My Autodesk Eagle forum replies stopped posting, so posted here.

Hi Tom,

Your post has made it to this forum and also the Autodesk forum. FYI, I don't think "ADresden" got your other posts killed as he's got no influence in that respect, he's an EAGLE user like many others on that forum. I have no idea why it would be that you were unable to continue to post on that thread. I did see quite a few posts from both yourself and "ADresden", culminating with Jorge Garcia (who is an Autodesk (former CADSoft) tech support employee) asking for the comments on the thread to calm down before things got out of hand as he believed it was starting to get to the point where the next step was personal insults. I don't know if any action was taken to lock down that thread, but I believe if it had been then it would have been posted up and/or you would have been notified in some way.

I understand your concerns with the new subscription model, there are many people who share it. I personally haven't subscribed yet and am sticking with v7 while I see how things go in terms of features and stability. The thing is for me, the alternatives are all a lot more expensive, especially when factoring in ongoing support. The choices for me would be Altium Designer, Mentor xDxDesigner/PADS or OrCAD. None of these are cross platform though which is a big deal for me. And they cost a fortune, even the ongoing 12-month support contracts to enable future updates cost more than EAGLE, which leaves KiCAD which I have looked at and decided it isn't for me.

Your circumstances as a maker are clearly different than mine, or indeed "ADresden". Don't let a disagreement with that one person put you off that forum, there are a lot of good people on there too. I hope that EAGLE will continue to improve, and you never know, they might tweak the subscription model at some point I guess if they see a part of the market their sales are weak in.

With regard to how it performs when your subscription lapses. You can still open and run CAM on existing designs and you can edit them within the confines of the free license so you aren't totally without the ability to update if the subscription is lapsed. It's also not as expensive for your 4-layer boards as you initially were thinking you'd need a Premium subscription but it sounds like you might only need Standard so long as your boards fit within 4-layer and 160cm^2 (note it's now area based rather than fixed max dimensions). There is an upgrade deal on I believe which I think is a 1-year subscription for half price. So maybe you could try out a 1-year subscription of Standard and see how you get on as that's way cheaper with that deal than taking out a monthly subscription in the first year.

Anyway, if you decide EAGLE isn't for you anymore then that's absolutely fine. There are others who feel the same way about the new model. Good luck with whatever you choose, and if you stick with EAGLE I will no doubt speak to you again on the EAGLE forums in the future.

Best Wishes,

Rachael

Hi Tom,

Your post has made it to this forum and also the Autodesk forum. FYI, I don't think "ADresden" got your other posts killed as he's got no influence in that respect, he's an EAGLE user like many others on that forum. I have no idea why it would be that you were unable to continue to post on that thread. I did see quite a few posts from both yourself and "ADresden", culminating with Jorge Garcia (who is an Autodesk (former CADSoft) tech support employee) asking for the comments on the thread to calm down before things got out of hand as he believed it was starting to get to the point where the next step was personal insults. I don't know if any action was taken to lock down that thread, but I believe if it had been then it would have been posted up and/or you would have been notified in some way.

I understand your concerns with the new subscription model, there are many people who share it. I personally haven't subscribed yet and am sticking with v7 while I see how things go in terms of features and stability. The thing is for me, the alternatives are all a lot more expensive, especially when factoring in ongoing support. The choices for me would be Altium Designer, Mentor xDxDesigner/PADS or OrCAD. None of these are cross platform though which is a big deal for me. And they cost a fortune, even the ongoing 12-month support contracts to enable future updates cost more than EAGLE, which leaves KiCAD which I have looked at and decided it isn't for me.

Your circumstances as a maker are clearly different than mine, or indeed "ADresden". Don't let a disagreement with that one person put you off that forum, there are a lot of good people on there too. I hope that EAGLE will continue to improve, and you never know, they might tweak the subscription model at some point I guess if they see a part of the market their sales are weak in.

With regard to how it performs when your subscription lapses. You can still open and run CAM on existing designs and you can edit them within the confines of the free license so you aren't totally without the ability to update if the subscription is lapsed. It's also not as expensive for your 4-layer boards as you initially were thinking you'd need a Premium subscription but it sounds like you might only need Standard so long as your boards fit within 4-layer and 160cm^2 (note it's now area based rather than fixed max dimensions). There is an upgrade deal on I believe which I think is a 1-year subscription for half price. So maybe you could try out a 1-year subscription of Standard and see how you get on as that's way cheaper with that deal than taking out a monthly subscription in the first year.

Anyway, if you decide EAGLE isn't for you anymore then that's absolutely fine. There are others who feel the same way about the new model. Good luck with whatever you choose, and if you stick with EAGLE I will no doubt speak to you again on the EAGLE forums in the future.

Best Wishes,

Rachael

     Hi Rachaelp,

     Thanks for the response. I was starting think no one disagreed with the new subscription model. I also will stick with V 7.7 for a while. I agree that KiCad isn't as nice as Eagle from the few tutorials I have watched. I prefer the three piece symbol, package, device model more than the KiCad model which requires mapping a symbol to foot print almost every time you want it in your design. I have seen a little bit of Dip Trace and it seems more like Eagle. Its cost is based on the holes/pads used. If you or any other eagle user have used Dip Trace, I would value their opinions.

    Tom