Diptrace free version is limited to 300 pins and 2 layer board. how is that better than eagle free version.
Kicad is free and has no limits t all. It is supported by the CERN, and will stay free for quite a long time.

95% of my designs have a lot more pins than 300, and I often use for layers for Radio Frequency designs, so both Diptrace and Eagle would cost me a lot to use them.

Just my two cents,
Jean-Paul
N1JPL

On Feb 24, 2019, at 1:15 PM, Rob via Groups.Io <roomberg@...> wrote:



definitely like this better than EAGLE or KiCad.

Thank you.






On 02/24/2019 06:57 AM, Mark Jordan wrote:

In the past I was a Tango PCB user and liked it very much! Now it runs only in a DOSbox.
Have tried KiCAD but not liked it. Same with DesignSpark.
Found DipTrace Free and liked it! Very easy to learn and use.



73,
Mark Jordan - PY3SS



On 24-Feb-19 03:08, brane212 wrote:

BTW, since new serias( 5.xx) of KiCAD is out, I've decided to get at least a taste of it, so, I've installed it and:

- it still feels awkward to me.
- it's too bloated for its function
-it's still buggy as it crashes a lot, at least inside my constext ( Gentoo, Wayland, Enlightenment)
- it's slow
-its value added options ( resistance calculator etcetc) are of dubious value for me

So, at least for me, KiCAD is not really that enticing option.

Branko


On 22. 02. 19 08:42, brane212 wrote:

These things can be set up.

If you don't find solution by yourself, get on their mail list and ask.



Branko


On 22. 02. 19 02:34, William Kimber wrote:

Well I tried the pcb-lesstif version in my distro and it is just as unusable as the plain pcb.


Font is too small, very light and just about unreadable once a menu is opened. In neither case does it follow the standard font size set in Systems Settings.


Sorry but not usable to me and since I had eye surgery my sight is spot on.


Cheers,

Will

On 22/02/19 3:23 PM, DJ Delorie wrote:

"Rob via Groups.Io" <roomberg@...> writes:

THANK YOU

You're welcome.

what is lesstif HID ?

A HID is a "human interface device". PCB has two HIDs that are GUIs -
one that uses the GTK toolkit, and the other uses the Lesstif (typically
Motif these days) toolkit.

If you installed PCB from your distro, you may have an alternate package
you can install instead of "pcb" like "pcb-lesstif".

If you're building pcb from sources, use "./configure --with-gui=lesstif"

There's also a "batch" HID we use for scripting (like the testsuite, and
web CGIs) as well as a large range of export HIDs (like gerber,
postscript, png, etc).

I suggest the two free programs:

TinyCAD?? (? ? )
?? and
FreePCB? (? ? )

TinyCAD is a easy, free schematic package that can export a PADS-PCB file that then can be imported into FreePCB.? They are simple, free, non-crippled pieces of software.

I have done multiple projects over the years in these two packages.? What's nice is that I don't work with them daily, but can come back in years and pick them up and start using them.? The FreePCB data file is in ASCII and can be edited with a simple text editor.?? Why that's nice is that on one project I had a very complex board outline that the client gave me a few thousand point Gerber milling file of the outline.? A few simple edits using a spreadsheet to adjust the units of measurement and add a bit of code conversion and I plugged it into the FreePCB file and proceeded from there to move in the parts and traces from the PADS-PCB file.? Though FreePCB doesn't have the bells and whistles of the other packages it was easy to do a complex problem.? (And yes I have played with KICAD and my comments mirror some of the others.? It doesn't flow easily for beginners.) ? Some of the other free packages mentioned are crippled so you get a ways in the project and run into one of the shortcomings.? Free is not so free then.?

While on the subject of simple, free packages.? To complete the chain,
Gerbv?? (? ? )?? - the free gEDA file viewer rounds out the design chain so you can view the final output files from FreePCB.?

It always surprises me when they seem to be overlooked when free programs are brought up as they always worked so well and easily for me.

Just my two cents.?
Regards,
Charles R. Patton

On 2/24/2019 7:46 PM, Rob via Groups.Io wrote:

We definitely are comparing apples to oranges here.

