[Cryptech Tech] design software

[Pavel Shatov]

On 17.01.2016 18:33, Peter Stuge wrote:
>
> I think you need to ask what the design data should accomplish.
>
> The only reason to use a proprietary data format at this stage would
> IMO be that the project wants to create a reference design that can
> be used as-is by an ODM/OEM who wants to start selling a product.
>
> Unless someone is banging down the door wanting to donate lots of
> money if they can only get a design to spin I don't think it is
> time+money well spent, because proprietary design data is generally
> useless, both for the project itself and for the community at large.
>

First of all, let's not forget, that you don't send binary blobs to a 
factory, you send your board in Gerber format, which is the de facto 
industry standard. It is open 
(https://www.ucamco.com/en/guest/downloads), and there are many free 
open source Gerber viewers. There are even on-line viewers, such as, for 
example:

http://www.gerber-viewer.com/
http://mayhewlabs.com/3dpcb

Btw, as far as I remember, we used one of them to help review Fredrik's 
dev-bridge board.

All design tools allow you to generate Gerbers from their internal 
formats. So regardless of whether you use free open source design 
software or proprietary closed source design software, you will export 
Gerbers in the end, and they are easy to audit. In that sense regardless 
of what software we use, we'll generate a set of Gerbers, that everyone 
will be able to just use "as-is" to produce boards.

The problem is that in case someone wants to produce a modified version 
of our design, he will have to edit board source first, which can be in 
some proprietary format.

>
>> a pro design house may not use eagle anyway.
>
> That's useless speculation, you name neither contractor nor their tool.
>
> There are (of course!) excellent contractors out there using EAGLE.

Could you please name a few?

>
> But again, the design software isn't important, the design data is.
>

I'm sorry, I can't agree with that.

Suppose, that I need to do break-out for 484-pin BGA package. I know, 
that Allegro (closed-source proprietary software) allows me to do this 
with just one click of a mouse. I don't see such feature in EAGLE, KiCAD 
or gEDA (please correct me, if I'm wrong). Do I have to click my mouse 
484 times to add 484 dog bones? Well, I can copy and paste, but that's 
still around 100 clicks. For me personally two orders of magnitude 
increase in productivity is important.


--
With best regards,
Pavel Shatov