On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 7:44 PM, Steve Willoughby wrote: > peter green wrote: >> I learnt to design PCBs at uni using altium 2004. I have grown used to >> it's workflow and quirks and quite like it. However I would now like to >> be able to design PCBs for my own hobbyist purposes on my own machines. >> Altium is utterly unaffordable for hobbyist use (and I don't want to >> pirate) so I'm trying to decide what I should move to. Ideally free >> (prefferablly in both senses) but cheap may be acceptable. >> >> Eagle seems to be quite popular on here but the board size limits on all >> but the most expensive edition seem pretty low. Also what I have heard >> of thier ways of dealing with piracy or suspected piracy concern me. >> >> i've looked at kicad but not been impressed by what i've seen, it >> doesn't seem to be able to make schematics and PCB files self contained >> (that is changing a library should not change a schematic or PCB unless >> I explicitly tell it too) and it's handling of polygon fills is awful. >> >> Any suggestions? > > I've used "PCB" quite successfully for years now. =A0Does its job well, > plays nicely with gEDA. (http://pcb.gpleda.org) That's what I use pretty much exclusively. I don't care for the non-standard interface, but it does create some really nice boards. The git versions of Peter Clifton are worth using for the translucent layers, even with occasional crashes. Have you used the new router yet? http://www.wand.net.nz/~amb33/toporouter/ I just did a 4-layer design that I wish I could share, but it is still kinda seekrit. Here are a couple older ones: http://live.midwesttelecine.com/1.png http://live.midwesttelecine.com/2.png Regards, Mark markrages@gmail -- = Mark Rages, Engineer Midwest Telecine LLC markrages@midwesttelecine.com -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist