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<p>Hiya,</p>
<p>I realise I may be about to embark on a conversation almost as
controversial as vi vs emacs, but...</p>
<p>Given the rapidly maturing feature set of open source layout
tools like KiCAD and the like, is it realistic for us to use these
instead ?</p>
<p>I've seen some pretty sophisticated boards done with the tools
and get the sense they are approaching feature parity with the
likes of Altium. The trick, I gather, for some of the more
sophisticated features (RF/Stripline stuff, impedance/length
matched traces etc.) seems to be to work off builds from the
upstream project rather than what is installed in the distro of
choice.<br>
</p>
<p>With the longevity of the Ground Station project and associated
hardware, seems that favouring open tools may have merit vs
placing ourselves at the mercy of the shifting winds of
proprietary tools ?</p>
<p>Just a thought anyways!</p>
<p>vy 73<br>
Hugh</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 27/7/20 6:29 am, Keith Wheeler via
Ground-Station wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">I've got a "Circuit Studio" (essentially Altium
lite) install. I don't think my subscription is up to date for
new downloads but I've got a perpetual license to use it. Did
Altium for many years, Circuit Studio is quite usable for me.<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Jul 25, 2020 at 8:35
AM Michelle Thompson via Ground-Station
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute"><ground-station@lists.openresearch.institute></a> wrote:<br>
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0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">General call and survey.
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">Who is currently available for board layout?</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">What tools or upgrades do you need?</div>
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