DipTrace

On Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:06:30 +1100, Zoltán Kócsi

<zoltan@bendor.com.au> wrote:

One possibility would be DipTrace, which on the surface seems to do

everything that Eagle can do and it's pricetag is at the same league.

 

So I just wonder whether someone had some experience with it and could

compare it to Eagle, pros/cons, better at this, worse at that style?

I don't know that program at all so I can't comment specifically.  But

here is the problem when you "go off the reservation".  Before it was

assassinated, Eagle was the defacto standard for amateurs and small to

medium size commercial operations.  The board houses we're likely to

use know Eagle and know the common mistakes people make.  If you use

any other package, you're on your own.  You send them the Gerbers and

if they do any checking at all, it's for very obvious things such as

crossed traces.

However.

Things have changed.  Since Eagle was murdered, board houses like

Seeed.com and the major open source hardware sites have included

KiCAD, the new defacto standard.  Among the advantages:

• It's free and Open Source software so it can never be taken away

from you.

• Its development has been commercially financed by CERN for the past

couple of years and it shows.  It is now good enough to do commercial

work with.  I've just finished the main board for my company's latest

induction heater.  A complex board with about 400 components including

a 100 pin flat pack with 0.5mm pin spacing.

• of the board houses I've checked with, most all now know KiCAD.

• Once you get used to KiCAD's idiosyncrasies (no worse than Eagle's),

you'll never have to re-learn again.  And you'll never have to pay for

PCB CAD software again.

John

John DeArmond

http://www.neon-john.com

http://www.tnduction.com

Tellico Plains, Occupied TN

See website for email address

On Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:06:30 +1100, Zoltán Kócsi

<zoltan@bendor.com.au> wrote:

One possibility would be DipTrace, which on the surface seems to do

everything that Eagle can do and it's pricetag is at the same league.

 

So I just wonder whether someone had some experience with it and could

compare it to Eagle, pros/cons, better at this, worse at that style?

I don't know that program at all so I can't comment specifically.  But

here is the problem when you "go off the reservation".  Before it was

assassinated, Eagle was the defacto standard for amateurs and small to

medium size commercial operations.  The board houses we're likely to

use know Eagle and know the common mistakes people make.  If you use

any other package, you're on your own.  You send them the Gerbers and

if they do any checking at all, it's for very obvious things such as

crossed traces.

However.

Things have changed.  Since Eagle was murdered, board houses like

Seeed.com and the major open source hardware sites have included

KiCAD, the new defacto standard.  Among the advantages:

• It's free and Open Source software so it can never be taken away

from you.

• Its development has been commercially financed by CERN for the past

couple of years and it shows.  It is now good enough to do commercial

work with.  I've just finished the main board for my company's latest

induction heater.  A complex board with about 400 components including

a 100 pin flat pack with 0.5mm pin spacing.

• of the board houses I've checked with, most all now know KiCAD.

• Once you get used to KiCAD's idiosyncrasies (no worse than Eagle's),

you'll never have to re-learn again.  And you'll never have to pay for

PCB CAD software again.

John

John DeArmond

http://www.neon-john.com

http://www.tnduction.com

Tellico Plains, Occupied TN

See website for email address