11–20 of 89 posts
People who design PCBs will probably wonder when KiCad is going to fix the horrific UX bugs, and go back to using Altium or Eagle in the meantime.
KiCad is the StarOffice of the PCB design world. I want to use it, but I can't justify the time working around KiCad's UX issues.
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/goshcommunity/open-hardwar...
> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
Going OT but staying on this theme: It seems likely that public money across many governments is spent on closed source software for circuit design. Even probably across the projects in a single developed country I imagine it might be an economy to pay for the software to be modified. Such changes then being a gift to society at large.
What do electronic engineering students use at present - presumably a range of CAD systems, but is KiCad up there?
Academics (in the UK) is there any effort towards making free-libre software available through collaboration of different institutes?
I do appreciate the transparency, but honestly I think my —small— donation would be used better in other free software projects unless I had some kind of vested interest in KiCad.
> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
For example, CERN has been an active contributor to Oracle Database 11g Release 2
The name Oracle comes from the code-name of a CIA-funded project Ellison had worked on while formerly employed by Ampex.
The strong bond between CERN and Oracle puts a powerful spin (on physics?).
In September 2011, U.S. State Department Embassy cables were leaked to Wikileaks. One cable revealed that the U.S. pressured the E.U. to allow Oracle to acquire Sun.
http://openlab.cern/about/industry_members
https://fsf.org/blogs/community/active-management-technology
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/nsa-linked-cisco-exp...
> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
Most of your post is Greek: tracks, vias, copper zones. I'm not sure how anyone can make an abstract design for an entire circuit board from scratch, it how to put one together.
I do not understand what you're trying to say.
commitment to freedom (cern.ch) For example, CERN has been an active contributor to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 The name Oracle comes from the code-name of a CIA-funded project Ellison had worked on while formerly employed by Ampex. The strong bond between CERN and Oracle puts a powerful spin (on physics?). In September 2011, U.S. State Department Embassy cables were leaked to Wikileaks. One cable revealed that the…
> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
How many projects across CERN do you think would use KiCad if it were somewhat knocked shape? Going OT but staying on this theme: It seems likely that public money across many governments is spent on closed source software for circuit design. Even probably across the projects in a single developed country I imagine it might be an economy to pay for the software to be modified. Such changes then being a gift to societ…
I don't work in that field, so I can't answer your question directly, but I can pass on that EAGLE, which is probably KiCad's closest competitor, is available for free for academic institutions:
> Today, KiCad is considered a mature tool for the design of Printed Circuit Boards, featuring some capabilities that match or exceed those of costly proprietary alternatives. Two weeks ago, we evaluated whether we ditch our current proprietary EDA tools in favor of KiCad (my company designs and builds satellite electronics). We liked the user interface (it's not good, but better than the "professional" alternatives)…
Most of your post is Greek: tracks, vias, copper zones. I'm not sure how anyone can make an abstract design for an entire circuit board from scratch, it how to put one together.
If you want to get a general understanding of circuit design, think about it in terms of connecting points. The London tube network is a good analogy for this. When starting out designing a circuit, you think only of which points need to be joined together. This is similar to the simplified tube map that many people are familiar with:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html
However, that map only represents a simplified version. The real geographical map looks more like this (this is still simplified as it doesn't show information about the height/depth of the tracks):
http://www.tubemapcentral.com/mythset/geomap.jpg
It's the same with circuit design. You start off with a simplified version, but the physical version is frequently more complicated because you have to work over multiple 'layers' in order to stop wires that cross over each other that shouldn't be connected from touching each other. That's where things like 'vias' come into play (vias are the points at which layers of a circuit board are connected to each other).
