Eagle license

Bien le bonjour!

That is the question here. I'm on Eagle 7.7, and even if I cheat a little (I have a teacher's licence), I know that I can use my schematics even a few years later. I'm interested in Eagle 8, but some people don't want to switch for the new licence system. What if you create all your work, and the you can no longer access them? The argument is currently on-going from what I can tell, people have asked to be able to at least have read-only rights on the work they have created.

The new licence is good: If you only need to create boards for 3 months, then only pay for 3 months. In the end, it saves people like me lots of money.

The new licence is bad: Some of the people here (mainly the top members) have their own company, and if they can't access what they have created for whatever reason (if ever the software company goes down, don't laugh, it has happened), then they lose their work, with potentially disastrous results.

Wait a few days, there should be more answers soon.

Bien le bonjour!

That is the question here. I'm on Eagle 7.7, and even if I cheat a little (I have a teacher's licence), I know that I can use my schematics even a few years later. I'm interested in Eagle 8, but some people don't want to switch for the new licence system. What if you create all your work, and the you can no longer access them? The argument is currently on-going from what I can tell, people have asked to be able to at least have read-only rights on the work they have created.

The new licence is good: If you only need to create boards for 3 months, then only pay for 3 months. In the end, it saves people like me lots of money.

The new licence is bad: Some of the people here (mainly the top members) have their own company, and if they can't access what they have created for whatever reason (if ever the software company goes down, don't laugh, it has happened), then they lose their work, with potentially disastrous results.

Wait a few days, there should be more answers soon.

thierry pottier wrote:

 

it is month or year to get the last update version.

You have options of monthly, or 1, 2 or 3 years for the subscription period and the average annual cost goes down with longer subscription periods.

thierry pottier wrote:

 

ok but if you stop to paid can you use the last paid version to work after period?

No, if you stop you subscription then you will no longer have entitlement to the full capabilities of the version you paid for. I believe the software will revert to the freeware license in this situation so you will still be able to view your designs and run CAM jobs etc but you will only be able to edit within the capabilities of the freeware licence.

thierry pottier wrote:

 

Before the update was after 3 years +- and about same price but ifyou must paid every year it is expensive.

Yes, depending on how you use EAGLE and what license you had previously for some it would work out more, some less.

There are now options for monthly, or 1, 2 or 3 years. The longer the subscription you take the lower the average annual cost becomes.

There are some improvements in the licensing coming. The main one being in the next release which I believe is due out soon, the Standard edition will have it's layer count increased to 4-layers instead of just 2-layers. I think having a way to allow 6-layers would be beneficial for a lot of people.

Another improvement is that the size restriction is now based on board area rather than the fixed dimensions of 100mm x 160mm of the previous versions. This opens up the possibility of taller or wider boards so long as they still fitted within the restrictions of the overall board area.

An idea I had was the concept of "maximum routing area" in which it would be possible to trade board area for layers and vice versa. That way you could have a smaller board with more layers or a larger board with less layers so long as the total routing area stayed within the limit of the equivalent routing area of a 160cm^2 4-layer board. I don't know if there would be other implications for this though so they may need to add in additional scaling factors in the trade off between area and layers. I guess this is one to put to Autodesk and see what they think.

Best Regards,

Rachael

thierry pottier wrote:

 

ok but if you stop to paid can you use the last paid version to work after period?

No, if you stop you subscription then you will no longer have entitlement to the full capabilities of the version you paid for. I believe the software will revert to the freeware license in this situation so you will still be able to view your designs and run CAM jobs etc but you will only be able to edit within the capabilities of the freeware licence.

Hi Rachael,

wow,...

No?!!! If so, as you explained, then there will be an absolut catastrophic situation like "Tschernobyls atomic explosion" !

Then in this meaning AutoDesk says to its customers: "pay or kill your company!"

That would be a punishment of loyal customers and absolute extortion!

What I can believe is, that the license period ends and thereafter with the latest current state of the software updates that you can work with.

Yesterday i thought the same about and wanted to asking here.

Well the TO was a little bit faster writing this question.

So i hope the AutoDesk support reads this thread.

Another improvement is that the size restriction is now based on board area rather than the fixed dimensions of 100mm x 160mm of the previous versions. This opens up the possibility of taller or wider boards so long as they still fitted within the restrictions of the overall board area.

 

An idea I had was the concept of "maximum routing area" in which it would be possible to trade board area for layers and vice versa. That way you could have a smaller board with more layers or a larger board with less layers so long as the total routing area stayed within the limit of the equivalent routing area of a 160cm^2 4-layer board

 

What you here say, i hope i understand you: "Standard" ... "what is standard?"" - well...

Past since with the Eagle 6 version the standard was a PCB with dimension of 160x100 mm with up to 6 layers.

!! Now, the standard is a PCB with 160x100mm with 2 layers.

Wow, what a retrograde step!

What is the standard today in the 21. centaury? All other CAD company have other standards than Cadsoft, ähm, AutoDesk.

e.g. Target:

If you are a customer of PCB-POOL you can get Target free of cost!

https://www.pcb-pool.com/ppuk/service_downloads.html

Look there what you can do with this CAD!!! well all what can do Eagle and more - free of cost.

e.g. RS-Components DesignSpark:

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/pcb-software

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/mechanical-software

https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electrical-software

Three tools absolute free of cost.

I think a little bit more would be fine. We are not hobbyists we are qualified technician.

Best Regards

Gerald

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Gerald Schwarz wrote:

 

 

thierry pottier wrote:

 

ok but if you stop to paid can you use the last paid version to work after period?

