Domain: inpg.fr
Stories and comments across the archive that link to inpg.fr.
Comments · 6
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Re:Final cut pro == sad
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Re:The problem is with the programs then, not the
i doubt its doing anything with the registry or program files, as it's just an "unzip somewhere and run" and runs on linux as well.
we use it as it plays nice with our PCB mill and its software. it saves us from having to manually screw around with the gerber files.
this is the site for it here http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/ -
Re:CAD Tools
http://www.cadsoft.de/Cadsoft Eagle
If you look for it, you can find it, and if you can't find it, I'm sure you can use the money you don't use on microsoft licenses to make your own program that does it. -
I am for REAL, yo!... FOSS REAL
Re-post.
MUCS-PCB = FOSS autorouter (2-16 layers) [netlist in... gerber out] - over 20 years of development: started in 1985
KiCAD = FOSS complete EDA work-flow, with text save-files, so you can automate footprint and symbols creation (isn't this what BSDL files are meant for? -- how complex do you want your symbols)
http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/apt/projects/tools/ mucs-pcb/
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
OK... above solution requires some upfront setup, but if you dont have the skill and time to code a few scripts, you should probably buy professional tools like DXP Designer or OrCAD.
Good luck. -
Re:Software isn't the only open entityDon't be so pessimistic. Some people give back to the community in forms other than cash and software. Maybe if [she] designs something useful, [she'll] share it with the world. Commercial tools present a high barrier for entry to the hobbyist, which discourages open source hardware.
And this is precisely why I asked about an open source replacement. It's one thing to pay for a product if you're going to use it to make money. It's a far different thing to expect to pay the same money for a product only to use it for hobby work.
I design gadgets for the Commodore 64/128, and a quick estimate shows that at the prices I've seen around the web in the last few days, I would spend more on the software alone than I would spend on making one production-ready unit of every board I've designed since I started fiddling with this stuff (that's only about 10 unique designs), and if I tried to sell, there's no way I'd ever break even. Several years ago there was a slim chance, but today, forget about it. Today, all of the stuff I write or design is free and open source, and stuff I have written in the past I have since declared free also (where the source code still exists). I think that fits anyone's definition of "giving back." I must stress - I do not program for Linux, just Commodore.
Oh, and to the other gentlemen who have mentioned auto-routing and other high-end features as being too much to ask of FOSS, let me see..
- PCB, the very PCB editor I started with years ago, is a nice board editor with autorouter (which I have yet to use) and some other nice features, but that's only half of the needed setup.
- KiCAD has a decent schematic editor, 3D viewer, and some other stuff, but it just has problems on my box (apparently poor integration, very slow board editor, crashy).
- gEDA attempts to integrate PCB with schematic capture and other tools, but it's buggy on my setup (missing config files in Ubuntu, schematic doesn't get translated over to the board properly, no component-onto-board auto-place function to go with the schematic capture)
- gschem2xpcb looks like it would fill in well to convert those gEDA/gSchem schematics over to PCB in a way similar to Eagle's autoplace feature, but this is just a stand-alone command-line program with only the one function, and the author seems have a major aversion to the GPL. *shrug*
- The GIMP of course has tons of features and a really nice UI, and in particular it has vector graphics capabilities and multiple layers, but of course it's not adapted for PCB/schematic work.
- Eagle, for this particular list, has wonderful parts libraries (for which utilities exist to convert these to other formats) and good integration between schematic and board, but it has some serious screen refresh bugs, plus the aforementioned 4x3 inch board size limit.
Along with these, every other open source program I've looked into has at least one of the features I need. I was just hoping for a program that combines all of these already-existing, already written features into one Eagle-killing FOSS program.
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KiCAD looks good
KiCAD Check it out.
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/