Mark Carlson wrote:
> Yeah, ATM it seem like you get what you pay for. I've tried using
> "electric" for a while now ( http://staticfreesoft.com ) but I still
> haven't learned the UI much at all. Xcircuit, PCB, and the gEDA tools
> all seem to be difficult to use as well. It could just be me, though.
xcircuit's UI didn't seem unduly challenging.
PCB was another matter. I gave up on it in
its existing form back around 2000. I picked
it up again for this board early in 2005 and
was able to get through the UI learning curve
before I throwing up my hands again.
That said it isn't bad after you invest time
getting acclimated. It perhaps could benefit
from better documentation but everything I
needed was in the manual though sometimes a
hunt was required.
One of the nice features with PCB (and
xcircuit) is the file formats are open should
you need to tweak a library component rather
than be left with only a UI to do so. I
believe I wrote a set of scripts to generate
different component definitions taking as input
a physical pad definition and a component
specific pad name/number definition.
You can also look at PCB123 which is a vendor
proprietary layout package that rumor suggests
runs under wine/linux. I had limited success
attempting to do so. However I may redraw the
board to have PCB123 fab it as their prices seem
hard to beat. That is if I can get past the
wine/linux snag or muster enough courage to
endure the shame of designing a linux board on a
windoZZZe box.
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