
Why open hardware needs open software - natashabaker
http://blog.snapeda.com/2019/10/28/an-interview-with-wayne-stambaugh-of-kicad/
======
DanTheManPR
As a mechanical engineer, I'm envious of polished open source tools that exist
in other fields. For parametric modeling and engineering drawing of mechanical
parts, the free software tools are not nearly as mature and user friendly as
commercial equivalents. When creating engineering drawings and models for
public use, I would much prefer to use free software such as FreeCAD,
SolveSpace, and OpenSCAD, because I want designs to be modifiable by anyone.

Unfortunately, using these free tools feels like a throwback to a less
developed era in desktop computer aided design. Commercial CAD software with
no-cost hobbyist licenses are much more usable, but tie you into their
licensing structure and cloud data system. There's no telling whether you'll
be able to open your Fusion360 or Onshape projects 10 years from now.

I have a lot of hope that eventually free software will overtake commercial
software in a lot of fields, and establish a regime where everyone has access
to "professional grade" tools. Something like that exists in the information
technology field, and it has unlocked a lot of human potential over the last
few decades. Just imagine every school child having access to advanced,
professional grade free software tools in every sort of field of human
creativity.

~~~
helpPeople
Whenever a free CAD software exists, AutoCAD or similar buys them out.

I'm not sure the solution.

~~~
rtkwe
That's only really possible when there's a company behind it. It's much harder
to buy out a whole OSS project, the only real option is to buy out the main
contributors.

~~~
delfinom
Especially like in the case of KiCad, some of the main contributors are CERN
:D

------
xvilka
Apart from well known KiCAD, I hope more open-source electronic design and
engineering software projects will get attention from the industry. Software
like LibreCAD[1] and FreeCAD[2], Qucs[3], gEDA[4], Yosys[5] and Symbiflow[6],
Chisel/FIRRTL[7], OpenROAD initiative[8], Degate[9], and many others.

[1] [https://librecad.org/](https://librecad.org/)

[2] [https://www.freecadweb.org/](https://www.freecadweb.org/)

[3] [https://github.com/Qucs](https://github.com/Qucs)

[4] [http://www.geda-project.org/](http://www.geda-project.org/)

[5] [http://www.clifford.at/yosys/](http://www.clifford.at/yosys/)

[6] [https://symbiflow.github.io/](https://symbiflow.github.io/)

[7] [https://www.chisel-lang.org/](https://www.chisel-lang.org/)

[8] [https://theopenroadproject.org/](https://theopenroadproject.org/)

[9]
[https://github.com/nitram2342/degate](https://github.com/nitram2342/degate)

~~~
tadfisher
LibrePCB is an up-and-coming contender that aims to do things right from the
library-management perspective: [https://librepcb.org/](https://librepcb.org/)

------
vejmarie
I am one of the FreeCAD developper (vejmarie). I believe some good innovations
are coming up within the next release. I recently added some Cloud features
with storage capabilities directly to s3, opening doors to build a
collaborative platform (I am working on a mockup). Waevfront OBJ exporter has
been improved allowing some direct export to webGL format and many other
things. Regarding the features, an assembly workbench is under work, and some
fancy stuff have been designed with FreeCAD (there is some Renault Twizy
design files available). The FeM workbench with OpenFoam bridge allows also to
initiate some simulation model. FreeCAD has in its backend a lot of
capabilities that we can expose to end user. We are lacking from good feedback
on the UI other than we are not yet reaching Solidworks, but FreeCAD is today
a solution which works on Mac, Windows, Linux, has an open file format (Brep
shape and XML representation), and is fully open source. We made tremendous
progress since version 0.16 and there is a strong wish to bring in innovation
regarding design workflow. