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CadSoft EAGLE development team developing XML format for schematic, layout and parts libraries!

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hello makers -

 

this is my first post here, i'm the senior editor at MAKE magazine and also the creative director at adafruit. i've been part of a growing movement called "open-source hardware" for the last 5 years or so. today we just got some great news from the CadSoft EAGLE development team about the their long term commitment to text based file formats in the world of electronics development. with their permission i am posting this here and on MAKE (as well as adafruit). it's extremely exciting for those of us who wanted an XML format for files and we're thrilled CadSoft EAGLE has said they're committed to it!

 

here's the overview of what we learned:

 

  • CadSoft EAGLE (our preferred schematic/layout software) has told us they are committed to a text based format in the long term.
  • The CadSoft EAGLE development team is developing a new format for schematic, layout and parts libraries that is XML, this means every object and line will be written out in text description.
  • You won't have to worry about binary file corruption, you will be able to hand-edit or generate schematics and layouts and of course the magic of version-control (such as github) will be easier than ever with real text 'diff's!
  • This will be a fully documented format and also of course a converter for old CadSoft EAGLE binary-type formats.

 

 

this is a great direction and i encourage you to support EAGLE as you decide which tools to use now and in the future. but that's not all, i've chatted with the element-14 folks and they're all set up for your feedback, if they're very interested in Maker voices their product development. so here's your chance folks!

 

cheers,

pt

Parents

  • I moved over to gEDA back in '03 and while it is cool to see vendors now distribute part footprints and symbols in Eagle format I really want a compatable option. While I am really happy to see CadSoft sticking there neck out on this  thing I have to wonder why I took so long? Why didn't it happen the same way gerber format did? I can see how no cad vendor wanted it because vendor lock in has a lot of appeal to them. Next we need a wikipedia like thing with all the various footprint files with written discriptions and compatability charts.

     

    I have been frequenctly irritated by the amount of open source  hardware that has it's schematics distributed in Eagle's binary format. I know the user interface for gEDA is an aquired tast and I am not trying to push it on everyone but I think the symbol file format which it text based is worth a group look. The footprint file format that PCB uses is nice but it lacks a lot of things I would really like. I hope they don't just try to build one giant format. I would rather see seperate XML formats for part footprint, mechanical 3d info, symbol, schematic and so on.

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  • I moved over to gEDA back in '03 and while it is cool to see vendors now distribute part footprints and symbols in Eagle format I really want a compatable option. While I am really happy to see CadSoft sticking there neck out on this  thing I have to wonder why I took so long? Why didn't it happen the same way gerber format did? I can see how no cad vendor wanted it because vendor lock in has a lot of appeal to them. Next we need a wikipedia like thing with all the various footprint files with written discriptions and compatability charts.

     

    I have been frequenctly irritated by the amount of open source  hardware that has it's schematics distributed in Eagle's binary format. I know the user interface for gEDA is an aquired tast and I am not trying to push it on everyone but I think the symbol file format which it text based is worth a group look. The footprint file format that PCB uses is nice but it lacks a lot of things I would really like. I hope they don't just try to build one giant format. I would rather see seperate XML formats for part footprint, mechanical 3d info, symbol, schematic and so on.

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