Re: gEDA-user: is gEDA a good choice for designers?

[John Doty <jpd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jul 3, 2007, at 1:52 AM, Duncan Drennan wrote:

> I decided to give gEDA a go as my design tool for a project (I've
> previously used PCAD and ORCAD), but now that I'm about to put pen to
> paper I'm questioning whether using gEDA is a good long term solution.
> I'm an electronic engineer and currently contract out my skills, so
> the solution needs to satisfy my commercial needs.

Sounds similar to my situation. gEDA is certainly meeting *my*  
commercial needs.

>
> The most important thing to me is how long it will take me to learn
> gEDA, and whether learning it is a good choice in the long term. One
> of my worries is that at some point I'll need functions and
> interoperability that gEDA can't provide, and then I'll have to move
> to a commercial tool.

My experience is that it works the other way: when the commercial  
tools need functions and interoperability they don't have, you're  
stuck. On the other hand, gEDA is radically flexible, and the  
development team is radically responsive.

>
> My other concern is interacting with other professionals. I prefer to
> only do the schematic capture, and then pass the PCB layout onto
> someone else (as it is time consuming, and there are more productive
> things for me to do). I'm concerned that gEDA may make this process
> more difficult.

I usually work in this mode. I've now used gschem to feed three  
different PCB layout flows, and also for VLSI.

>
> Reading comments like, "This document and gnetlist in general are
> pretty ALPHA, so keep that in mind as you use it to generate
> netlists." (http://www.geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gnetlist_ug) don't help
> to ease ones mind when making an important design decision.

Ales likes to undersell. For my money, the gEDA docs are far better  
than the commercial EDA docs I've suffered through.

>
> So what do you think? If you were in a situation of choosing a design
> flow solution that you plan to use for a couple of years, what would
> you choose?

I chose gEDA as the foundation for the EE part of my consulting  
business three years ago. It proved to be an excellent decision.

John Doty              Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd@xxxxxxxxx




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