On Sat, 23 Feb 2019 09:56:46 +1100, you wrote:
Fusion 360 is free for hobbyist use.
Good idea.
Unlike with Eagle there are no restrictions, so the free version is the same
as the paid one.
I have a "standard" paid edition with eagle, 6 * 4 maximum board,
hobbyiest version, yadda yadda little dog too....
(Usual guff about 'that might change', 'but it's cloud based' etc etc goes
here.)
and I don't like the cloud, at all. Don't trust it. That is a
problem.
Of course there's a learning curve for both Eagle & Fusion, so if what
you're doing works for you, then carry on. If you do want to learn Fusion,
skip YouTube and follow the tutorials in the Help menu. Not sure about any
Eagle beginners guides.
Eagle tutorials aren't valid for 7.x (which is the last before autocad
bought it and went to a subscription model, 100 dollars/year nominal,
only of use if you already use EAGLE and despise subscription pay
models (**** ding! ding! ding! *)
I've used it for long enough that I'm used to it, I can put up with
it, etc.
Having said that, Kicad is still an option....
Fusion being on the cloud is a major problem to me....
Thanks for the info, though.
Harvey
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Harvey White
Sent: Saturday, 23 February 2019 8:38 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [homebrewpcbs] who said use gEDA 800 X 600 resolution
On Fri, 22 Feb 2019 19:26:07 +1100, you wrote:
If you use Fusion 360 for CAD stuff, you can send a 3D model of your
board
to Fusion so you can design an enclosure for it.
In theory if you redesign the board (eg move some LEDs around) those
changes
will propagate to Fusion, and your enclosure will update (eg move the
cutouts). I haven't played with that too much to see how well it
actually
works.
There's a way to do that in EAGLE that doesn't involve using their
(pay for) services. However, there's significant programming
involved.
You need to take the board file apart, then figure out where the parts
go. Once you do that, you need a 3D model of the part. I use
openSCAD, which allows me to make a color, rotatable 3D image which
can be used to design a case.
If I wanted to, I could also do a 3D print of the board itself, no
colors, of course, but it's possible to do since it *is* a 3D image.
A little parametric work here and there (all resistors devolve to the
same models with slightly different parameters), and you'd be
surprised how many parts you can do.
It's rolling your own, though, and perhaps more work than most would
want to do.
Why do it? I don't want to pay for something I figured I could do
myself, and having a 3D cad model in the same program I use for cases
seemed rather useful.
The cad model includes mounting posts for the boards, and a punchout
which when added to the case, makes the appropriate holes based on the
board layout.
Harvey
Tony
If you can live with the limitations of the free version of EAGLE (all
libraries, 2 layers, 3 * 4 inch boards and one schematic sheet), then
that's free. You may or may not like the interface, but the menus can
(I think), be changed in size for icons.
If in windows, there's always low vision alternatives, but I've never
explored them.
KiCAD is free, has different limitations (it's all free....), and may
be what you might like.
It all depends on the complexity of your boards, the parts you use,
and what you think is simple enough.
Harvey
