kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Alex G <mr.nuke.me@xxxxxxxxx>]

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On 09/10/2010 03:05 PM, Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
> Since Farnell bought Eagle, RS responded with their own package, design
> spark PCB...
> 
> They call it 'The World’s Most Powerful Free Schematic and PCB Layout
> Tool' (copy and paste from their web page :D). A little googling shown
> that it could be probably a rebranded entry level cad from the pulsonix
> people.
> 
Well, then this makes kicad "God's Free Schematic and PCB Layout Tool".
> Anyway I've *a lot* of thing to disprove this :D:D from a cursory glance
> (in mixed order):
> 
> - Zoom is still at the x2 /2 stage :P:P and you have to ctrl-wheel to do
>   it with the mouse;
> [...] 
> - No netname on pads/tracks
> 
Only bad things thus-far. :)
> - Plots are very customizable (something like the eagle postpro)
> 
> - They have truetype support for gerber... a raster fill implementation
>   like that I suggested. Results are... well... questionable :P Most
>   probably they didn't hinted during rasterizing.
> 
> - It can import DXFs for the board
> 
Sounds interesting...

> - I don't get *why* technology files should keep color preferences
>   too...
> 
Aren't all things windows bloated by definition?

> - It supports courtyards (using assembly layers). Well, there is no
>   'fixed' layer, they're customizable (but I don't know if it flips them
>   correctly, then...)
> 
I _want_ this in kicad One top courtyard, and one bottom courtyard. I'm
not requesting from anyone to implement this, but it is a much coveted
feature.

> Said that (about one hour of experimentation, so it's not an indepth
> review) I can say that there is some idea to pick from them. But I'd
> like to say their motto is dead wrong XD
> 
Yes, we can learn from their mistakes. :p

Oh, their website says:
> Please be encouraged to share your designs, libraries and tips so other users can benefit from your experience.

That's hypocritical coming from any proprietary/closed-source software.

Alex
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