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slightly OT question about gEDA CAD tools

Is anybody in this group using the open source pachages gEDA and PCB for their schematic capture and board work? I am trying to get a feel for whether thay are real tools yet or still in the development stage.

Also, if you have used gEDA/pcb and any of the comercial packages, how do they compare?

I am using some really old tools and thinking about moving into this millenium at least.

Thanks, Bob

Reply to
BobH
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There was an interesting discussion on the gEDA-user mailing list recently that might help answer this question:

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Also, for a list of projects that people have done using gEDA/gaf and PCB, please see:

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-Ales

-- Ales Hvezda ahvezda AT seul.org

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Reply to
Ales Hvezda

Bob:

There is another GPL'd PCB tool set out there called KiCAD:

This one is implemented using wxWidgets, so it is runs on Windows, Linux, etc.

I'm still scratching my head try to figure out why the gEDA folks and KiCAD folks are not collaborating on common file formats and the like, tho'.

It is worth looking at,

-Wayne

Reply to
Wayne C. Gramlich

Hi Wayne, Thanks for the response. Have you used either the geda or kicad tools?

Thanks, Bob

Reply to
BobH
[snip]

Bob:

To date, all I have done is the KiCAD tutorial and one schematic.

15 years ago, when there was basically no PCB layout tools for the Linux platform, I wound up writing my own tool (long story.) My tool is quite outdated (no support for surface mount), but I'm comfortable with it, so I continue to use it. My long term plan is to convert all of my schematics for and PCB layouts to KiCAD from my tool format.

I would love to see a comparison chart for gEDA, KiCAD, and Eagle, but I totally lack the time to generate such a chart.

BTW, the reason why I'm leaning towards KiCAD is because it is 1) cross platform and 2) it looks like an integrated tool set. I'm sure there are pluses and minuses to both tool sets. What I'd love to see is the ability to transfer stuff between gEDA and KiCAD, so people can use whatever is the best tool for the job.

Other people on the KiCAD users group list have commented that KiCAD is better than the tools they have to use at work. Alas, I can't remember what tools those were.

I hope this helps,

-Wayne

Reply to
Wayne C. Gramlich

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