>> >
>>> > When this was discussed last - which I think is when Neil drew up that
>>> > list - I did a quick re-evaluation. My first criterion was that the
>>> > package had to run on Linux, as I'm an all-Linux shop, here.
>>> >
>>> > I had been using Eagle for quite some time and had upgraded from the
>>> > freeware to the not-for-profit paid version, in order to get a bit
more
>>> > board space to work with. But that license was strictly
non-commercial.
>>> > I needed something where there would be no license restrictions
>>> > regarding selling stuff created with the package.
>>> >
>>> > My third key requirement was that everything would go through
schematic
>>> > capture - there is no way in the world that I would consider laying
out
>>> > a boar directly.
>>> >
>>> > At the time, I was looking for Spice integration, but I still haven't
>>> > gotten round to using that - I'd far rather build something and test
it
>>> > than sit staring at a computer screen (which I do all day anyway)
>>> > fiddling with simulations.
>>> >
>>> > My shortlist came down to Eagle Pro, Kicad and GeDA/PCB.
>>> >
>>> > After a quick look at Kicad, I decided that it simply wasn't for me -
>>> > didn't suit the way I work/think.
>>> >
>>> > Next off the block was GeDA/PCB. Whilst I wasn't impressed by the
>>> > integration of the tools, I realised the sheer power of it and knew I
>>> > could script a lot of tasks. The two real issues it presented were 1)
>>> > learning curve and 2) no reliable way to turn my rather large Eagle
>>> > components library into the GeDA/PCB format.
>>> >
>>> > I thought about this for a few months and finally worked out that
>>> > forking out a grand for Eagle Pro would actually be cheaper, when
>>> > considered in a commercial context, than having to learn a totally new
>>> > package and then convert a lot of previous work over to the new
format.
>>> >   As I'm not *that* happy with parting with my money - even when the
>>> > "me" is "my business," I got onto my distributor - Element14 - and,
>>> > after some negotiation, secured what I thought was a pretty good
discount.
>>> >
>>> > So, now I am running Eagle Pro (schematic capture and board layout
only
>>> > - no auto-router) and am happy with that. The effort of changing was
>>> > simply a case of adding a new license file - no learning, no
conversions.
>>> >
>>> > As regards Spice integration, I believe there may be a ULP (User
>>> > Language Programme) or two that will export netlists in a form that
can
>>> > be read by/imported into Spice software. But I haven't tried to do it.
>>> >
>>> > Cheers
>>> >
>>> > M
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Matthew Smith
>>> >
>>> > Business: http://www.smiffytech.com
>>> > Blog:     http://www.smiffysplace.com
>>> > Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/smiffy
>>> > Flickr:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/msmiffy
>>> > Twitter:  http://twitter.com/smiffy
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>> >
>>> >
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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