gEDA-user: perspective on marketing vs. substance

[John Griessen <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I look in at the Kicad list occasionally.  I installed it once more than a year ago
and it seemed real enough, and slick, too.  I just saw a couple of posts that seem to confirm
that it is behind PCB in capability, but very appealing to a newbie, so I repost excerpts here
for those who don't subscribe to the Kicad yahoogroups list.

Re: [kicad-users] Unconnected nets - first time kicad user
Message-ID: <46DFF0DB.2020804@xxxxxxx>
=======================================================
 > Just to make sure I understand.  Connecting pins to an internal layer
 > > using vias and then filling the plane is not recognized as a
 > > connection by the connection tool.  Is that right?  If so, how do I
 > > know if there are missing connections to the plane?

Power planes are a bit of a weak point with KiCAD, and my only major
bugbear.   Obviously the dozens of power nodes will be scattered all
over the board, and it's a big plus if you can connect them up with
power planes first.   This is especially true of double-sided boards,
where you need to ensure you don't end up with isolated islands of power
plane.

With KiCAD you will need to leave connecting the power nodes until last,
and pray that you spot any isolated islands before it's a real problem
to connect them again.   Then you'll need to hook up the power nodes
with tracks so the DRC passes.   I'm doing that right now on a
(double-sided) board, and I've elected to use a 5 thou track and 10 thou
grid to do that, so I can squeeze the connections through all the twists
and turns the power plane takes.

Regards,

Robert.
============================

Re: [kicad-users] a beginner of kicad
Message-ID: <46DFB22D.3040006@xxxxxxx>
========================================
I was just about ready to jump ship for Eagle when I found KiCAD.   I
can spend all day on KiCAD and feel completely calm throughout the day,
and satisfied with the end result.   That's because the applications are
stable, and the interface is modern and intelligently designed.   It has
some quirks and oddities, but the overall experience compensates for
that.   Add to that the fact that it's free, and I hope you can see why
I recommend you look at it seriously.

Is there anything Proteus does better?   One or two things, but the only
one of note is that it does power planes much better, or at least it
would do if it didn't routinely crash when redrawing.
============================================

So, we have it good with gnetlist and pcb and gschem, don't we?

John Griessen
-- 
Ecosensory   Austin TX
tinyOS devel on:  ubuntu Linux;   tinyOS v2.0.2;   telosb ecosens1


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