[Coco] Free / Open Source Schematic / CAD SW (Was: Re: Electronics Newbie question)

[Joel Ewy]

On 12/18/2011 10:47 AM, gene heskett wrote:
> On Sunday, December 18, 2011 10:05:35 AM Andrew did opine:
>
>> Paulo,
>>
>> This should probably be a separate thread, but anyhow...
>>
>> ...
>> If you wanted something more "open source", then there are options like
>> KiCad:
>>
>> http://kicad.sourceforge.net/wiki/Main_Page
> Which ATM, has some real show stopper bugs.  Skip it.
>

Care to elaborate so's we can decide if they're show stoppers for all 
purposes?  I've played around with some versions of it in the past, but 
not done any real work with it.

> ...
>> Finally - a "fun" option (not sure what the status of it is; last I
>> played with it, it was still "buggy", but showed a lot of potential):
>>
>> http://fritzing.org/
>
> This one looked interesting, but when I went to dl it, the 32 bit linux
> choice shown was reported as not available.  Try again later...

Just downloaded fritzing-0.6.4b.linux.i386.tar.bz2, so you might try it 
again.

JCE

> The
> realtime autorouter was a nice feature, if you can tell it the mounting
> holes for the board can be in totally arbitrary positions, likewise the
> actual part mount location s/b completely arbitrary.  Much such pcb
> software is very tightly constrained to a pre-defined grid pattern, and for
> such as opto-interrupters where you need 2 looking at the same circle of
> holes in the encoder disk, to get truly quadrature performance, the opto's
> must be individually position adjustable to get the proper detection
> sequence which multiplies the accuracy by 4 as all 4 hole edges are used,
> so a 90 hole disk can give 1 degree accuracy.
>
> Anyway, I was willing to download it to check this out, if I could have. I
> will certainly go back and retry.
>
> gEDA I have had, but not on this pclos install so I've not looked at it in
> about 18 months.  Development of gEDA was quite active though.
>
>> Something to keep your eye on, anyhow...
>
> Yes, definitely.  The fritzing starter kit seems pretty arduino oriented,
> nothing wrong with that, but may be a profit center for them at 69 Euros.
> Current dollar conversion I don't know but likely about 100 bucks.  Most of
> that stuff is available at reasonable prices here in the states.
>
> I should also mention HeeksCad/HeeksCNC, which is incomplete and users are
> encouraged to look at FreeCAD now, but the emphasis there is on mechanical
> fab&  electrical is not well supported.  But one can do, from what you see
> &  compose on the screen, exactly in metal or ?? with those apps to an
> accuracy exceeding your machinery's ability to carve.
>
>> -- Andrew L. Ayers, Glendale, Arizona
> Cheers, Gene