Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew" <andrewm1973@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:08 AM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle smells and i dont like it - was - Re: What is 
your favorite free PCB-CAD


>>> <Snip lots about UIs from many parties>
>
>> Leon wrote:
>>
>> They bought Eagle where I used to work, I'd used
>> my own copy of Pulsonix until then. I tried to
>> use it for a design but found that it was taking
>> me far longer than the same job would take with
>> Pulsonix, and the additional keystrokes and mouse
>> clicks were giving me RSI. It also had a nasty
>> bug. I refused to use it and had a big row with
>> management - they backed down and let me use
>> Pulsonix.
>
> Now - A "NASTY BUG" would be something far more
> intersting to know about than "it has funny keys"

This was a few years ago, it's probably been fixed. I didn't get any 
response from Cadsoft about it.

>
>> Another engineer there was very familiar with
>> Eagle, they bought it on his recommendation and
>> because it was cheap. He once spent two weeks
>> doing a PCB that I could have done in under a
>> day with Pulsonix!
>
> Was the "he took a week with eagle" part due to
> eagle or due to him ?  Would he have also taken
> 4.7 days if HE was using pulsonix ?

The two weeks was largely down to Eagle, he'd been using it for years. He 
spent a lot of that time getting a an awkward copper pour shape for a 
switching regulator exactly right, IIRC.

>
> Weeks worth of productivity is worth $.  So if
> there is a realy reason eagle is much slower I
> would like to hear about it.
>

I found that Eagle needed roughly twice the number of keystrokes and mouse 
operations as Pulsonix, for the same design. Plus, I just couldn't get used 
to the user interface. Pulsonix can import Eagle designs and libraries, 
which can be quite useful. I once used that facility to check a friend's 
Eagle PCB design that was giving him problems.

Leon

Leon

Leon