I am not looking to make anything with more that 100 pins.

My hobby interest level is not in all of the whizbang full features of autorouting.

When I declared I definitely liked Diptrace better than EAGLE or KiCAD I was having a

VERY biased opinion of the BEGINNER documentation walk through and the simplicity of the user interface.

As a CAD PCB newbie I found the learning curve to start from scratch knowing nothing about EAGLE

was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay above my skill set as an amateur electronics dabbler.

The EAGLE GUI and documentation was hard for me to read...even when greatly magnified.

And then

5 minutes into waltzing with DIPtrace tutorials pretty much sold me.... just enough to give it another looksie.


On 02/24/2019 02:28 PM, Jean-Paul Louis via Groups.Io wrote:

Diptrace free version is limited to 300 pins and 2 layer board. how is that better than eagle free version.
Kicad is free and has no limits t all. It is supported by the CERN, and will stay free for quite a long time.

95% of my designs have a lot more pins than 300, and I often use for layers for Radio Frequency designs, so both Diptrace and Eagle would cost me a lot to use them.

Just my two cents,
Jean-Paul
N1JPL

On Feb 24, 2019, at 1:15 PM, Rob via Groups.Io <roomberg@...> wrote:



definitely like this better than EAGLE or KiCad.

Thank you.






On 02/24/2019 06:57 AM, Mark Jordan wrote:

???? In the past I was a Tango PCB user and liked it very much! Now it runs only in a DOSbox.
???? Have tried KiCAD but not liked it. Same with DesignSpark.
???? Found DipTrace Free and liked it! Very easy to learn and use.

????

???? 73,
???? Mark Jordan - PY3SS



On 24-Feb-19 03:08, brane212 wrote:

BTW, since new serias( 5.xx) of KiCAD is out, I've decided to get at least a taste of it, so, I've installed it and:

- it still feels awkward to me.
- it's too bloated for its function
-it's still buggy as it crashes a lot, at least inside my constext ( Gentoo, Wayland, Enlightenment)
- it's slow
-its value added options ( resistance calculator etcetc) are of dubious value for me

So, at least for me, KiCAD is not really that enticing option.

Branko


On 22. 02. 19 08:42, brane212 wrote:

These things can be set up.

If you don't find solution by yourself, get on their mail list and ask.



Branko


On 22. 02. 19 02:34, William Kimber wrote:

Well I tried the pcb-lesstif version in my distro and it is just as unusable as the plain pcb.


Font is too small, very light and just about unreadable once a menu is opened.? In neither case does it follow the standard font size set in Systems Settings.


Sorry but not usable to me and since I had eye surgery my sight is spot on.


Cheers,

Will

On 22/02/19 3:23 PM, DJ Delorie wrote:

"Rob via Groups.Io" <roomberg@...> writes:

THANK YOU

You're welcome.

what is lesstif HID ?

A HID is a "human interface device".? PCB has two HIDs that are GUIs -
one that uses the GTK toolkit, and the other uses the Lesstif (typically
Motif these days) toolkit.

If you installed PCB from your distro, you may have an alternate package
you can install instead of "pcb" like "pcb-lesstif".

If you're building pcb from sources, use "./configure --with-gui=lesstif"

There's also a "batch" HID we use for scripting (like the testsuite, and
web CGIs) as well as a large range of export HIDs (like gerber,
postscript, png, etc).

Virus-free.

We definitely are comparing apples to oranges here.

I am not looking to make anything with more that 100 pins.

My hobby interest level is not in all of the whizbang full features of autorouting.

When I declared I definitely liked Diptrace better than EAGLE or KiCAD I was having a

VERY biased opinion of the BEGINNER documentation walk through and the simplicity of the user interface.

As a CAD PCB newbie I found the learning curve to start from scratch knowing nothing about EAGLE

was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay above my skill set as an amateur electronics dabbler.

The EAGLE GUI and documentation was hard for me to read...even when greatly magnified.

And then

5 minutes into waltzing with DIPtrace tutorials pretty much sold me.... just enough to give it another looksie.