Eagle is a (the?) product of CadSoft Computer GmbH, a
German company. Eagle is an acronym, realizable in both
German and English: EAGLE - Easily Applicable Graphical
Layout Editor Einfach Anzuwendender Grafischer Layout
Editor [I know ;-) that German often seems merely to
be mis-spelled English, but are "Layout" and "Editor"
really the same in German and English?]. You probably
didn't find "Eagle Lite" in part because it is actually
"Eagle Light". Cadsoft is at http://www.cadsoft.de or
http://www.cadsoftusa.com.

Eagle is CAD program for PCB & Circuit design. It has
schematic capture, layout and autorouter modules, and can
produce Gerber output for delivery to board production
houses.  It lacks a SPICE type simulation capability. It
is available in three grades, Light (free), Standard
and Professional.  The primary limitation to the Light
version is that it will only design two-sided boards of
relatively small size (up to 10cm x 8cm), although it is
sufficient for many PIC projects. The standard version
can do four-layer boards up to 16cm x 10cm. The Pro
version can do 16-layer boards up to 160cm x 160cm.
All three modules of the Pro version together cost about
US$1200. Standard costs about $600, and Light is free
or $50 with manual, CD-ROM distribution and support.

I have (through my employer) a copy of the standard
version, and am very happy with it. There was a thread
several weeks ago about PCB software, and my conclusion
was that Eagle was one of the most cost-effective
choices available. There are limitations in the software
compared to some of the packages that cost tens of
thousands of dollars (extensive parts libraries and
integrated SPICE support, for example) but these limitations
are far more palatable than the general brokenness
that appears to be exhibited by several other low-cost
PCB programs.

CadSoft is selling a solid package at a comparatively
low cost, and offers a free version that is very
complete and effective for hobbiest and beginner
projects. They provide very good support; they run
an on-line forum on their website and promptly
answer even questions from people who are using
the free version. Most people, I believe, would find
the theft of their software offensive.

--Bob


On Sun, Jan 17, 1999 at 11:15:12AM -0700, Keith Causey wrote:
> Pardon my ignorance but I just did  a search on Eagle Lite and all I found
> was a poetry publishing house. You guys are not talking about poetry though.
> Are you?
>                                             Keith Causey
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas McGahee <tom_mcgahee@SIGMAIS.COM>
> To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
> Date: Sunday, January 17, 1999 10:22 AM
> Subject: Re: Eagle CRACK!!!!!
>
>
> >The folks that produce Eagle Lite have been very generous
> >in making the Eagle Lite package available free to
> >hobbyists. It is a slap in their face for us PICsters
> >to be a part of any crack rip-off of their product.
> >I am pleased to see from the recent posts on this
> >subject that the members of this PIC list are by and large
> >honest hard-working folks who realize that other
> >honest and hard-working folks have a right to make
> >a reasonable profit on their goods and services.
> >
> >Fr. Tom McGahee
> >

--
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Bob Drzyzgula                             It's not a problem
bob@drzyzgula.org                until something bad happens
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