LibrePCB

The usual questions:<p>- How comprehensive is the part library?<p>- Is there auto-routing? How good is it?<p>- &quot;Import formats: DXF&quot;. For what, the board outline? DXF is for mechanical CAD. You can&#x27;t import a board layout or schematic that way.<p>- &quot;Export formats: PDF, SVG, pixmap, BOM, pick&amp;place, Gerber&#x2F;Excellon&quot;. None of which have enough info for import into another EDA program. This thing is very self-contained, which is unusual for an open source program.<p>This seems to be is a marketing tool for some board maker. <i>&quot;At this time, you can choose either AISLER or PCBWay as the PCB manufacturer. With every order you start with LibrePCB Fab (or direct .lppz upload on the AISLER website), they will make a &#x27;donation&#x27; to the LibrePCB project.&quot;</i>

A feature comparison against KiCAD and Horizon would be helpful?<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kicad.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kicad.org&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;horizon-eda.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;horizon-eda.org&#x2F;</a>

&gt; No online account.<p>Among the nerds, the backlash has started. Watch out, Fusion 360.<p>In the world of doing stuff with atoms, no one ever wanted their drafting table to have authentication, ACL, 2FA, or storage&#x2F;backup.

Just a few days ago, version 1.0 was released. Release blogpost: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;librepcb.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2023-09-24_release_1.0.0&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;librepcb.org&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2023-09-24_release_1.0.0&#x2F;</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;easyeda.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;easyeda.com&#x2F;</a> is another alternative that has PCB factories backing it up.

I&#x27;ve used LibrePCB to put together 2 different PCB designs for hobby IOT use. I found it very easy to import parts from vendor sites, and&#x2F;or take PNG images of other boards like hats that will fit with the PCB I&#x27;m designing.

Is this PCBWay challenging JLCPCB and EasyEDA? Looks like it. I welcome it, EasyEDA and the super slick integration with JLCPCB is a killer feature and the reason I use JLC exclusively for all my boards.<p>If this works well I might give PCBWay a try.

My first job out of undergrad was doing pre-sales on what was Mentor Graphics&#x27; (acquired) PADS PCB design tool.<p>As part of our jobs, our small group of people in their early 20s would handle this inbound phone number for NA and any voicemail that came in after hours. We&#x27;d do basic qualification, write up the lead and if it was good pass it to the inside sales rep who managed whatever region it came from.<p>I remember looking at the license holders and it seemed like everyone had at least a few licenses to that product. Siemens owns all that now.<p>Curious how PADS stacks up today, if anyone is familiar with the tool.

This project is amazing. I tested it out by seeing how far o could get only ever briefly glancing at the manual, I was able to make parts and put them on the board.<p>I have high hopes for this one! Hopefully I&#x27;ll get to work on a hardware project again and really try it out, I haven&#x27;t had a reason to do any custom electronics lately though, and it&#x27;s z but expensive and clutter creating to do on a whim very often.

This is exactly what I was looking for.

I wish there was some &quot;here are basic building blocks to achieve XYZ&quot; for real beginners who just want to hack something together. E.g. I would like a 48VDC-48VDC battery-to-battery charger, but I have no idea how to get started. I&#x27;m sure this is a fairly simple design (I guess boost voltage and then do CC&#x2F;CV).

As a total noob, will this help me design my first parts using a kit like a Pico W kit with motors, switches, LEDs and such? Will the ECD be helpful in making sure I get stuff close-ish?

GPLv3 and librepcb-cli source isn&#x27;t published. what?

Looks exactly like Kicad...

&quot;A LibrePCB library is more than just a collection of stupid graphics for symbols and footprints&quot;<p>This lack of professionalism is a bit off-putting to me. Just saying, don&#x27;t put stuff like that on your front page.

Do we have a ChatGPT-style workflow for PCBs on the horizon yet?