Change of gears (already)

Over the past several months, I've been learning the program Eagle from CADSoft (big thanks to Justin from the GHI forums). It's a software package that allows you to layout schematics and boards for PCB manufacture. They have a free version for hobbyists that has some limitations that I've been using. A benefit to using Eagle, is that the output is directly usable for OSHPark.com (a great place to get prototype boards made).

However (there always seems to be a gotcha) the hobbyist version is for non-commercial use only. So to make this jump to offering my boards I would need a commercial license. To get the version which would legally allow me to have more than 2 layers for 1 user is $820!!!!! (CADSoft USA pricing page) Say what?!?!

I contacted them to see if they have any discounted versions for start-ups. The best they could do was to offer a 1 year license for $315. But then I would need to renew it every year or upgrade to the $820 lifetime license.

Open Source to the rescue!!

KiCAD (found here) seems to be a solution. Quoting directly from their page:

"KiCad is an EDA software suite for the creation of professional schematics and printed circuit boards up to 16 layers. KiCad runs on Windows, Linux and Apple OS X and is released under the open-source GNU GPL v2 free of charge."

Hopefully the learning curve won't be too step. It appears you need to be careful with drill files (the definition of where holes are put in your boards) with OSHPark.com, but they are working on improving the experience.

So it's off to learn KiCAD to see if I can save $300+. Another benefit is that by providing KiCAD projects instead of, or in addition to, Eagle, it will be easier for other new ones to benefit from my designs.