No, if you stop you subscription then you will no longer have entitlement to the full capabilities of the version you paid for. I believe the software will revert to the freeware license in this situation so you will still be able to view your designs and run CAM jobs etc but you will only be able to edit within the capabilities of the freeware licence.

Hi Rachael,

 

wow,...

No?!!! If so, as you explained, then there will be an absolut catastrophic situation like "Tschernobyls atomic explosion" !

Hi Gerald,

This is how I believe it to be but I don't work for Autodesk, I am just a user like yourself so cannot say 100% for sure. Maybe wait until Jorge or Richard are online to confirm one way or another if this statement is now causing panic...

My statement is referring to v8 and onwards only of course. Any existing earlier versions prior to going subscription will continue to work.

Best Regards,

Rachael

Like Rachel, I'm not connected, and not sure of the situation. That being said, I am already in that sort of situation. I don't "own" Microsoft Office (well, I do, but a 2003 version). I'm renting their software, for 10€ a month I can install Office on the 5 family computers. They day I stop paying, that's it, no more editing. In a way, we don't care as much, since we can open Word files (or at least access the contents) in other programs like Libreoffice. However, they day I did have a licence problem (caused by me, not by Microsoft), then everything turned to read-only. I could still access my files, I could print, but no editing, and no saving. Enough for me to contact clients and let me work through the day, until I managed to update my licence, then everything turned to read-write. You can install Office without a licence, you just need access to the installer. You can run it without a licence, you just won't be able to do anything with it. That isn't documented, and while I don't rely on Eagle for the business I run, I do rely on Office, and I would have liked this information to be available; what happens if the world ends? That is what seems to worry people with Eagle. The best way, I suppose, is to try the kill switch and see what happens. I can't, I have a problem with my licence, but once that is sorted out, I'll try.

rachaelp wrote:

My statement is referring to v8 and onwards only of course. Any existing earlier versions prior to going subscription will continue to work.

Eagle users have been used to the old licensing model and it has been the very

strong point of Eagle.

I would be quite happy if one year subscription would include old style license

locked to the major version of the relevant major version.  This would encourage

Autodesk to keep developing Eagle and make Eagle more affordable in reality,

not just in some "Alternate Reality".  Of course this might be less than

Autodesk now expects to get with the current model, but it certainly would be

more than current fiasco, when its effects come to reality in lack of subscriptions.

On 25.01.2017 12:46, rachaelp wrote:

Gerald Schwarz wrote:

 

thierry pottier wrote:

 

ok but if you stop to paid can you use the last paid version to work after period?

No, if you stop you subscription then you will no longer have entitlement to the full capabilities of the version you paid for. I believe the software will revert to the freeware license in this situation so you will still be able to view your designs and run CAM jobs etc but you will only be able to edit within the capabilities of the freeware licence.

Hi Rachael,

 

wow,...

No?!!! If so, as you explained, then there will be an absolut catastrophic situation like "Tschernobyls atomic explosion" !

Hi Gerald,

 

This is how I believe it to be but I don't work for Autodesk, I am just a user like yourself so cannot say 100% for sure. Maybe wait until Jorge or Richard are online to confirm one way or another if this statement is now causing panic...

 

My statement is referring to v8 and onwards only of course. Any existing earlier versions prior to going subscription will continue to work.

 

Best Regards,

 

Rachael

 

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Hi,

Rachael is correct. As soon as you decide to stop the subscription

your entitlement will end and EAGLE will be useable as Free edition.

So you will be able to create manufacturing data, print it, cerate bills

of materials....and so on. Yo can edit your projects within the

limits of the Free license.  This all is valid for V8 onwards.

Earlier licenses are perpetual licenses. You have you license file and

personal installation code and can work with it.

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Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Best regards

Richard Hammerl -- EAGLE Support

Gerald Schwarz wrote:

 

What you here say, i hope i understand you: "Standard" ... "what is standard?"" - well...

Past since with the Eagle 6 version the standard was a PCB with dimension of 160x100 mm with up to 6 layers.

 

!! Now, the standard is a PCB with 160x100mm with 2 layers.

Wow, what a retrograde step!

I agree that the 2-layer restriction was way too low. Autodesk agree and the next release will increase this to 4-layers I believe.

Earlier versions of EAGLE before v8 had the 160mm x 100mm restriction in the dimensions. v8 changes this to the equivalent area so you can have any dimension of board you like so long as it fits within 160 square cm. This is a definite improvement I think.

The final bit from where you quoted me was a further extension idea I had that I think they could do and I think it would solve a lot of issues if it went a step further to be "maximum routing area".

Best Regards,

Rachael

And that has to be the clearest answer I've read. Spot on, and answers the worries that I had. No licence, no edition, but I can still use my files. Thanks for the answer, Richard!

Yes, i thought too.

But you cannot reroute the wires if something was wrong on your PCB after expiring the license period.

This means: "close your company".

Gerald

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I believe Richard also mentioned this:

"So you will be able to create manufacturing data, print it, cerate bills of materials....and so on. Yo can edit your

projects within the limits of the Free license."

I'm using the free version of V8 to evaluate it and I can edit any of my V6.6 designs that fit within the limits of the

free version.

Eric

On 01/25/2017 07:38 AM, Gerald Schwarz wrote:

Yes, i thought too.

But you cannot reroute the wires if something was wrong on your PCB after expiring the license period.

 

This means: "close your company".

 

Gerald

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