Best way to upgrade

Around 2003 I spent a few months designing with the free version of Eagle before taking the plunge and buying the full version. I had to upgrade when they changed the library structure. I still design a lot of circuits and boards with Eagle using my old version, but have not used any of the versions introduced after they moved to a subscription based license.

Out of all the new users that start with a free CAD tool, only a fixed small percentage will ever switch to a paid version. Autodesk may increase this percentage somewhat by keeping the initial cost low, but it is important that a decent free version is available, otherwise new users will choose a different tool and follow a different upgrade path. The company with the best free tool is going to have a larger base from which to gain paying converts.

Unfortunately, the subscription method doesn't appeal to me and I will likely never use it, even though newer versions of Eagle have some nice new features.

I really like EAGLE, and tried hard to see if I could work with the pricing model, since I wanted the engineers to get paid well.

But, from a perception perspective alone, the model is quite bad for hobbyists : ( I really wanted a decent pricing model for 4-layer hobbyists (such as those who have grown up with EAGLE perhaps).

Having to subscribe and unsubscribe for 4-layer is going to always be seen as cost-inefficient (and inconvenient having to remember switching subscriptions off) because hobbyists are unlikely to make full use of it for an entire month. So that could leave hobbyists feeling they are not getting value for money.

They are basically falling in a gap where they get considered and fully charged as commercial users, which they're not : (

I've no issue paying for other software including modern rental software, and including older licensing models like upgrades,

but prefer those where there is less inconvenience, and fairer for hobbyists.

Some RF software manufacturer charges $30 per year, so I pay that, it seems fair for hobbyists.

$15 per month for EAGLE seems unfair considering that's not a hobbyist amount, that's for commercial. I fully understand they need to draw the line somwhere, and unfortunately for some of us, the line is in the wrong place, and it is what it is : ( For this reason, although I still keep up-to-date with what EAGLE features there are, I feel I cannot upgrade for hobbyist use any more : (

Matlab makes on average £30-40 a year from me, since I don't upgrade every year, I'll skip some years. That's £30-40 more than they otherwise would make, since I'd move off to (say) Gnu Octave if the cost was much higher.

Same with other Adobe stuff like Lightroom, I preferred upgrading every few years when it was convenient for me, and not paying for every release, but I cannot do that now. So I've moved off that, to Capture One, even though it costs more initially, I'll average less per year until I eventually upgrade to the latest version.

Hi Rachael, rachaelp

Yes, that's right and true.

Many smaller companies may not use such CAD programs every day. So a subscription scheme, especially if you need several tools "at the same time", can quickly become expensive.Smaller companies may also have other offerings or services, so working alone with CAD programs can be costly rather than money-making.

For me e.g., I also offer building of prototype modules, or programming of Microcontroller controlled modules. Then every day of the year is valuable considering Eagle-CAD.

Yes, we remember what discussions we had here at E14 in the Autodesk Community back then.

geralds  wrote:

 

AD was or is extremely expensive with its software tools every time.

 

...

 

Then you need a full version. Well, then the price shoots up like a rocket.

I don't think EAGLE is particularly expensive, If you do commercial work and want the standard version it's £114/year, if you need the premium version it's £600/year. For hobby work then it's possibly a bit steep for the premium version, but it was never free for the equivalents of these pre-subscription either. Compare the premium version to the likes of Mentor and Altium and you can get many seats for the cost of just one of the market leaders. Yes it doesn't do quite everything they do, but it's getting a lot closer. I understand why some people don't like the subscription but nobody can accuse Autodesk of creaming the profits from EAGLE and not putting the effort in to update the software, compare 9.5 to 7.6 (pre Autodesk) and it's night and day in terms of capability.

Yes, it seems so.

The licensing scheme is a blocking wall for many old-Eagle user.

AD was or is extremely expensive with its software tools every time.

With the free version of Eagle you can do everything with its functions which you can do with the premium version, but you have no adequate routing space on the PCB (80x100mm, with 2 signal layer).

So, if you like mounting a "large" device, e.g. a 100 pin SMD IC with its components, the placing space will be overflow very quickly.

Then you need a full version. Well, then the price shoots up like a rocket.

Real numbers are hard to come by. The last numbers I saw indicate Eagle has a small market share by revenue numbers, but it has orders of magnitude more users than big names like Mentor, Cadence and Altium. (because of its decent free package) Presumably AutoCad is trying to convert all those users into paying customers with novel licensing schemes. Unfortunately they risk losing some of the user base in the process.

autodeskguest  wrote:

 

I don't use the AD versions

It's a shame more of the long time users of the original EAGLE like yourself aren't using the newer AD versions, your experience and support on the main AD forums would be very valuable and I'm sure if you could look past the licensing (which I assume is your reason for not using it), it's actually really really good now. It's like old EAGLE on steroids, the last few releases in particular have been big jumps up in functionality.

Best Regards,

Rachael

On 31/08/2019 08:35, Joern Paschedag wrote:

 

I don't use the AD versions but think that this parameter still exist.

Check documentation.

Yes, it still exists, and is very useful for having V9, V8, V7 and V5

all available on the same PC, in case I need to work on an old design

and don't want to convert it.

Thanks Gerald. You answered my question.

Am 13.10.2016 um 15:55 schrieb Joel Santos Rico:

Hi,

 

The default behaviour of Eagle is to keep old versions of eagle when you update. Is not really a problem, as it is not hughe program, but it's a tad annoying when I click an old link pointing to an old version or I double click on a file and it opens in the old version because the file association has not updated. Why is this the default behaviour? I also noted that in my projects there is a file called Eagle.epf, which lists the libraries in use in my project, and the default libraries still point to old versions of them, as in for example:

 

...

UsedLibrary="C:/EAGLE-7.6.0/lbr/19inch.lbr"

UsedLibrary="C:/EAGLE-7.6.0/lbr/40xx.lbr"

UsedLibrary="C:/EAGLE-7.6.0/lbr/41xx.lbr"

UsedLibrary="C:/EAGLE-7.6.0/lbr/45xx.lbr"

...

 

Do I have to check all my projects every time I upgrade and update to the new paths? Is that the way this is intended to be? I was wondering if there is a less cumbersome way to update.

 

Thanks for taking the time to check my problem.

 

regards,

 

Joel

 

Unfortunately you didn't mention your version of eagle nor your OS.

Talking of win. There is an U-parameter that one can use to point to the

eagle.exe file, i.e.

E:EAGLE-5.12.0\bin\eagle.exe -U E:\Eagle-5.12.0\eaglerc-512.usr

F:\EAGLE-6.6.0\bin\eagle.exe -U F:\Eagle-6.6.0\eaglerc-660.usr

The file can have any name. I put them into the correspondent eagle

version and name it i.e. "eaglerc-660.usr" instead of the original

"eaglerc.usr" which is the name normally in EVERY eagle version (and

causes problems).

First part is the pointer to "eagle.exe" which is located in sub

directory "bin", second part is the location of xxx.usr, in my case in

the eagle main directory.

I don't use the AD versions but think that this parameter still exist.

Check documentation.

--

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With best regards

Joern Paschedag