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Forum Index : Electronics : DipTrace presented by Dave(EEVBlog)
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vasi Guru  Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
The series continues with DipTrace (seems that Dave liked the feedback) as a better alternative to Eagle and KiCAD. It is far superior to both, still easy to work with. Unfortunately, it have a 300 pin limitation (if you have a board over 300 pins, you can still work on it but you will not be able to generate production files for it - as Dave didn't found out at the presentation moment) but does not limit your board and you can continue to simulate footprints with vias if you really need more than 300 pins with the freeware version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbr0RWb3kkU&feature=related It is worth a try from Eagle and KiCAD users. On Linux is working very well with Wine (I did not found any problems using it that way). Vasi Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
This is (on the free version) the 3D image of the board which Dave tried to visualize. The render is set to OpenGL and 3D components are downloaded and installed. 
Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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| vasi Guru Joined: 23/03/2007 Location: RomaniaPosts: 1697 |
Every time I had a chance, I advertised for KiCAD and gEDA PCB. I like them a lot but I rarely use them. I don't use gEDA PCB anymore for my open projects because is hard for others to work with it, and I don't use KiCAD because right now, I don't need that much power (size). Even if is much over Eagle in my opinion. I'm "keeping" it for the day when I will need to make large boards (or for the day when it will become like DipTrace in terms of usage - though personally I don't complain). I mainly used Eagle just because I was able to generate nice images (required for documentation and blog activity) with Povray, because have a large and tested library (compared to other two), and because many other open designs on Internet needs Eagle. I always had problems with the restrictions on board size and the absence of a pad editor on board. I will keep it for others designs and as a conversion tool for a rare component (eventually, also for g-code generation if I'm not satisfied with DipTrace features in that area). I rarely used DipTrace but enjoyed it every time. Now I will use it instead of Eagle specially because I like it more than all the three others and because it got (the desired) momentum. So, few days ago I got my free upgrade (by email request) to 500 pins, 2 layers and unrestricted size of the board for non-commercial use (though, they say you can sell few boards of your hobby project - check that on their site if you don't believe me). For now is good enough. Right now I work under Linux using Wine, I imported a project from Eagle and for some components I used 3D objects from KiCAD at @Florin's suggestion. I can use it "at the maximum speed" possible. There are images with the Eagle imported project and using some of the KiCAD 3D objects (sometimes, for weird Eagle parts you will not find 3D objects in DipTrace and need to import them from KiCAD if possible or you can make them using Wings3D - but is not mandatory): 
Well, 3D part does not mean much but is something which is present on the professional packages and is good to know that it can use also ready made KiCAD 3D objects. And anyway, I liked to write about something I like. Hobbit name: Togo Toadfoot of Frogmorton Elvish name: Mablung Miriel Beyound Arduino Lang |
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