Peter, I downloaded KiCad, I am looking it over. What have been the board house response to the Gerber output from KiCad? I am wondering if others are using it on the PicList? Also, in the demo, I noticed the floods look very rough. Is that a normal attribute of this product, no diagonal lines on the floods? Best regards, Giles Peter Bindels wrote: > I've started doing more PCB stuff this year and have finally gotten > PCB etching under control. I use KiCAD for this, which is open-source. > There are lots of parts for it findable through > http://per.launay.free.fr/kicad/kicad_php/composant.php , there's a > generator for DIP/SOIC/*SOP/*QFP package stuff at > http://kicad.rohrbacher.net/quicklib.php and you can always create > them yourself. I'm certain that its printing quality is up to par > (having printed&etched a .5mm dot pitch TQFP board recently) but I'm > not sure how much its gerbers match what the printing services want. I > do know that if it isn't working you can put it in yourself, which you > can't with most other tools. > > If any of you know bad properties of it, please do mention them. I > haven't hit any but would like to know them if they exist. > > 2009/12/11 Giles Honeycutt : > >> I currently own a copy of PADs 3.6 that has PowerPCB and PowerLogic >> It is very outdated. It will cost me over 800.00 to get back on >> maintenance and that offer expires at the end of the month. >> Any recommendation for PCB layout tools? >> I would like to keep my cost down and keep future costs down. I >> probably do 3-6 PCBs a year. >> Any advise from people who have used professional packages and gone to >> the low cost route would be very appreciated. >> >> Best regards, >> Giles Honeycutt >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> >> > > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist