Any time I thought about it, I just let myself be intimidated by everything there was to learn, and I went back to etching hand routed or toner transferred patterns, or to wire wrap. I eventually downloaded KiCAD as well… But both tools sat for years. I had a copy of Eagle before they had a Mac version. I have wanted to mark this check on my skill list, but kept passing it off to “some other time”.
What really stands out for me, is I wanted to learn Eagle, or any free PC board tool for a solid decade and a half, maybe more.
Took about a year for me to finally get around to it, but I FINALLY learned how to use KiCAD! Best of all, I got paid to learn it and design a tester for my employer! It’s a rather simple device, but it proved to be a great starting point to learn with! I even learned how to create a custom footprint for a part I needed to use. Posted in News Tagged autodesk, cadsoft, eagle, KiCAD, pricing, subscription Post navigation KiCad has been improving steadily in the past years, and now is definitely a good time for EAGLE users to consider it before signing on to the Autodesk Subscription Plan ™. summarized his view on this nicely on Twitter: “previously paid $1591.21 for 88 months = $18.08/mo. Their marketing speak even makes the cliche comparison to the price of a coffee every day. In their press release, they claim the move is only good for customers. It can be hard on your budget, and you never know when you need to have funds ready for the next upgrade.”
“We know it’s not easy paying a lump sum for software updates every few years. But sadly, Autodesk couldn’t admit that the new pricing has downsides for users: Autodesk is justifying these changes with a promise of more frequent updates and features which will be included in all subscriptions. On the flip side of the coin, we can assume that Eagle was sold partly because the existing pricing model wasn’t doing all it should.
If you need to look back at a design a few years from now, you better hope that your subscription is valid, that Autodesk is still running the license server, and that you have an active internet connection. This model will require licensing software that needs to phone home periodically and can be killed remotely. Even if you agree with the new pricing, a subscription model means you never actually own the software. The free version still exists, but for anyone using Eagle for commercial purposes (from Tindie sellers to engineering firms) this is a big change. Autodesk also killed the lower cost options for non-commercial use, what used to be a $169 version that was positioned for hobbyists. If you need more space or layers, you’ll likely be up to $500/year. If you could have made do with the old Standard option, you’re now paying $100/year instead of the one-time $69 payment.
This is a bad deal for the pocket book of many users. If you need more layers, or more than 160 cm^2 of board space, you’ll need the new Premium level, at $65/month or $500/year. Standard will cost $15/month or $100/year, and gives similar functionality to the old Premium level, but with only 2 signal layers.
The next level up was Premium, at $820, paid once. The new pricing tiers from Autodesk are a bit different. Before Autodesk purchased EAGLE from CadSoft, a Standard license would run you $69, paid once. Now, they’ll be paying Autodesk on a monthly or yearly basis. Previous, users purchased EAGLE once, and used the software indefinitely (often for years) before deciding to move to a new version with another one-time purchase. EAGLE user? We hope you like subscription fees.Īutodesk has announced that EAGLE is now only available for purchase as a subscription.