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from the slow-death-of-proprietary-software dept.
EAGLE, The Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor is an ECAD (electronic computer-aided design), proprietary software for creating printed circuit boards. Cadsoft, the company that created it, sold EAGLE to Autodesk in June.
Hackaday reports
Autodesk has announced that EAGLE is now only available for purchase as a subscription. [Previously], users purchased EAGLE once and [could use] the software indefinitely (often for years) before deciding to move to a new version with another one-time purchase. Now, they'll be paying Autodesk on a monthly or yearly basis.
Before Autodesk purchased EAGLE from Cadsoft, a Standard license would run you $69, paid once. [...] Standard will [now] cost $15/month or $100/year and gives similar functionality to the old Premium level, but with only 2 signal layers.
[...] The next level up was Premium, at $820, paid once. [...] If you [now] need more [than 2] layers or more than 160 [sq.cm] of board space, you'll need the new Premium level, at $65/month or $500/year.
New Subscription Pricing Table for Eagle[...] The [freeware] version still exists, but, for anyone using Eagle for commercial purposes (from Tindie sellers to engineering firms), this is a big change. Even if you agree with the new pricing, a subscription model means you never actually own the software. This model will require licensing software that needs to phone home periodically and can be killed remotely. If you need to look back at a design a few years from now, you better hope that your subscription is valid, that Autodesk is still running the license server, and that you have an active internet connection.
The page has well over 100 comments, with many saying the equivalent of "Goodbye, EAGLE; Hello, KiCAD".
KiCAD is gratis and libre, cross-platform, has been adopted as a software development project by nerds at CERN, and has seen marked improvement in recent years.
Previous:
CERN is Getting Serious About Development of the KiCAD App for Designing Printed Circuits
Scripts Make the (Proprietary) Cadsoft EAGLE-to-(FOSS) KiCAD Transition Easier
Some time back, anubi and I conversed about how EAGLE has been DRM'd for quite a long while.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rich on Saturday January 21 2017, @04:44PM
I did a bit of schematic capture last year, for a project of about two double Euro size PCBs, with about 8 sheets each. I started with KiCad right away, after an engineer at a customer suggested it, partly as an educational measure, partly because I could move stuff between Linux and Mac without effort. So, given the article topic, going the FOSS way, even if it might be a bit rockier, was very wise in retrospect.
I did my drawing on a Retina Macbook Pro. Nice graphics, but boy, does this CAD stuff suck wrt to usability. Laptops have had two-finger scrolling for over 10 years now, and all KiCad does on a two finger sweep is a totally uncontrollable zoom. Not only not what you'd expect, but even the unexpected completely unusable. I've had to do the trick with copying the sheet-file content to move some components between sheets, because there is no clipboard support. Yup. Year 2017 and no clipboard in a document based productivity app. Seriously, folks?!
KiCad is not alone in this, LTSpice is as bad, although in different ways, and I heard Eagle isn't too amazing in that department as well. I once concluded that this is, because CAD was the only area where graphical computers were seriously used before the Mac came along in 1984 with its HIG, and they've been ignoring the standardized ways of "Hey you, do that" back then and ever since and stuck to a "verb first" logic (with Autocad and its command line mechanism being the prime offender).
But I guess, with Eagle dropping out, it'll be one or two GSoCs until the worst things are sorted. I look forward to that. Until then, some slapping of the forehead might be part of the workflow, but hey, the work gets done. And I also look forward to doing the PCBs with the KiCAD "push&shove" router, which is said to be greatly effective for good results.
Still, if I had too much time on my hands, I'd write a schematic capture application that conforms to reasonable classic HIG (I already did two similar applications for a vertical market customer one-off thing before, one was for plumbing the graph of a complex fluid simulation, so it really is some kind of itch...).
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @10:21PM
boy, does this CAD stuff suck wrt to usability
...and each one in a different way.
I heard Eagle isn't too amazing in that department
EAGLE was initially developed before Windoze was a thing.
Windoze users think that the EAGLE UI is completely bass-ackwards.
[CAD devs have] been ignoring the standardized ways
You got it in 1.
with Eagle dropping out
You have overstated the case.
Autodesk has promised (mentioned in TFA) that the subscription model will bring improvements in service.
I won't hold my breath, but there are lots of folks who have already given money for the DRM'd/marginally-supported product.
Hey, there are tons of folks who use Windoze knowing full-well that it is a malware magnet.
...and file-format lock-in can be a powerful thing.
Still, if I had too much time on my hands, I'd write a schematic capture application that conforms to reasonable classic HIG
Perhaps just a work-alike UI for an existing CAD app would accomplish what you desire.
I lost touch with sci.electronics.cad years ago, but I seem to recall talk of someone doing this.
(Kinda like GIMPshop.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 21 2017, @11:40PM
Autocad and its command line work great when used in the traditional way.
You can do "noun first" now, since roughly version 13 in roughly 1992, but it sucks. It just doesn't work very well. The old way lets you easily mix mouse clicks and typing, making the best use of each.
At least for CAD, and maybe for other stuff, the rest of the world is what is wrong.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday January 22 2017, @03:27PM
Autocad and its command line work great when used in the traditional way.
..once that way is firmly and irreversibly etched into the spinal matter of the operator. (Same as with Blender, for example, which may be rather efficient once mastered, but comes with its infamous learning curve.)
The academic reasoning for verb-first is given by Raskin, The Humane Interface, pp.59, 3-3 Noun-Verb versus Verb-Noun Constructions. While that guy generally was a bit too full of himself, he's basically right as far as the locus-of-attention disrupting modes are concerned.
But the kinetics of reluctance to change go a very long way. If they didn't, we'd all have RPN calculators now :)
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday January 22 2017, @03:30PM
Argh. Sorry. Raskin did argue for NOUN-first, of course.