As a comment to this I can say that we have earlier been using Ultiboard
that recently was bought by Electronics Workbench. We originally looked for
an easy to use program that we could use to get a PCB drawn fast and
accurate.

A few years ago this was true with Ultiboard (the DOS version) but since the
switch to Windows they have lost track of what is important. We got the
impression that most of the development where spent on making nice little
gadgets and all sort of special features that you very seldom use. Instead
the functionality for serious work got worse and the bugs where increasing.

Things got to a stage where we decided to switch to another program and we
tried Eagle since it is very cheap.

Eagle doesn't contain a lot of special functions like 3D view etc and it
looks a bit simple. But all the important features like,

> Design rule checking
> copper fill
> advanced editing of library symbols
> back/forward annotate (real time)
> very fine pitch (getting into TSSOP)
> ease of mixing metric and imperial
> multi-page project grouping
> bill of material generation

are there and so far we haven't found any big problems whit it.

We have only been using it for 6 moths so far so I am no expert yet.

If you are looking for a program that you can draw a PCB with fast &
accurate I can recommend Eagle, if you on the other hand require
simulation,#D and more advance features you should choose something else.

/Tomas




> We are both standing on the same iceberg. I am concerned that eagle is
> hobby too.
> My super duper wish list;
>
> Design rule checking
> copper fill
> advanced editting of library symbols
> back/forward anotate
> very fine pitch (getting into TSSOP)
> ease of mixing metric and imperial
> multi-page project grouping
> bill of material generation
>
> Of course, add the word 'better' in front of each item, as my current
> system, ProCAD, has these but they are flawed to one degree or another.
>
> Chris Loiacono wrote:
> > I'll be watching whatever thread may develop for this, as I have some
> > sililar issues, and have decided to spend some money to resolve them
ASAP.
> > It seems that several on this list have spoken highly of the Eagle tool,
> > likewise it has received high praise on other lists also. I am concerned
> > that it may be a dressed-up hobby package.
>
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> [PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads
>
>

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