Schematic/PCB Design for Linux?

VanessaDannenberg asks: "Occasionally, I have been known to design the occasional circuit board. I've been using Eagle, but with the board size limit of 3x4 inches in the free version, and a $400 price tag to exceed this limit, it is time to consider a Free Open Source Software alternative. Not being a Linux programmer myself, I have checked into and ruled out gEDA, KiCAD, Electric, XCircuit, and a host of others as being too incomplete to replace Eagle. My requirements are pretty basic: Draw a schematic, make a board out of it, edit and autoroute it, export to Gerber, and do it all natively within Linux. So, with this in mind, what suggestions do you folks have?"

Re:$400? Get real

[Intron]

Note that he's also asking for a free autorouter! While you're at it, why not ask for a free 21" color monitor? For a library, router, gerber out and everything on your list, $400 is peanuts. Its paid off on one board design.

The free way to do this is get a resist pen and blank copper-clad and just draw your circuit right on it.

This is what pisses me off...

[RingDev]

about the whole open source movement.

"$400 price tag to exceed this limit, it is time to consider a Free Open Source Software alternative."

So in other words, you're not willing to pay the programmers who support their families for this product, and you are not willing to donate anything to an Open Source project.

You sir, are a leech. You want a product for free, not because of a moral issue, a desire for community support, accessible developers, or any other OS reason. No, you want an OS product because your greedy little heart wants something for free.

-Rick

A little over the top? maybe, but I've had a crappy week. I'm going to go home, get drunk, and forget the last 4 Mondays.

Hmmm... sounds like your priorities are a bit off

[rco3]

I'd try to feel sorry for you, but having just spent $775 to get the full-on Professional version of Eagle (with Linux and OS X licenses), I just can't muster any pity. I earn money by using Eagle. You can get a 100mm x 160mm, 4 layer version of Eagle for $125, as long as you aren't making a profit using it. If you are making a profit with it, either you can afford to upgrade to a for-profit version, or else you aren't charging enough for your work. You can also upgrade at any time with full credit for previous versions.

Now, I'm sure that all the gEDA people will tell you that you can help make their project do all you need it to... but I'm not really a programmer, nor do I have the time to become one - I'm busy earning money to feed my baby. I've contributed (a very small amount of) code to the kernel, I've contributed financially to open-source projects... but there isn't always a viable open-source solution to your software needs. That's when you need to pay someone for software that already works.

You want to design boards using Linux, you probably need to be using Eagle. Sorry. Consider either a) using the non-profit version or b) getting the for-profit version but not the autorouter - Eagle's is very good indeed (FAR better than Protel's, IMHO), but you'll almost always get better results hand-routing anyway.

Frankly, even at $400 Eagle is a bargain.

Time to evaluate what your time is worth

[stevesliva]

When I find myself using some crappy free version of software that I know I can just buy, I often just wish I'd spent the money and saved the time.

If you're designing PCBs, $400 should be chump change-- right? I'm used to EDA packages that cost well over six figures per seat.

Re:This is what pisses me off...

[Anonymous Coward]

No -- people regularly spend much more than $400 on hobbies, including hobbies that take up far less of their time than designing and fabricating a > 4x3 circuit board. I'd bet that this person has spent a great deal of money on physical equipment and parts -- why doesn't software deserve the investment?

Re:This is what pisses me off...

[Hosiah]

A little over the top? maybe, but I've had a crappy week. I'm going to go home, get drunk, and forget the last 4 Mondays.

God, I hope you took double shots! Uh, lissen, we can't keep it free(freedom) without keeping it free(price). And we can't give it away and then cuss people out for accepting it.

We couldn't possibly fit all the users of every product into it's developer base, anyway. You'd spend 90% of the release cycle answering emails.

Re:$400? Get real

[Austerity Empowers]

I've never met a good autorouter, although I've only seen the Orcad one and whatever it is that's built into Allegro. In every place I've worked they've been forbidden to use with good reason.

There's some magical force at play where the more complex the board, where routing by hand gets more painful, the more likely an autorouter will screw you up and cause a respin. At home, if I'm going to pay hundreds out of pocket just to get the board fabbed I'd rather not risk it. (Cost aside, there's the agony of hand solder, the blatant bribery and/or questionable ethics of convincing our contract mfg that it's "part of our high volume project, do it for free, please?", and the difficulty convincing my wife I've got to spin again rather than buy that couch she wanted...)

Routing by hand is almost always better, and once you get good at it, doesn't take all that long. The thing that NEEDS automation is creating schematic symbols & footprints. For real now, there's just no excuse for that.

Re:This is what pisses me off...

[RingDev]

"God, I hope you took double shots!"

Workin on it.

"We couldn't possibly fit all the users of every product into it's developer base, anyway. You'd spend 90% of the release cycle answering emails."

Imagine having 90% of your users donate: Code, Money, Hosting, and/or Bug Reports. Wouldn't that be a dream!

-Rick