bigglez:
leon_heller:
Pulsonix starts at about 2,000 GBP, IIRCElectra starts at $645
That’s great! The OP who modded a working design to
save some cost on BatchPCB will no doubt want to
start over with your software suggestions.
Let’s see, BatchPCB fees are:
$10 setup fee (incorporated into the shipping fees), 2 layer - $2.50/sq. inch 4 layer - $8.00.
How long will it take to break even?
How fast? I'm wondering if labour costs savings willleon_heller:
It’s good value, as designs can typically be completed in a fraction of the time it takes with Eagle.close the deal on your new software tools?
Even at 50 USD/hr net (not bad for a silicon valley
engineer with five plus years of experience), we’d
need to save about twenty hours.
Can your software be mastered from cold in twenty
hours?
(I know that it took me two hundred hours to get
anything out of EAGLE and I’m just under average IQ).
Amazing, I'm very impressed. In earlier posts youleon_heller:
It’s far better than the Eagle autorouter, typically routing to 100% completion even on complex boards.said:
(a) you’d only used EAGLE once and resorted to
doing your day-job work at home on the Polsonix
software, because you could get EAGLE to work for
your needs.
and
(b) you’ve never used BatchPCB.
Please read this post as it is written. I mean you
no harm or insult, but please consider staying away
from the EAGLE users that don’t want to hear your
endless matra about how bad it is as a product.
Before we know it these hobbyists will start to feel
you’re so superior and they’re so wrong, they’re stop
coming to this kewl place to share their work and ideas.
Thanks In Advance (and Belated Happy New Year to you).
I don’t think I mentioned Pulsonix until you asked me what software I would recommend! The OP said that he’d autorouted his PCB, and I merely pointed out that autorouting that type of PCB was a waste of time, even with a good autorouter:
A good autorouter wouldn’t work very well on a board like that, you should be routing it manually. Your use of the (rather poor) Eagle autorouter explains many of the problems with your layout.
Pulsonix users are typically productive within a few hours of first using the software, but they are usually experienced PCB designers already. I wouldn’t recommend it to most hobbyists, as it’s a full professional package with far more features than they will ever use, like matched length pairs and embedded components. Pulsonix does a good job of importing Eagle designs and libraries, and I have helped a couple of people complete their designs by importing them into Pulsonix. A good alternative to Eagle for hobbyists and educational users is Easy-PC, it’s cheaper and much easier to use. I used it for over 20 years.
I don’t remember saying that I used Pulsonix at home for my day-job. I think I said that I got permission from management to use my own copy of Pulsonix at work, because all the extra operations needed with Eagle were aggravating my RSI. A colleague of mine that knew Eagle well spent two weeks designing a PCB with it that I could have done in a couple of days with Pulsonix. Even with an employment cost of $100 an hour (it would actually have been much higher), the cost of the time saved on that one job (I make it $6,400) would have paid for a Pulsonix seat.
A Happy New Year to you as well!
Leon