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Cadsoft's Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor (EAGLE) is an ECAD (Electronic Computer-aided design), a software product for designing printed circuit boards. As that product has a demo/freeware version which is adequate for many users, as well as having a reasonable price structure for more-capable versions, and being cross-platform, it had considerable popularity.
A year ago, Autodesk acquired Cadsoft Computer GmbH and changed the licensing of the product to a subscription model. Since then, many users of EAGLE have been seeking a path away from that EULAware app. Many have moved to (FOSS) KiCAD, a project started by French academics which has gained developer support from personnel at CERN.
A sticking point for those wanting to transition to a new tool is the projects previously developed using the old tool and saved in the native format of that package.
Hackaday reports
There is a desire to port those innumerable Eagle board layouts and libraries to other PCB design packages. This tool does just that.
The tool is an extension of pcb-rnd, a FOSS tool for circuit board editing [itself, a fork of gEDA's "PCB" module], and this update massively extends support for Eagle boards and libraries.
As an example, VK5HSE loaded up an Eagle .brd file of a transceiver, selected a pin header, and exported that component to a KiCAD library. It worked the first time. For another experiment, the ever popular TV-B-Gone .brd file was exported directly to pcb-rnd.
This is a mostly-complete solution for Eagle-to-KiCAD, Eagle-to-Autotrax, and Eagle-to-gEDA-PCB, with a few minimal caveats relating to copper pours and silkscreen--nothing that can't be dealt with if you're not mindlessly using the tool.
While it must be noted that most Open Hardware projects fit inside a 80 [sq.cm] board area, and can therefore be opened and modified with the free-to-use version of Autodesk's Eagle, this is a very capable tool to turn Eagle boards and libraries into designs that can be built with FOSS tools.
Previous: Cadsoft EAGLE is Now Subscription-Only
CERN is Getting Serious About Development of the KiCAD App for Designing Printed Circuits
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday December 27 2017, @09:03AM (1 child)
I think most people designing clockworks don't need the aid of a computer to do it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Wednesday December 27 2017, @11:18AM
I think the people who designed pretty much any watch or other modern clock or those who designed the system from which the standard time broadcasts from Colorado might want to quibble with both your assertion, and the definition of "clockworks."
You did say "designing", which is present tense... and "most"... not a lot of mechanical clockworks being cooked up these days, and for those that are, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find they were using CAD to do it. Can you imagine a modern mechanical watch being designed without CAD? Or even a decent electrical motor? Masochist much?
I mean you could... but why would you?
OTOH, I do have a good friend who does blacksmithery for a hobby, loves it. So there's that.