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Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design package

horizon-eda.org

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Re: Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design package

#4

Post by rspicer »

tndl wrote: post #2

As someone who's pretty naive about EDA software, how does this compare to KiCad or Eagle?

Same question -- I've been using Kicad on personal and light-duty professional projects for about 5 years (yeah, Altium is the real deal, but when you're making a small run of prototypes for a university lab, sometimes you use the tools you have). It definitely has some rough edges, but it's also got a very established ecosystem, so I feel like Horizon will have to be a massive improvement to compete.

Re: Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design package

#6

Post by singron »

tndl wrote: post #2

As someone who's pretty naive about EDA software, how does this compare to KiCad or Eagle?

I haven't used any of these before, but this LibrePCB talk explains why they wanted an alternative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu-h5y6tK34

Horizon docs have this explanation: https://horizon-eda.readthedocs.io/en/latest/why-another-eda...

Re: Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design package

#7

Post by amaterasu »

rspicer wrote: post #4
tndl wrote: post #2

As someone who's pretty naive about EDA software, how does this compare to KiCad or Eagle?

Same question -- I've been using Kicad on personal and light-duty professional projects for about 5 years (yeah, Altium is the real deal, but when you're making a small run of prototypes for a university lab, sometimes you use the tools you have). It definitely has some rough edges, but it's also got a very established ecosystem, so I feel like Horizon will have to be a massive improvement to compete.

I've been using Kicad for the same workloads as you, and Altium + Cadence for heavier ones over the years, and I must say they hit the nail on the head here with their comments about KiCad: https://horizon-eda.readthedocs.io/en/latest/why-another-eda...

I'll have to find a simple project to test this out on though, because as you say, It needs to be a huge improvement on KiCad to warrant a switch.

Re: Horizon – a free and open source electronic PCB design package

#9

Post by jjoonathan »

rspicer wrote: post #4
tndl wrote: post #2

As someone who's pretty naive about EDA software, how does this compare to KiCad or Eagle?

Same question -- I've been using Kicad on personal and light-duty professional projects for about 5 years (yeah, Altium is the real deal, but when you're making a small run of prototypes for a university lab, sometimes you use the tools you have). It definitely has some rough edges, but it's also got a very established ecosystem, so I feel like Horizon will have to be a massive improvement to compete.

Some rough edges? Kicad has a lot of rough edges, and some of the biggest have to do with footprint libraries & sharing, which is the key piece of momentum in this space. Meanwhile, that's something horizon does very, very well. I could see horizon overtaking kicad.
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