Re: gEDA-user: I am such a troll for posting to slashdot

[Duncan Drennan <duncan.drennan@xxxxxxxxx>]

>        Out of curiosity, how did you go about running gEDA on Windows?
> Which of the binaries are you using or did you build it yourself?

I've been using the gEDA+PCB work flow for all of the projects I have
done since I started my business, and that has been a very successful
choice for me (versus having to find capital to purchase an EDA
package).

Originally I was running on cygwin, and then started using Peter's
Win32 builds, and recently I have been building it using minipack (I
wanted to change the font scaling). I have mingw installed and use a
Makefile as the glue between schematics, PCB, bom, drc etc. (I posted
the makefile here recently). Further to that I use a python script I
have written (and still working on) to generate IPC-7531 compliant
footprints (based on dimensions from the PCBMatric land pattern
calculator).

I output all my schematics to PDF for printing, and transmission to
clients. Outputs from PCB are gerber files for manufacturers and I
have never had any issues with the format. I also use the XY output
for generating pick and place files.

I didn't really find gEDA any more difficult than learning OrCAD or
PCAD. Everything that most people need can be done - easily.

I suspect the real issues have little to do with the work flow and
more to do with the question, "How easily can I created something
useful?"

I think gEDA is *possibly* more suited for professionals than
hobbyists, as I has the flexibility to do really useful things (like
scripting repeatable work tasks). I really believe that gEDA offers
the potential to increase productivity dramatically when its features
are fully leveraged. The challenge is to get more professionals to
adopt it....which means proving its worth with the hobbyists.


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