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How can I buy a less expensive version of Eagle that supports narrow PCBs with length>160mm?

Justynb

I'm an independent design engineer, and quite a few of the boards that I design have strips of LEDs on them. This means fairly long, narrow PCBs.

 

I would like to use Eagle for these kinds of designs (currently I use an open source suite called gEDA). Unfortunately due to the way Eagle limits its Standard edition, I would be forced to buy the Professional edition, which costs around £1300 (including tax), because some boards are longer than 160mm.

 

The standard edition of eagle permits a board size of 160mmx100mm. None of the boards I design are bigger than that by area, but some are longer than the 160mm. For example, by far my biggest board so far was 18mm x 480mm. If I were to break it up it would fit inside that 160x100mm rectangle, taking up only half the space. And that's my biggest project! Also, I never use more than 4 layers, so don't need the 16 that Pro offers.

 

So I feel very frustrated that Eagle size restrictions aren't calculated using the total area instead of a fixed rectangle.

 

Another approach I considered was to buy separate modules. After all, I don't need the extra schematic sheets, so I could buy the standard version of the Schematic module and the Pro version of Layout. But no, apparently you can't mix and match modules. I don't really understand why they price them separately - why would someone buy only the Layout module if they could not use schematics with it?

 

I don't use the autorouter very often (and only for smaller boards anyway), but I don't want to spend £1000 on the pro version without autorouter because of the times I do use it.

 

So I feel stuck. I want to buy the Standard version but with the size restriction calculated more flexibly. Alternatively, I would like a cheaper way to get hold of the Professional edition.

 

Any ideas?

 

Lastly, I don't suppose anyone knows if the upcoming version 6 has its  restrictions or prices calculated differently? Who could I contact that  might know?

 

Justyn.

 

ps. Thanks in advance, and sorry if this post came across as grumpy - I'm just frustrated!

  • 0

    Hi Justyn,

     

    Here's the skinny on the pricing:

     

    - You can't mix and match modules of different editions, so for example you can't get a Standard Schematic and a Pro Layout. It's either all Standard or all Pro.

    - Version 6 has no changes in this respect, Light and Standard limitations will be exactly the same.

    - The modules can be purchased seperately because we do have users who only buy the Layout, you'd be suprised, some users only make very simple boards and they only wish to purchase the Layout module(I personally try to recommend getting both schematic and board layout, since working with the layout alone leaves room for errors since there's no forward or backward consistency to speak of).

     

    LED boards are simple from an electrical standpoint so you may be able to simply design the boards in pieces using the standard version and then maybe talk to your board house so that they can join the gerbers together to form the final board. It's a pain but it is a way.

     

    I hope this helps you.

     

    Best Regards,

    Jorge Garcia