![]() ![]() It kind of reminded me of PCAD, and I like PCAD. ![]() I opened the library creation tutorial and I didn’t feel so bad. No one should be using square boxes anymore for resistor symbols! So for me library editing/symbol creation was going to be my first thing to look at. In fact, the schematic library symbols where the first thing I made me think twice for my initial evaluation. It’s not a big deal to me since I usually create my own libraries from scratch, but I was kind of horrified. ![]() The first thing I noticed from the example project is that the default schematic libraries are ugly. A PCB to adapt a modern telcom relay to replace an old Tektronix relay in my Tektronix 7A13 differential amplifier. My first project is going to be very simple. I’m really trying to embrace the open hardware philosophy, but if it takes twice as long with free tools I’ve got better things to do. ![]() My goal for this evaluation is to determine if DesignSpark PCB will slow me down considerably when doing designs compared to commercial packages. So I figured I would but that I would lower my expectations the second time around. Martin Keenan, the project manager for DesignSpark PCB, replied and gave me some valid reasons to look at it again. So I sent an email to the DesignSpark people complaining about it. I tried it and it failed my 5 minute click around the tutorial test. Eagle just felt broken from the first second I tried it, I think mainly because it is so different in ideology from the commercial offerings I’ve tried. It was completely foreign to me and I’ve used a lot of different packages (PADS, Orcad, Protel, PCAD, Altium Designer, etc). Sorry, but I just couldn’t get past the user interface. I turned it on once and promptly uninstalled it. I initially tried Eagle which seems to be the standard “free” package out there because it gives you a limited functionality package for free. The second part is here.įor the last little while I’ve been looking at some of the “free” PCB design tools out there for some open source hardware projects I’m considering. This is the first part of a series of tutorials on DesignSpark PCB. ![]()
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