Re: Low cost PCB layout software

From: Leon Heller (aqzf13_at_dsl.pipex.com)
Date: 01/03/04 

Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2004 04:21:17 +0000

Ralph Malph wrote:
> I just wanted to let people know where I ended up. As I posted before,
> many of these packages are limited enough that I was not going to spend
> time to evaluate them without being able to do useful work. So the only
> package I actually tried is Eagle from Cadsoft. I am finding that it is
> very hard to learn, at least compared to what I expected. I can
> normally pick up tools very easily, but I find Eagle to be very, very
> counter intuitive and the "tutorial" is very limited.
>
> On the other hand, I have been getting some work done with this tool. I
> am finding that even though this is a very tiny board (.5" x .6")
> perhaps this was not such a simple task. The board is double sided with
> a very high component density. I also need to provide as much ground
> plane as possible to help spread the heat to use what little board area
> there is. So I am having to learn how to cover areas of the board with
> copper fill. In fact that is where I am currently stuck.
>
> The support newsgroups for this tool seem pretty good. One actually has
> Cadsoft people posting. So by reading what others have had trouble with
> and using a lot of patience, I expect I will get this design done after
> a while.
>
> Thanks to all who posted. If anyone knows of a tool that is more
> intuative, please let me know. Since board layout will be an occasional
> task for me, I expect I will have to relearn some of the tricker aspects
> of Eagle every time I use it. :)

EasyPC is *very* much easier to use than Eagle (it's a proper Windows
application), has fewer bugs and is cheaper. Pulsonix (out of the same
stable) is better for professional work.

Leon 

-- 
Leon Heller, G1HSM
Email: aqzf13@dsl.pipex.com
My low-cost Philips LPC210x ARM development system:
http://www.geocities.com/leon_heller/lpc2104.html

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Low cost PCB layout software
    ... many of these packages are limited enough that I was not going to spend ... package I actually tried is Eagle from Cadsoft. ... plane as possible to help spread the heat to use what little board area ... Cadsoft people posting. ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
  • Re: Low cost PCB layout software
    ... >many of these packages are limited enough that I was not going to spend ... >time to evaluate them without being able to do useful work. ... >package I actually tried is Eagle from Cadsoft. ... >plane as possible to help spread the heat to use what little board area ...
    (comp.arch.embedded)
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    ... Leon Heller wrote: ... EasyPC ... Eagle is Free (0 GBP) in its hobbyist configuration. ...
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    ... > Does anyone here have a software package to convert ... > EAGLE 4.1 net lists into other industry standards? ... Leon Heller, G1HSM ...
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