Re: gEDA suite vs my creaky old Protel Client 3.5?

Hello,

your discussion about gEDA is very interesting. For the moment, I have a
high-school project where I also have to design a circuit of middle size
(in the order of 15 Opamps, 40 resistors and a lot of capacitors, but also
some switches, flipflops and mosfets. In spite of the huge number of parts,
it's not very complicated).

A few years ago, I used Eagle. Unfortunately, Eagle is not an option here
because the lab I currently work in doesn't own a full version of it. So,
for a first prototype, I used Protel DXP. And IMHO, I never used such an
ugly program before! It is the absolutely contrary to "user-friendly" --
for giving an example, I needed more than half a day of desesperate
searching involving half the lab to find out how to print in the /correct/
scale, and that in spite of the manual under my hands.

You can imagine that I would prefer not to use it for the next prototype of
my circuit. On the other hand, I do not really have much time these days.

So, what do you think: Is it worth to learn gEDA and to redraw some symbols
that might not be available, or should I use Protel DXP, having all parts I
need and only loosing time in some trap that Protel DXP might devise? Which
choice would save more time ?

> There was an article about gEDA in Circuit Cellar, March issue. I read it
because I was considering using it and wanted to reduce the learning curve
(never enough time and no one will pay me to learn something). I likely
won't be using it now, but I'd like to share my thoughts (sent to the
article authors) and all of you can comment as you see fit.
>
> 1. The article was a nice introduction, but not enough detail for me to
feel comfortable doing a project yet. Hope they will do a series of
articles on using all of the gEDA facilities, which are impressive.

Are they available on the internet?

> 2. What would be nice is a book similar to "Build Your Own Printed Circuit
Board" (by Al Williams), which uses Eagle. This is a very good hand-holder,
but not a great reference text. Still, it serves the purpose of getting
people started with Eagle. I'm using Eagle because a free version came with
the book. The problem is that who has the time to write a book!?! Doing a
book is really a project in its self. An example of a good e-book (on
Knoppix) is at:
> http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html

Perhaps it could be an idea that interested gEDA uses and programmers create
a wikibook, see : http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page
These are books where everybody can contribute.

Yours,

Bernhard
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: posting schematics on the group
    ... One way is to draw your circuit in LTSpice amd post the coresponding ... diagram in an editable form. ... the free gEDA circuit design programs also use text files ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: kostenloses Programm zum Schaltungen zeichnen?
    ... Ich brauch keine Unmengen an Libraries. ... Anzahl der gEDA User: Null. ... Der Großteil der Ingenieure nutzt es wahrscheinlich nicht, weil sie schon sehr lange vielleicht auch beruflich mit Eagle und Co. arbeiten und deshalb schon sehr gut damit vertraut sind. ... Aber wenn man mit dem Leiterplattenentwurf beginnt, werden die meisten Eagle oder Target nehmen, weil es die Bekanntesten sind. ...
    (de.sci.ing.elektrotechnik)
  • Re: low cost 1/4W resistor kit o
    ... That may, or may not, result in selecting Eagle. ... CAD packages over the years, mostly paid for by other people and like ... I must admit that when I first had a play around with it I ... So I then had a thrutch with GEDA. ...
    (sci.electronics.basics)
  • Re: low cost 1/4W resistor kit o
    ... That may, or may not, result in selecting Eagle. ... CAD packages over the years, mostly paid for by other people and like ... I must admit that when I first had a play around with it I ... So I then had a thrutch with GEDA. ...
    (sci.electronics.basics)
  • Re: What software to draw schematics?
    ... ....but the page is sketchy WRT Cadsoft's limitations. ... EAGLE is the WORST choice you could make; ... My intuition is that a lot of those data points are old posts ... Here's an extreme example of "No limitations" (gEDA) ...
    (sci.electronics.basics)