Why open hardware needs open software

As a mechanical engineer, I&#x27;m envious of polished open source tools that exist in other fields. For parametric modeling and engineering drawing of mechanical parts, the free software tools are not nearly as mature and user friendly as commercial equivalents. When creating engineering drawings and models for public use, I would much prefer to use free software such as FreeCAD, SolveSpace, and OpenSCAD, because I want designs to be modifiable by anyone.<p>Unfortunately, using these free tools feels like a throwback to a less developed era in desktop computer aided design. Commercial CAD software with no-cost hobbyist licenses are much more usable, but tie you into their licensing structure and cloud data system. There&#x27;s no telling whether you&#x27;ll be able to open your Fusion360 or Onshape projects 10 years from now.<p>I have a lot of hope that eventually free software will overtake commercial software in a lot of fields, and establish a regime where everyone has access to &quot;professional grade&quot; tools. Something like that exists in the information technology field, and it has unlocked a lot of human potential over the last few decades. Just imagine every school child having access to advanced, professional grade free software tools in every sort of field of human creativity.

Apart from well known KiCAD, I hope more open-source electronic design and engineering software projects will get attention from the industry. Software like LibreCAD[1] and FreeCAD[2], Qucs[3], gEDA[4], Yosys[5] and Symbiflow[6], Chisel&#x2F;FIRRTL[7], OpenROAD initiative[8], Degate[9], and many others.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;librecad.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;librecad.org&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freecadweb.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.freecadweb.org&#x2F;</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Qucs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;Qucs</a><p>[4] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.geda-project.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.geda-project.org&#x2F;</a><p>[5] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.clifford.at&#x2F;yosys&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.clifford.at&#x2F;yosys&#x2F;</a><p>[6] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;symbiflow.github.io&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;symbiflow.github.io&#x2F;</a><p>[7] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chisel-lang.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.chisel-lang.org&#x2F;</a><p>[8] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theopenroadproject.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theopenroadproject.org&#x2F;</a><p>[9] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nitram2342&#x2F;degate" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;nitram2342&#x2F;degate</a>

I am one of the FreeCAD developper (vejmarie). I believe some good innovations are coming up within the next release. I recently added some Cloud features with storage capabilities directly to s3, opening doors to build a collaborative platform (I am working on a mockup). Waevfront OBJ exporter has been improved allowing some direct export to webGL format and many other things. Regarding the features, an assembly workbench is under work, and some fancy stuff have been designed with FreeCAD (there is some Renault Twizy design files available). The FeM workbench with OpenFoam bridge allows also to initiate some simulation model. FreeCAD has in its backend a lot of capabilities that we can expose to end user. We are lacking from good feedback on the UI other than we are not yet reaching Solidworks, but FreeCAD is today a solution which works on Mac, Windows, Linux, has an open file format (Brep shape and XML representation), and is fully open source. We made tremendous progress since version 0.16 and there is a strong wish to bring in innovation regarding design workflow. Just tell us what might be your best tools and we can try to do it !

I wonder if a joint hardware-software development project could benefit KiCad in a similar manner that the Open Movie Projects have helped Blender’s development.<p>For those who don’t know, Blender has developed a few complete animations&#x2F;shorts with artists and developers working jointly, thus bringing in real world experience to the project.<p>I wonder if something similar could be done with an open hardware project.

A few days ago wayne did post that his position was terminated : <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kicad-pcb.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2019&#x2F;10&#x2F;KiCad-Lead-Developer-Announcement&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kicad-pcb.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2019&#x2F;10&#x2F;KiCad-Lead-Developer-Annou...</a>

I love kicad and use it daily.<p>One of my most wanted feature would me to be able to select a trace and get simulated electrical characteristics, like resistance, capacitance, inductance (for example to design a loop antenna, I integrated a few of them in my lastest PCB, for NFC, and had to calculate by hand)...<p>Of course this is not a small feature but wishing for that says a bit on how good kicad has become, there is very little small feature to wish for as most are here.

At first sight the title seems to wrong, that software is easier to be open compared to hardware.

I&#x27;ve been out of the EE world for a couple of years now, but looking at the screenshots of KiCAD schematic capture tool, it looks remarcably simular to Eagle (same colors, graphics, etc). Are KiCAD and Eagle related in some way?