Some more info for the library debate: Today we use this tool chain to design products:
1. Circuit simulation: LTspice/SwitcherCAD III, http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp 2. Schematics design: TinyCAD, http://tinycad.sourceforge.net/ 3. PCB layout: Mentor Supermax ECAD, http://www.mentor.com/products/pcb/expedition/physical_design/supermax_ecad/ 4. Mechanical design (including PCB outline): Alibre Design, http://www.alibre.com/ LTspice is a zero cost electronic design application optimized for switched DC/DC design. TinyCAD is a very very good open source schematics application and Supermac EDAD is a world class PCB tool from Mentor. This one you don't get for free (we use a design house for the PCB design today). Don't know the current price, but it is very expensive... Alibre Design is a free (for the basic level) 3D mechanical design tool. Now we are testing kicad newpcb with the intention of doing the PCB layout with pcbnew. We _only_ do commercial boards with 200 to 800 components! (some product images including the PCBs can be found at http://hostmobility.com/telematics-computers/) For component/product handling we have a web based product management tool, phpPRM, that helps us organize our different products, revisions, documents, included products etc. One huge advantage with TinyCAD is the way that it handles schematic symbols and "product numbers" in a professional way. We have only one symbol for a resistor, but ~40 product numbers linked to that symbol. This way, when we pick a resistor from the schematic library, we pick it by product number! This is very important since the product number is a unique identity at our company. In the phpPRM tool the same product number appears and you can find the product data there (product number, manufacturer, tolerance, price, data sheet etc.) When the schematic design is ready we take the net list (consisting of product numbers and net information) and import it into phpPRM and we get a "included products" list in the data base. The net list from TinyCAD is also imported into Supermax ECAD and the PCB design begins. Since the product number is the unique key in our world, the PCB designer, when he needs to build a new foot print, goes to the phpPRM web and looks up that specific component. He draws the component and makes a link in a text file that cross references our product numbers with the foot print name. If the component has the same foot print as a component he has already used, he only makes a new entry in the cross reference file. This way of working is very strict, but that is a must in commercial product design. This way of working puts the following requirements on the tool chain: - Open easy to use file formats (plain text). - Keep the tools as "clean" as possible. Just focus on one thing and do that good (or very good). - We need tools that don't mess up our world by making for instance the schematics designer choose from different PCB foot prints in the schematics design. We can't use a schematic symbol named "7805" or "74HC00"... Even if the schematic designer puts a foot print name to the symbol in the schematics like a "SO8" or a "SO16", that name is still not unique. Just look at how many versions of the DPAC package there are and you will realize the importance of unique product numbers or identifiers throughout your whole tool chain... - Building foot prints must be a very easy straight forward process. We have NO requirements for: - Extensive product information handling inside the CAD tools. Bringing information like tolerances and manufacturer into kicad has no meaning at all for us. This means we are "mode B" people according to Rogers definition, but it would be great for us if there would be a collection of "mode A" foot prints available on the Internet. We know that we can't use mode B foot prints without verifying them ourselves and putting them in our own library with our naming conventions, but there is always good to have a foot print to start with when designing your own. I believe that a large number of available foot prints will make more people try or start using kicad! // Magnus PS - Our TinyCAD to kicad pcbnew will hopefully be ready in a couple of days. - phpPRM is our web based product management tool. Not released as open source (yet), but if anybody is interested of a test copy that can be arranged. Roger wrote: > In some respect the use of the libraries reflect the type of work the > user does. Hobbyists, hams, reaserchers and experimenters need to get > boards up quickly and they will probably make a few examples and move > on. They tend to be mode A users. > > People who design boards in industry tend to be working with a much more > restricted range of boards and list of components. Few companies develop > microwave repeaters one day and industrial ovens the next, you just > keep producing variations on a theme or new enhanced versions of the old > stuff. Mode B makes sense because your designs, while restricted in > scope, will be highly optimised. > > That is way I feel strongle that a solution should support both modes. > > Libraries which are carefully and strictly maintained, and where > components do not change except to correct errors or add detail (even > the latter could be risky if components are not cached) suit Mode A users. > > But the technique should also support individual users just posting > thier components into personal libraies which can captured as a one-off > and reused. > > As for commercial companies, more than making it a selling issue thay > seem to make it a licensing issue. By making component libraries on-line > than users are continually linking to it. It is easy to get your hands > on a cracked copy of Orcad or whatever, but as soon as you link to the > online libraries they know about it. They do a similar technique with > the backend programs they supply free to PCB houses. > > I feel that libraries are very important, but the most important thing > is that you can find a component drawn the way you like it rather than > rigidly standardised designs, but then I am strictly a Mode B user! Many > potential users of KiCAD fall into the Mode A category. Both needs must > be met. I am doing my first design with KiCAD and I have spent far more > time building up my personal library than I will spend laying out the > board, but as my designs use mostly the same components, this is a one > off issue for me. > > But like I said, a multi project CVS server like sourceforge could cope > with such requirements. A project for each library and each library > could have it's own style. Any user could open thier personal library > project for just sharing thier components in an ad hoc fashion, or users > could make joint efforts on standard libraries. > > As for the stuff about actually using source forge, linked browsers, etc > etc, perhaps I was exagerating! At the end of the day compnents are > small by modern bandwith standards, I don't suppose it would be > difficult for KiCAD to have it's own server.
