Hi Jon, As a person who has only dabbled in Linux for fun, I'm hardly the one to give a definitive review of gEDA.
My impression of gEDA was that it wasn't for high tempo professional work. Everything is done from mostly command line stand-alone programs - like a lot of Unix software. The PCB program is 8 copper layers, not total layers. As I recall, there aren't any mechanical layers upon which to do any of the dimensioning or commenting you might want. Obviously, you can't crossprobe, or do anything that depends on functional integration. Nothing you have done under Protel is usable in gEDA - it speaks a language all its own. Likewise, nothing you do in gEDA is portable to any commercial EDA package (as far as I know). Maintainability is at the mercy of the gEDA developers. It's up to you to compile the code if you're not running a Fedora or Redhat version for which it has already been compiled. There are some reviews online that might give you more insight than I can. Try: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8438 and http://linuxfocus.org/English/December2004/article355.shtml . Regards - Harry At 12:06 PM 4/24/2007, you wrote: >Harry Selfridge wrote: > > >I have not done any serious design work with it. Out of curiosity, I > >"tinkered" with it by doing a simple two-sided hobby board. > > > >I had to do a bit of source compiling to get it set up. It's the > >usual Unix collection of tools to do the job - it's not tightly > >integrated as you expect from commercial EDA software. > > > >Unless they've done something with it recently, it's limited to an > 8 layer PCB. > > > > >Could you compare it in ease of use, flexibility, ability to set up >libraries, >etc. to P99SE? 8 copper layers (signals plus planes) would not likely >be much of >a restriction. 8 total layers, including silk screen, solder mask, >paste mask, mech etc. >would already be a limitation. > > >If you're looking for a free open source professional package to run > >under Linux - it doesn't exist. > > > > >I'm less concerned about free as with maintainability. Some day my P99 CD's >won't be readable any more, and I'll be in big trouble. I paid a >fortune for P99SE, >and I'm damned if I'll pay another fortune for Altium's latest boondoggle. > >Jon snip ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
