[volt-nuts] Design Spark PCB Design Package

[Dan Kemppainen]

> Have you looked at Kicad? It is used by both professionals and hobbyists,
> and being open source, is not reliant on RS to update it.
>
> Now there is a decent open source PCB layout program,  I would not suggest
> anyone learn a new proprietary package unless there were very good
> reasons,  such as an employer says you must use a particular program.
>

OK, I keep hearing how great KiCAD is, and should abandon everything 
else. I'm being persuaded to try KiCAD, and am not very impressed. If 
you do one board a year, it may be OK. But if you do a board or two a 
week, forget it.

When you create a board, you have to export the netlist from the 
schematic and import it into the board manually. No foreword/back 
annotation is maintained automatically.

Second, there is no way to highlight a net in the schematic, to show 
what pins/components are attached to it. Makes it very hard to follow 
what is actually connected.

However for me the killer is you have to map each schematic entity to 
the physical package for every board layout. When you make a library 
item, such as an opamp, the schematic symbol is not tied to the package. 
You have to map them in a separate step. Huge time consumer!

Libraries are also not solid yet. You are better off creating your own. 
Also, the package is bloated with a whole bunch of .pdf's for various 
chips. (Why???) Printing is a schematic is problematic, and seems to cut 
off the left edge of the page on my printer.

That said, I am following the project with interest, and would really 
like to see it turn into a full blown package. In some number of years, 
that should happen. However at this point I do not feel it is ready for 
daily use. It feels like beta software.

If you've actually used KiCAD and know something different, please speak up!

Dan