Hi Dave,
Yes, I'm on a few CAD/CAM lists! It all seems to tie together. I'm back on
the Homebrew PCB list after a hiatus, I was concentrating on CNCing my
Sherline mill and lathe, writing STEP4, my CNC controller program, and
designing and building about 6 working steam engine models. I like the idea
of MILLING isolation traces for a board.
That's an idea, although it would probably wind up being expensive for me,
I'm SURE I'll take quite a few tries at the CAM process.
Eagle actually, as I understand it, ALLOWS you to give the CAM module to
your board house, bun NOT of course, the setup/license code/data.
I did run the CAM on the example Hexapod file last night. As I mentioned in
a previous post, the first time (2001) I ran it prompted me to write a
Gerber to Gcode program (kinda got me sidetracked).
Pin count seems to be a favorite way to limit, as well as board size. If
they just allow me to upgrade a module at a time, I might be OK going to the
next level.
Alan KM6VV
SherlineCNC list
> Alan
>
> I see you on CADCAMEDMDRO and now I see you here... You get around!!
>
> I think that Eagle and others should adopt a $per board strategy for
> causal users like us. They could make a single board license file
> that costs say $20 and gives you unlimited features for that single
> board (locked to that PCB file on your PC). You go to the web site
> and paypal $20 and they send you the license file good for one
> board. The license file "dies" after you run your CAM process for
> the 5th time on the board ( 4 tries to get it right). The license
> file would also be suspended if you try and delete too many parts and
> make another board from the design (cheating). You could then beg for
> forgiveness and get a re-instatement.
>
> With the internet it is easy for them to add the "spyware" needed to
> insure the license file is not copied and used by someone else. Just
> use the MAC or IP address of the machine as the "key".
>
> IF they had this... I would already have spent $200 with them and not
> have to think about moving to a competative package... they would
> have sucked me in!!
>
> DAve
>