6 Jul
2011
6 Jul
'11
11:39 p.m.
On 7/6/11 7:03 PM, Andrew Lynch wrote:
You've missed the point entirely. Yes, gEDA
includes a PCB layout
tool (PCB) which includes an autorouter. However, they are closely
coupled and if you want to use the PCB autorouter you must start with
gEDA EDA tool set and stay with it.
This is not correct! While there is a well-developed integrative
path between PCB and the gEDA suite, it is NOT necessary to do all of
your schematics in gEDA in order to use PCB, nor is it necessary to use
PCB for your board layouts if you use gEDA for schematics/BOM/etc.
The program "PCB" is only very loosely associated with gEDA.
Different authors/maintainers, different lineage, different original
platforms (PCB started out as a program for the Atari ST many moons ago,
if memory serves) etc etc.
There is no import/export
capability so if you use KiCAD, FreePCB, EAGLE, etc
then you are out
of luck. This is the "lock in" which plagues the whole EDA
technology because there are few if any interchange standards. There
is no way to import/export PCBs in/out of gEDA AFAIK, at least from
KiCAD. I can't tell if gEDA supports Specctra import/export
necessary to use FreeRouting.net but doesn't appear so.
There's very little import/export functionality in stuff like this
because there are no standard formats. gEDA's file format is purely
text-based and was designed to be easily parsable, so if one can
decipher the desired target format it should be possible to write an
exporter.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL