PCB CAD Options (was: Re: Is it at all possible?)

From: Jim Brain <brain_at_jbrain.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2017 09:51:47 -0600
Message-ID: <feb0230d-1104-6fe5-0683-1bc817ba670a@jbrain.com>
On 2/14/2017 4:58 AM, Didier Derny wrote:
>
> with eagle 8 you  have to take a subscription...  and pay each month 
> or year...
>
> I think it is time to move to Kicad...
>
Given the number of users upset at the licensing model change, I believe 
v7.X will be used for a long time.  Like Ruud, I used v5.X for a long 
time, and it worked fine.  As far as I can tell, v7 added no UI 
improvements. Versions >5 migrated the file format to XML, which many 
online services and utilities now expect. (3D visualization, 
panelization, etc.)

Still, this ownership and licensing change will no doubt focus more 
attention on KiCAD improvements, which is a good thing.

Not too long ago, open source projects chose EAGLE because it had a free 
version and it was far more functional than gEDA and KiCAD. The fact 
that EAGLE was itself not open source was a minor irritant.  Now, it 
seems KiCAD almost matches EAGLE capabilities and is truly FLOSS.

I envy folks like Steve.  I didn't know either of the apps in 2004 but 
learned EAGLE as it seemed the best choice at the time.  Now, I've 
gotten very adept at the tool, but the tool has fallen somewhat out of 
favor.  I've attempted to migrate, but I am simply too efficient in 
EAGLE, and it's hard to justify using limited hobby time to learn a new 
tool when I can immediately deliver something with EAGLE.  Thus, if you 
are just learning PCB CAD apps, I think learning KiCAD is a better 
choice.  When KiCAD supports back annotations, I'll try once again to 
migrate.

Jim

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Received on 2017-02-14 16:01:55

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