Thank you, Visakh. I am sure this information is very useful. Best Sasi
On Thu, 2011-03-24 at 08:27 -0700, Visakh wrote: > Sir, > I started with KiCAD before migrating to gEDA. KiCAD has a good > interface, but is considerably lacking in functionality compared to > gEDA. The most striking is the lack of a good autorouter in KiCAD's > pcbnew, whereas gEDA's pcb has a very good one (still only learning > that, though). > > gEDA on the other hand is very competent, but the interface is not > upto the standards. gEDA's workflow is essentially the same as any > professional EDA package. But it often requires the use of command > line - most famously, the netlister. I am not too shy to to use the > command line, but many professional students/engineers are very > unprofessional when it comes to facing up to the command line. There > are also places where a GUI is most preferable - like setting up a > SPICE simulation. The use of a command line here is purely medieval. > gEDA needs a lot of improvement in this area (like a good SPICE > control GUI that is well integrated with gtkWave). > > Very often, gEDA feels like a disorganized collection of tools. Many > professional suites like orcad hide this separation by providing menu > items that call other associated application (like schematic capture > app menu to setup and start a SPICE simulation or component footprint > selection for PCB). KiCAD goes further in this area by proving a > project manager app which allows easy workflow control without > interlinking specialist applications. This is a seriously big drawback > for gEDA. Most professionals and students value enhanced productivity > and a gentle learning curve more than freedom or cost. > > I have the following conclusions about open source EDA: > > 1. I wouldn't fancy gEDA's chances as an appealing tool as long as the > designers don't get over the 'geeks use command line' syndrome. Most > students and engineers wouldn't consider themselves as geeks. > > 2. GUI enhancements to gEDA would be extremely helpful to the project. > gschem and pcb interfaces are already great. What is needed is a > project manager on the lines of KiCAD that can hide all command line > operations. Also needed is a good interface for SPICE (though there > are 2 already). This alone may make it a very appealing to students > and professionals. Quite ironically, this should have been very easy > compared to the rest of the suite. > > 3. There are free apps that simply have no commercial counterparts. > Students may find them interesting. First is XCircuit for schematic > capture. Though it is not as easy as gschem, it results in publication > quality schematics (Think of it as LaTeX for schematics). Its drawings > are inherently hierarchal and is natively stored as postscript. Its > output can be netlisted for SPICE and PCB). > The second is Electric VLSI. It is a VLSI chip design tool that is par > excellence. I loved its design paradigm (it is different from > commercial tools). More interestingly, you can mix CAD and HDL design > entry. > > 4. There is one another way to promote freedom and cooperation among > electronics academia. Though FOSS elephantiasis may disagree, I > believe that there is future for open source hardware (rather, open > source designs). Licences like TAPR and OSHW can be used by students > to showcase their talent - just as the do with free software. > > 5. The best way to promote free EDA tools is to use them as tools to > promote professional design practices. Eventually they will improve as > their products improve (like GCC, GDB, mercurial, git etc). > > Regards, > Gokul Das > -- V. Sasi Kumar Free Software Foundation of India Blog: http://swatantryam.blogspot.com -- "Freedom is the only law". "Freedom Unplugged" http://www.ilug-tvm.org You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ilug-tvm" group. To control your subscription visit http://groups.google.co.in/group/ilug-tvm/subscribe To post to this group, send email to ilug-tvm@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to ilug-tvm-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For details visit the google group page: http://groups.google.com/group/ilug-tvm?hl=en
