[hpsdr] Schematic capture software

[John Ackermann N8UR]

Philip Covington wrote:

> Hi Greg,
> 
> If you have a Linux installation, try gEDA or Kicad.
> 
> <http://www.geda.seul.org/>
> 
> <http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/>
> 
> If you are Windows only, try Kicad.  gEDA on Windows is not kept up to
> date and IMHO is not worth fooling with.
> 
> Make sure you have the latest versions of both installed.
> 
> Both packages have their quirks.

For what it's worth, I've been happy with Eagle, which has a freeware 
version as well as more expensive versions.

It's available for Linux, Windows, and Mac.

The pricing is basically:

Free version will do up to 3 x 4 inch boards.

$49 version will do up to 3 x 4 inch boards and includes manual.

"Standard" version will do up to 4 x 6 inch boards and is $450.  BUT... 
they offer a non-profit use license for $150.  (They view TAPR projects 
as non-profit, so I have the $150 version.)

Pro version does unlimited board size but costs something like $1500.

One advantage of Eagle is that there are a lot of component libraries 
available.  The downsides are that the user interface is somewhat 
non-standard and the support forums can be a little unwelcoming.

The downside I found with gEDA was the lack of libraries, and the 
utterly awful documentation.

John

 1182779883.0