Seeking for Beta Testers for new (Mac-)Software (EDA)

[pschuster]

Hi all,

I have developed an exclusive Mac software that allows you to visualize, analyze and finalize your PCBs (EAGLE). Create awesome 3D images of your PCB with a few mouse clicks, inspect your PCB and trace for errors like mismatching footprints, wrong signal length, and other hard to find bugs. It has Octopart built in and therefore features awesome part sourcing features as well as fully automated BOM Management tools.

Features like a central, and easy to manage Datasheet storage with Bookmarks are also implemented.

I am currently seeking for Beta Testers that is running till 15th of November 2015. Your chance to test the application for free.

More info and download here: http://www.copper-app.com.

Thanks for your intereset.
Phillip

[owiecc]

Looks interesting. Tried downloading but "The download files does not exist".

[pschuster]

Thank you very much for your reply. Hmm, it should be working now. I hope you will try again.

Thanks,
Phillip

[owiecc]

Still not looking good. Downloaded; opened; it says it is expired :/ (b727)

[pschuster]

Thanks so much for trying out. I have created a ticket in our support software for easier support. I have sent you an eMail.

Thanks,
Phillip

[pschuster]

Just a note for other users: The expiration errors have been resolved thanks to @owiecc. You may register and download for the beta now.

Thanks for your help,
Phillip

[jc101]

Downloaded it, very quick impression is I quite like it....

Will have a tinker.  The BIG question would be the final price...

[pschuster]

Nice to hear that you like my Software . Copper will be available in about 2-3 weeks in the Mac App Store (depending on results in Beta Test and  App Store Review) and will be in the 24,99 EUR price tier which means about the same in USD.

Please contact me if you find any issues or if you have feature requests.

Phillip

[timb]

Only works with Eagle files? Would be nice if it supported straight up Gerber files so it worked with any EDA tool. Looks like a nice app, but I use DipTrace. :-/


Sent from my Tablet

[pschuster]

Copper is more than just a Viewer for PCBs. And as such Gerber files are missing a lot of information (as far as I know) that are necessary for Copper to do it's work. For example Copper automatically generates 3D models of your PCB complete with (photorealistic) Parts or connects and downloads Datasheets to the parts in your PCB.

Gerber does not contain any connected information, just data like "draw a line here, draw a point there" but the information that these two lines form a part aren't there.

I started with EAGLE because its file format is easy to read and work with, is used a lot and has fundamental flaws Copper tries to fix. I want Copper to read other formats, too. If you like you can subscribe to the newsletter (at the bottom of the page or send me a PM with your email-Address) to be notified if new file formats are available.

Thanks for your interest!

[fivefish]

Impressive.

Will this work with Eagle 5.x?  (I have a Pro license, and don't see the need to upgrade to 6.x)

[zapta]

Tried it on wife's computer (OSX 10.7.5) but it wouldn't run.

[fivefish]

I'm out too... I'm still running 10.8.4 

Is this software using a specific OSX 10.10 feature? Why the specific requirement for 10.10?

Computers that are seriously used in production work don't get updated to the latest version everytime Apple or Microsoft releases an OS upgrade... just a fact.

[zapta]

I'm out too... I'm still running 10.8.4 

Is this software using a specific OSX 10.10 feature? Why the specific requirement for 10.10?

Computers that are seriously used in production work don't get updated to the latest version everytime Apple or Microsoft releases an OS upgrade... just a fact.

Since it targets Eagle users, would be nice to support the same versions that Eagle supports.

[pschuster]

Hi,

at the moment Copper only runs on 10.10+ (Yosemite and El Capitan). Copper uses SceneKit (3D Rendering) which is included in Mac OS X since 10.8, but I am using quite a few Scenekit features that were added with 10.9. So 10.9 would be the version I could support. I don't use Yosemite exclusive features, but Yosemite made a few things easier to develop.

I am planning on a tik tok scheme of development, meaning new features in one release, bug fixes only in the next. With every OS supported the effort to get it right and (mostly) bug free in each release is a lot of work, as you have to test on quite a lot of devices. I do it with Virtual Machines, but they have drawbacks too, you never know if it's a bug in your software or the VM. If the toks (bug fixes) get much longer than the tiks, I might have a problem as I cannot add the features I and customers want.

I will look into the possibility to support 10.9. This should be possible by writing some fallback code.

Regarding Eagle Versions. Copper currently only supports the Eagle XML format. Decoding binary formats - as it has been with Eagle before Version 6 - is nearly impossible without support. Perhaps there is a ULP that is able to export from Eagle 5 into Eagle6+ format or any other converters?

I think that shipping is a feature. There could have been hundreds of things to add, but I wanted a robust, first release and I wanted it to be released. I am a bit impressed by the wide range of OS and Eagle Versions used in production. I will have a look and will post what is possible and when.

Thank you very much for your interest and support.

Phillip

[zapta]

Hi pschuster, it seems from your description that you designed it as a Mac only software (not a problem for this Mac user).

Can you explain your reasoning for not using a platform independent design that will allow to support all three OSs?  I would think naively that will will allow you to target a wider market. 

We had here in the past a few discussions about multi OS desktop software design.

[pschuster]

Hi,

there are basically just two ways IMHO to do multi platform. Use a software framework/platform that supports all target platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux should be in the Mix, too) like Java VM (argh) or Qt (better). Or get two/three teams, one building a software for the Mac, and the other team building the software for Windows, and perhaps a third team building it for Linux. Of course you could set it up to share code using C/C++ which can be imported and used in nearly all programming languages and platforms as "native" code/libraries, but you would have to build the user interface from scratch.

I really love Macs. I switched from Windows in 2004. Before that, I have been doing a lot of Windows programming. I love my Mac because I love Mac OS X. I love the attention to detail. I like that everything looks great (well mostly) and works intuitively. And I love the speed. I love that I can type without software constantly acquiring focus - well Microsoft Software does that on my Mac, too. But you really must not use that software anymore.

For small teams, the only way to do multi platform is using a framework like Qt or Java. But these frameworks typically do not implement all the special features of the OS. They look the same on every OS. But I want a Mac App to look like a Mac App. And it should behave like that. As far as I know Eagle is built with Qt. And, well. Eagle for Mac is not a Mac App. It's a ported, or "shared OS" App.

Another reason: I really know what I am doing when programming for the Mac. I did that for many, many years. I really love Objective-C for it's descriptive nature. And Apple is just doing awesome APIs and stuff for developers. I have been programming my whole life (started on a C64) and I never had so much fun and getting faster results than with Objective-C and Cocoa.

Take the 3D mode in Copper. Copper generates most of the geometry automatically. And it generates textures, bump maps and renders with lights, shadows, depth of blur, etc. This is possible with Windows, too. But you will have to dive into Direct3D, or license a 3D engine, but most of them would be overkill as they are written for games. Mac OS X features "SceneKit". An awesome library that lets you create 3D user interfaces and scenes very fast and easy. You will not have to work on GLSL shaders, Apple did that for me.

Although there is a much wider audience if you support windows, I don't think you get that "sound of voice" to really attract all these people as there is quite a lot EDA software for Windows. But I don't think there is really a good Mac App. And this is what I want Copper to be. THE Mac App for Electronics. And if I succeed with that, the audience is large enough...

[pschuster]

Hi all,

just wanted to let you know that the final 1.0 release is now available in the Mac App Store. For anyone interested and thinking about buying a Mac I have created a new promo video showing some of the features in action - perhaps another reason to make the switch ;-).

Thanks for all beta testers that tried the App and sent in bug reports! More Info and the promo video at: http://www.copper-app.com.

Phillip

[nctnico]

For small teams, the only way to do multi platform is using a framework like Qt or Java. But these frameworks typically do not implement all the special features of the OS. They look the same on every OS.

You left out WxWidgets which does exactly what the other frameworks don't: it also supports platform specific things. With WxWidgets it is easy to compile programs which use platform specific features from one source (ofcourse using defines to enable/disable certain parts of the sourcecode).

[rfbroadband]

I will test it as soon as files with using other data formats can be imported. I don't use Eagle I use Allegro...the 3D rendering in Allegro looks terrible, so I would definitely use it if I can import the data...

[kripton2035]

Hi,

there are basically just two ways IMHO to do multi platform. Use a software framework/platform that supports all target platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux should be in the Mix, too) like Java VM (argh) or Qt (better). Or get two/three teams, one building a software for the Mac, and the other team building the software for Windows, and perhaps a third team building it for Linux. Of course you could set it up to share code using C/C++ which can be imported and used in nearly all programming languages and platforms as "native" code/libraries, but you would have to build the user interface from scratch.

Another reason: I really know what I am doing when programming for the Mac. I did that for many, many years. I really love Objective-C for it's descriptive nature. And Apple is just doing awesome APIs and stuff for developers. I have been programming my whole life (started on a C64) and I never had so much fun and getting faster results than with Objective-C and Cocoa.

take a look at Xojo for multi platform programming...