[sdiy] Pulsonix PCB design software

Wed Jul 26 14:17:57 CEST 2017

fwiw, I first used Eagle, then tried diptrace which was worlds easier, then
learned Kicad with the help of a friend. I got frustrated with the updates
breaking things and the issues with defining paths, so went back to
diptrace for a couple projects. Diptrace is really nice but ultimately
there were more tedious workflow issues and getting things done was simply
slower.

Kicad is quirky with a steep learning curve and setting it up is a bit of a
pain, but once it's setup and you're working, it's fast.

The push'n'shove routing feature saves so much time that it alone outweighs
the other inadequacies.

The zooming is a bit strange at first but now I almost never use
scrollbars. You don't have to move your mouse to/from the scrollbars to
navigate, just point where you want to see and zoom in/out...it becomes
fast.

Keyboard integration is really good so mousing can be minimal. User
definable single keystroke key commands speed things up too.

The file formats are not only free from being locked into a vendor but they
are human readable AND editable natively. You can search/paste/replace in a
text editor, then save and reopen without doing any file conversions.

There are a lot of us that are happily using kicad!

epk
Kicad 4.0.6 stable build

On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 1:22 PM, Steve <sleepy_dog at gmx.de> wrote:

>
> Julian Schmidt wrote:
>
> > Most of what he describes are user errors
>
> Yeah. Conveniently by definition... that's relevant how?
> He argued how things should not work the way they do (I concur),
> complaining about (lack of) design.
> (including the back-and-forth commenting under the 1st post)
> How is "he used it wrong" an answer to that?
>
>
> > or just don't happen in the build I use (zooming for example is always
> mouse pointer centric).
>
> I tried it with the version which was most recent a couple days ago, and
> uninstalled it again because of that - and reading that it's known,
> longstanding and they don't care - which about tells me how wise it is to
> sink any time into that package.
>
> > Ok, I'm using the linux version and take my version from the latest
> build and not the old stable branch that is behind a lot of versions...
>
> So you're saying their "stable build" is the f'ed up one, and you're
> supposed to use the betas?
> (with regards to outright bugs like hard-coded paths of the "it works on
> my machine award" kind - do they test the stuff before unleashing it?)
>
>
> > really like that it's currently getting a spice integration.
>
> You know, all those features it reportedly has were what made me curious,
> too.
> But if you have to balance an egg on your head, stand on one leg and
> jump-turn two-and-three-thirds times around, *then* click this or that, to
> make something simple work,
> I'll have to say no thanks. The lure is not great enough to make me
> brainwash myself chanting "broken is fine!" all the time.
>
> [general rant]
> Some people shrug it off as "ok, someone's too lazy to learn his tools",
> as if willingness to unquestioningly jump through all sorts of hoops was a
> virtue. There *is* such a thing as an inefficient (to learn) user
> interface. It is, alas, very common in the linux-heavy open source scene to
> conveniently assume that any of their output has somehow automatically a
> learning curve which is 100% inherent to the tasks to accomplish - and
> that's that.
> Some people like to shrug off UI design matters as subjective. It's not
> like there hasn't been UI usability research available, leading to
> principles and guidelines to take to heart, though. After all, there really
> are ways in which human minds commonly process things best.
> If some app violates core principles, it seems unlikely its UI problems
> lie only in the realm of subjective preferences.
> [/general rant]
>
>
> The main thing which makes me look at open source offerings in this realm
> once in a while, despite sobering experiences so far,
> is Gordon's point about what he called "vendor lock-in".
> I don't like "secret" file formats either. I won't sacrifice just anything
> for this issue, though ;)
> At least it's not uncommon in commercial packages that you can export to
> some ASCII format. Which is often more or less human readable, easy enough
> to figure out. So if circumstances arise which could make all of your
> designs in one package "lost", you probably could write a converter to an
> open source format.
>
>
>
> *Von:* "Julian Schmidt" <elfenjunge at gmx.net>
> *An:* synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> *Betreff:* Re: [sdiy] Pulsonix PCB design software
> hmmm... been using kicad for a few years now.
> Most of what he describes are user errors or just don't happen in the
> build I use (zooming for example is always mouse pointer centric).
> Ok, I'm using the linux version and take my version from the latest build
> and not the old stable branch that is behind a lot of versions...
>
> I don't say it is perfect and for sure has some annoying behaviors, but I
> really like working with it and I could not do any PCBs anymore without
> "push and shove" and really like that it's currently getting a spice
> integration.
>
> Am 25.07.2017 um 22:25 schrieb sleepy_dog at gmx.de:
>
>
> > Kicad might be worth looking into. It's reliable, easy to work with
>
> Reeeeally?
> https://www.reddit.com/r/KiCad/comments/41n6c6/i_want_to_love_kicad/
>
> If that's a good sampling of the GUI's typical "design" choices,
> "braindead" (like the guy called it in the last post) seems an apt label.
> (alone that going back to center all the time when zooming, warrants some
> HARD lashes on the butt)
>
>
>
> Am 25.07.2017 um 21:21 schrieb Gordonjcp:
>
> On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 07:37:37PM +0100, paula at synth.net wrote:
>
> I've heard nothing but good things about it.
> I'm tempted to look into it some more as Eagle is getting a bit pricey.
>
>
> Kicad might be worth looking into.  It's reliable, easy to work with,
> doesn't lock your drawings up in proprietary file formats and you can't
> argue with the price.
>
>
>
>
>
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