New version of Eagle

L

Leon

Guest
CADsoft has a beta version of Eagle 5.0 on their web site. I
downloaded it and it still has their weird user interface. I think
I'll stick with Pulsonix.

Leon
 
On Apr 10, 7:05 am, Leon <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote:
CADsoft has a beta version of Eagle 5.0 on their web site. I
downloaded it and it still has their weird user interface. I think
I'll stick with Pulsonix.

Leon
Click to expand...
Have you looked at FreePCB? I think pretty much everyone (or anyone)
will like the UI. It just plain makes sense even if you have never
looked at a PCB layout program.

The only thing about the UI I don't care for is the way they handle
branches and connections to power planes. This is treated as a
special case reflecting the fact that the data base has to include a
"special" feature to describe them. A branch is done by selecting the
virtex and "connecting" it to a pin in the same net. This adds a
ratline between the two and allows you to route a trace. If you start
the trace first, you can never get the data base to understand that
the two points are connected.

A connection to a power plane is done with a similar construct he
calls a "stub". Select the pin and start a "stub route". Where this
ends a via is added with a "forced" or "fixed" (not sure of the proper
name) attribute.

Personally I find both of these a bit awkward and feel that the
software should recognize anytime traces of the same net are
electrically connected. But it seems this is a big job and the author
liked his way better.

How do other PCB layout packages handle routing branches and power
plane connections?

The main thing I like about it is the fact that there is tons of
support available from the author and especially other users. There
is one person in particular who has written supporting software for
FreePCB who seems to always reply to requests for help or suggestions
on how to best do a task. This is better than the support I have ever
gotten from any company.
 
On 10 Apr, 14:24, rickman <gnu...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Apr 10, 7:05 am, Leon <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote:

CADsoft has a beta version of Eagle 5.0 on their web site. I
downloaded it and it still has their weird user interface. I think
I'll stick with Pulsonix.

Leon

Have you looked at FreePCB?  I think pretty much everyone (or anyone)
will like the UI.  It just plain makes sense even if you have never
looked at a PCB layout program.

The only thing about the UI I don't care for is the way they handle
branches and connections to power planes.  This is treated as a
special case reflecting the fact that the data base has to include a
"special" feature to describe them.  A branch is done by selecting the
virtex and "connecting" it to a pin in the same net.  This adds a
ratline between the two and allows you to route a trace.  If you start
the trace first, you can never get the data base to understand that
the two points are connected.

A connection to a power plane is done with a similar construct he
calls a "stub".  Select the pin and start a "stub route".  Where this
ends a via is added with a "forced" or "fixed" (not sure of the proper
name) attribute.

Personally I find both of these a bit awkward and feel that the
software should recognize anytime traces of the same net are
electrically connected.  But it seems this is a big job and the author
liked his way better.

How do other PCB layout packages handle routing branches and power
plane connections?
Click to expand...
Pulsonix does that sort of thing in a very intuitive manner. It also
has useful features like star points. Download the demo and see for
yourself:

http://www.pulsonix.com

Support is excellent.

Leon
 
On Apr 10, 12:53 pm, "Joel Koltner" <zapwireDASHgro...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
"Leon" <leon...@btinternet.com> wrote in message

news:12bfbf15-7570-4114-9b6e-37aabce64864@24g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
"http://www.pulsonix.com
Support is excellent."

It's certainly well above average, but at least for *me* to call it excellent
they'd have to fix all their stupid little bugs, such as getting pin name
labels to end up in the right positions when you use next gate/previous gate,
that they've known about for something like a year now (although it's clear
someone there tried to fix it in the latest release, but unfortunately ended
up making it worse!).

I have pretty high standards though... to me something like ORCAD (which has
tons of bugs that have been around for many years, nearly non-existant
"support," and lacks features that make something like Pulsonix more
productive) is clearly in the "sucks hard" category whereas plenty of people
would label it as "OK."
Click to expand...
Personally I am dying to get away from Orcad. But I don't want to
jump from the frying pan into the fire. The next chance I get, I am
going to evaluate some of the open source programs. I am a big fan of
open source at this point.
 
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