Am 17.10.2010 um 20:28 schrieb kai-martin knaak:
Markus Hitter wrote:
http://reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Milling#gerbv
"gEDA is yet another software suite with schematic and PCB layout
editor. It wasn't included in the set of preferred choices here
because it requires hand-coding of text files in between usage of
the different GUI tools."
Actually, it does not.
You can do the whole work-flow in GUI-mode only. You can use xgsch2pcb
or the shiny new pull feature of pcb to eliminate the command line,
too. That said, sometimes it is just easier to tweak the *.sch, or
*.pcb files than use the GUIs.
The reprap example shows how slightly misunderstood concepts may scare
away potential new users/projects.
As I wrote most of this RepRap Wiki page myself, I can also explain
how this happened.
When looking on how and wether to get away from the free but closed
source Eagle I tried a small 8 elements electronics project on Eagle,
KiCad, Fritzing and gEDA. All from creating schematics to the
finished GCode needed for milling the PCB. RepRap is about machines
replicating it's self, so getting boards from some industry company
should be avoided as much as possible.
Regarding gEDA, your home page recommends the gsch2pcb tutorial
http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gsch2pcb_tutorial
for new users, so I started with that. If you look at this tutorial,
it's full of command line stuff. Edit preferences files here, enter
paths there, it even talks about manually fixing errors which occur
ineviteably. Uh.
I did the first steps successfully but when I messed up in either
gschem or pcb the third time just because they use different mouse
buttons for panning and zooming, I also started to wonder how I would
explain all this stuff to these 16 year old schoolboys showing up at
RepRap. I couldn't imagine that.
Now it's a few weeks later and I use gEDA anyways, because I deviate
from a part of the project done by an gEDA expert. I got accustomed
somewhat to the inconsistent interfaces, found some spots of
excellent GUI - DRC results or the layer setup editor, for example -
and the suite starts to show it's bright side. Still it's difficult
to explain this software to others.
In case I'm allowed to write down my three biggest wishes, here they
are:
- Get that thing packaged as soon as a new release is done. Only
software developers install from source these days. As far as I can
see, Debian and the just released Ubuntu 10.10 still distribute the
Nov 2009 release.
- Get the interface, especially mouse button behaviour, consistent
between all parts of the suite. At least for a default installation.
It doesn't matter wether you have to use the middle or right mouse
button to pan around, but having different buttons for applications
you often switch in between is a non-starter. And no, pointing to the
key bindings editor doesn't help, because people would have to learn
that instead of learning how to get their project done.
- Write a new tutorial. With a few pictures like before, and without
any asking for editing text files. I've learned about xgsch2pcb and
pull just with the email cited above, after reading many hours in
various parts of the gEDA documentation. There is simply no hint such
great features exist, so many users never find them.
Yes, this type of public relations work is sometimes tedious, but it
will undoubtly bring you a lot of new users as well. As far as I can
tell gEDA is the most reliable and powerful choice of open source
EDA. The text file format makes it attractive for experts. gEDA's GUI
can be brought on par with Eagle or KiCad easily, so there's no
reason to miss that opportunity.
Thanks for listening,
Markus
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