Which PCB package is running on netbooks/convertibles?

[Ysjoelfir]

Hi everyone,
for a project at university I am looking for a PCB package consisting of layout- and PCB Editor. The only thing that is important is, that it will run on "slow" machines like modern netbooks with intel atom 1,4GHz quadcore processors and integrated graphics.
I thought it would be quite interesting for some people to know, so lets make a little comparison, shall we? Maybe someone who owns a modern netbook or convertible could check his software out?

I tried already Eagle (in my crusty Version...  5 I guess), that one works flawless, at least if you don't try to use the outorouter (what you wouldn't try anyways.)
Tried it with my Asus EEEPC 1000H under win XP.

[PCB.Wiz]

Speed also depends on loaded Board Size, but one useful benchmark could be installed Footprint, as these can be memory hungry.


On this laptop, I see :
PADS comes in at 4.75 GB 95,659 Files, 5,120 Folders (!)
KiCad  is 1.35 GB, 23,890 Files, 675 Folders

[Ysjoelfir]

You are right, there is no sense in comparing a PC motherboard layout with a SO to DIP adapter... The one I used to try EAGLE was a relatively standard 16x10cm Board with around a hundred components/300 holes.

EAGLE seems quite small compared to KiCad or PADS - 300MB in around 2000 Files in 70 Folders.

[Jeroen3]

Eagle will become slow proportionally depending on the number of objects to render. You can reduce this by disabling layers. It is really lightweight compared to Altium Designer. However, eagle is single-thread application. Which might limit performance on poor cpu's.

I used to have an T6670 laptop (2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo) on which eagle was noticably slower in zooming than on my E8400 (3 Ghz Core 2 Duo) desktop. Which is why most of my design work was not performed on the laptop, just a little bit too slow.
Now I have an i7 laptop and a Xeon desktop, both ssd accelerated. Eagle is only noticably slow on (for eagle) large designs now. (packed 150x110mm) But nothing annoying.

I'd recommend not using eagle. For two reasons.
- Eagle is phasing out.
- Eagle is a single thread.

[bicc1306]

What about Diptrace?

[technotronix]

Eagle is bit small and complex compare to other PCB design tools. I am agree with recommendation of not using Eagle.