kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 1 Sep 2010, Alex G wrote:

> I like the idea of applying this idea to PCB design. :)

It all goes down to quality assurance (which is statistics at
90%!). Nobody forbid to have a test point of 0,5mm, but there's a graph
static that in a run there is a 50% probability that it would be missed
by a flying probe (yes, there are such graphs in the standard). That's
why test point are usually 1mm round :D

> Anyway, the bits relevant for kicad are the footprints, and a footprint
> calculator. That will allow kicad to penetrate deeper (no pun intended)
> into the professional market.

Exactly, the other 80 pages are absolutely not relevant to this (did you
know that a chip resistor must survive dipped in molten solder for at
least 3 seconds ?:D)

> By the way, you should probably license your quick intro under the GFDL
> before we do that.

Good idea, done that. No need to redownload for now, just added the magic
paragraph at the beginning and an \include{fdl-1.3} at the end. It
doubled the page count, tough.

> Or whether they charge their membership in money or one of the last
> items I mentioned earlier.

I have to admit that their price model is really absurd... not only it's
$117 for a single user not-printable pdf (say that to an hacked copy of
xpdf) but you have to shell out $3290 for a 'site' licence (i.e.
*exactly* the same thing, but you can put it on a shared drive:P). Well,
not exactly, on the $117 version there is written 'not for print or
network use' on the top of each page...

As a pro user I can afford a $117 licence (but not every time they
change something!) but for a small business like ours anything more is
really too much (then there is people like you which want to do
no-profit work...)

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl