Electronics > KiCad

KiCAD will be the main PCB layout software package in future?

(1/9) > >>

Faringdon:
Hi,
Ever been  to some company and there arent enough seats for the PCB layout program?
Ever been to a company and people cant work on the PCBs at home because the dongle has to stay at work?
Ever been to a company and you cant find out how to delete some blemish on a footprint?
Cant find out how to copy paste layout subcircuits multiple times into the same PCB?
You use Altium, but your new co have used Altium but used different layers for different things than you did?...your parts are thus all messed up.
Ever gone somewhere and they use an old version of "xxxx" Layout...and its not possible to even start to use it till someone handholds you for several hours?

This will all change
Ever spent $10 on a CD or record album?
Not any more....you just go to youtube and download  music  for free.

This will be the same with PCB layout....KiCAD will be free....it will be the best one...and the one that everyone uses.
Its just the way things go.

Do you agree?

SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Ever been  to some company and there arent enough seats for the PCB layout program?
--- End quote ---

Sure. Not that I particularly cared though, as in most companies I've worked for, there were people dedicated to PCB layout, so not having access to it for others would not matter one bit.
And those were not necessarily all big companies either. This setup works well even in small ones.
Just because you can design a circuit doesn't mean you can layout it properly, so I don't mind dedicated people specialized in that. Just a thought.
Point is, related to your question, sometimes not having access to something is actually better.


--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Ever been to a company and people cant work on the PCBs at home because the dongle has to stay at work?
--- End quote ---

Yep, actually never been in one that allowed people working on design stuff at home except for paperwork.
Whether this was dongle-based or with a network license, you just couldn't use it outside of the company's building. A few rare exceptions for those having a VPN.
Of course this has slightly changed ever since the infamous 2020, at which point I was independent anyway. So YMMV.


--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Ever been to a company and you cant find out how to delete some blemish on a footprint?
--- End quote ---

Not sure what you mean by that exactly, but if this is about modifying parts and footprints in libraries, then, again that depends on the company's policy.
Letting everyone modify shared libraries is rarely a good idea. So not per se a problem of software.



--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Cant find out how to copy paste layout subcircuits multiple times into the same PCB?
--- End quote ---

Certainly. This is more or less well supported depending on the software package you use. Often less than more.


--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---You use Altium, but your new co have used Altium but used different layers for different things than you did?...your parts are thus all messed up.
Ever gone somewhere and they use an old version of "xxxx" Layout...and its not possible to even start to use it till someone handholds you for several hours?
--- End quote ---

More or less.


--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---This will all change
--- End quote ---

Will it?


--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Ever spent $10 on a CD or record album?
Not any more....you just go to youtube and download  music  for free.

This will be the same with PCB layout....KiCAD will be free....it will be the best one...and the one that everyone uses.
Its just the way things go.

--- End quote ---

Apart from the licensing issues and cost, most of the points you made above can also be said with KiCad. For your last point, just look at what happens when people update major versions of KiCad. It can be a lot of fun too.

Not completely sure what your point was then.

Sure KiCad has become a decent alternative and I have actually finally switched to it for most projects unless not allowed.
But is it the "future" and will it replace every commercial EDA on the planet? I doubt it.

And while open-source and free is great, would it even be desirable that it became the only model used in the future? I'm not so positive about that.
When things become free on a large scale, then you become the product. Anyway.

LazyJack:
I don't agree fully. Being free (talking about business use) is only a part of the equation. If a non free the tool generates more revenue than what the free tool would, taking the price difference in account, then a business decision would be to go for the non free.
Of course it is not that easy to calculate all this, when you factor in the lower (or higher for that matter) risk, the possibility to being able to develop the tool according to our needs, the use of unlimited licenses, etc.
It will all boil down to wheter KiCad is/will be able to satisfy the needs of intensive commercial use.

woofy:
I'm not convinced.
Linux has been around in a usable form for a quarter century, but windows still has a 70% market share on the desktop.
But yeah, it will certainly become more popular as it grows in capability.

langwadt:

--- Quote from: SiliconWizard on April 03, 2023, 08:33:54 pm ---
--- Quote from: Faringdon on April 03, 2023, 06:35:47 pm ---Ever been to a company and people cant work on the PCBs at home because the dongle has to stay at work?
--- End quote ---

Yep, actually never been in one that allowed people working on design stuff at home except for paperwork.
Whether this was dongle-based or with a network license, you just couldn't use it outside of the company's building. A few rare exceptions for those having a VPN.
Of course this has slightly changed ever since the infamous 2020, at which point I was independent anyway. So YMMV.


--- End quote ---

I seem to remember licenses for some  really expensive tools banning use more than a mile from the company, to avoid people time sharing licenses between continents

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page