--- In [email protected], "Andy Ehlers" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I have been involved in a many contracts from long distance and except > for 1 or 2 they have been a nightmare for both parties. (time > deference's, design changes, communication snafu's etc) Although I > understand outsourcing is a good thing from a budgetary standpoint from > a functional standpoint they can be difficult at best and when the final > tally is done sometimes are actually more expensive. Since Kicad is not > a widely used commercial product yet. Your requirement of having the > layout in Kicad may not be possible while requiring a professional and > experienced layout person. This is not to say that my fellow Kicad users > are not professionals and good at what they do. Just that they probably > don't use Kicad professionally. I have been designing boards out here in > San Jose for about 20 years both as a contractor and employee and > although I would love to do a board for you I would not be doing it as a > priority. This is because I use the Mentor Graphics Expedition tool set > professionally and Kicad at home for smaller quick turn circuitry > (hobby, test fixturing for work, and smaller interface circuitry that > does not require full blown documentation and DRC/EMI analysis). > Therefore I would doing it while watching the Sharks on TV at night or > on weekends between the kids soccer games. Which obviously is not what > you want or need. I am probably not the only one thinking this, which > may be why you have received no response. If this is for a commercial > product, I hate to write this, but, Kicad may not be ready for you. This > is not to say that Kicad can't do it, just your variables and Kicad may > not be a good match at this time. > > Just an opinion. > > AndyE > San Jose,Ca
Thanks for the feedback and your honesty. I agree that it is a long shot. Regarding KiCad, on more than one occasion I have questioned whether we made the right decision going with KiCad. We were burdened by the fact that we needed 3 seats and none of the "professional" packages were economically viable at that time. While I still have reservations, now that I am making a point to create every component in my own library before using things are flowing much, much better. There are still some bugs/features/strange behaviors that bother us, but it looks like it will be OK for schematic capture. Board layout, however, is a different matter. While we did an initial evaluation, it is still unproven in our eyes. If we outsourced the layout to someone who could do it in KiCad, then we would forever be able to tweak it if need be. Regards, apluscw
