gnupic@linuxhacker.org

On Friday, April 25, 2003, at 03:14  PM, Byron A Jeff wrote:

> So I'm interested to see if anyone has used PCB:
>
> http://bach.ece.jhu.edu/~haceaton/pcb
>
> It's an Open Source PCB layout tool. It looks pretty good but it 
> doesn't
> seem to have a lot of support. No tutorials or examples outside of its
> self contained documentation. I was wondering if anyone has used it?
> Any tips or tutorials that you know of? Is it worth the investment of 
> learning
> or is Eagle the way to go?

Check the geda-user list (info at 
http://www.geda.seul.org/mailinglist/index.html)

I have used PCB, and I generated the PCB-format netlist and component 
list from gschem (http://www.geda.seul.org) and gschem2pcb. I had some 
trouble with the Gerber output of 1.6.x (arcs weren't being written 
properly) which went away when upgrading to the "hidden" release 1.99j. 
The gEDA list has pointers to the new version.

I used Advanced Circuits (http://4pcb.com) for fabrication-- their 
$33/each special is a pretty good deal, and there are no minimum 
quantities for orders shipped to academic institutions (IIRC). You 
would do well to try their FreeDFM service to catch some layout 
problems, but note that it can get a little confused on complex 
designs. Try to talk to a CAD person there if you have questions.

Autorouting is possible in 1.6 with some MUCS integration patches from 
DJ Delorie (also see geda lists) and there is an autorouter integrated 
with 1.99, but it didn't seem to work for me (and the only 
documentation seems to be the source).

If you're interested, sometime next week I can try and release my 
schematics and board files for the USB-capable 16C765 board that I did 
with gschem and PCB. They're all done, I just haven't put any GPL 
notices in any of the files yet.

I looked at Eagle once a few years ago, and didn't think the benefits 
(over gschem or Xcircuits) outweighed the license restrictions.

-- 
Charles Lepple <clepple@ghz.cc>
http://www.ghz.cc/charles/