Re: alternatives to EAGLE cad?

JeffM wrote:

[...]

> With all the acquisition / knife-the-baby activity in the ECAD
> industry,
> I'm not confident that ANY current payware offering
> will still be available/sup****ted 2 years from now.
> 

Been there. After the acqusition OrCAD has IMHO never achieved the 
robustness of the old SDT version :-(

So I switched to Eagle but my hopes that V5 would finally bring a 
hierarchical sheet structure have been dashed. Didn't happen. That is 
IMHO a huge shortcoming of this CAD software. So I am looking as well. 
Again.


> Depending on your needs, there are several GPL'd offerings:
> http://kicad.sourceforge.net
> http://geda.seul.org
(Often called *Windoze-hostile*
> --though there _are_ folks using it under Windoze.)
> 

I just installed gEDA inside a Sun VirtualBox engine. Haven't had much 
time to kick the tires yet but all the things I did try with gschem made 
me like it more and more. Just don't bet on too many cor****ate users. 
Then again that's the case with most CAD systems. The chance for a 
consultant like me to encounter a client who uses the same CAD are 
pretty slim although it did happen on occasion.


> http://www.freepcb.com
(Requires seperate capture app[1])
> http://tinycad.sourceforge.net
(Requires seperate capture app[1])
> 
> Even if there are time-efficiency gains, for several weeks
> learning the interface/quirks of a new app will eat those up.
> .
> .
> [1] LTspice produces compatible netlists.


LTSpice is one of them best things that could have happened to us since 
the invention of sliced bread but the schematic capture part of it is, 
ahem, a bit rough. My design last week contains >580 parts. I can't 
imagine doing something like that with LTSpice.

-- 
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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