Re: gEDA-user: paid help?

[Stefan Salewski <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2010-04-06 at 07:59 -0400, Patrick wrote:
> Hi Everyone
> 
> This is my first post here, I am also very, very new to PCB design.
> 
> The last thing I want is to create another flame, Eagle vs geda etc... 
> but am I basically correct that the proprietary Apps have more libraries 
> and this is the main drawback of the open source alternates?
> 

Yes, most people using Eagle in the hobby area are indeed very lazy and
love to use existing footprints. I think this is indeed one reason why
so many people use Eagle instead of FOSS EDA tools like gEDA or KiCAD.
But only one reason, there are more, and I think this point will never
change. The manpower in the FOSS EDA area is limited, so our number of
free, high quality symbols and footprints will be limited. A converting
tool from commercial stuff to FOSS may be a solution, but legal issues
may exist.   

> 
> If this is logical could I get some very rough guess-ti-mates of what 
> this would cost?

Making symbols and footprints is not too much work. (I need between 15
and 90 minutes for a footprint or symbol.) If you have a real project
designed by your own, then the work for making symbols and footprints is
only a small part. If you only copy an existing project, then indeed the
design of footprints and symbols is the biggest task.

I do not really get the intension of your post. If you really should not
manage to make the needed symbols and footprints by yourself, then I
guess you may find indeed people who will support you. For example, I
can make single symbols or footprints for you, or maybe greater
quantities if you make a donation to unicef, linux-fund, GNU-project,
wikipedia...

One important point: Format of symbols and footprints may change in
future, so it may be indeed not a good idea to generate too much now. I
think we should only create what we need now.




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