On 12/13/2016 12:00 PM, volt-nuts-request@febo.com wrote:
If you don't have any personal preference, then
KiCad is definitely the way to go. It has improved
dramatically since it got the CERN treatment and
doesn't cost a cent regardless of size and layers.
I haven't run PCBArtist, however it supports outputting Gerbers, which
is nice. You are not tied to a particular board house.
I've sort of been forced to play with KiCAD for a project, and can't
stand the user interface. I've been running eagle for a long time, that
probably biases me towards that. Granted, eagle does have a sharp
learning curve also, but KiCAD just hurts to use.
Keep in mind I'm referencing this to other CAD programs like AutoCAD,
PTC Creo, ViaCAD and Eagle. KiCAD just feels clunky, even worse than
LibreCAD.
This really is frustrating to me, because I really like the idea FOSS
software, but lack of support and clunky UI make it hard to adopt for
anything but one off hobby projects.
Anyway, my $.02. If anyone has any advise on how to get up to speed on
KiCAD, I'd be interesting in hearing it!
Dan
Dan wrote:
I haven't run PCBArtist, however it supports outputting Gerbers, which
is nice. You are not tied to a particular board house.
Well, the web site says you can get Gerbers after your first order from
their board house (same as ExpressPCB).
They also claim to have 500,000 components in their library, and you can
search the library online. I tried about 50 parts, some very common,
and got only 2 hits. I was astounded.
NOTE: I have not seen or tried PCBArtist, and have no opinion on its
quality or utility.
Best regards,
Charles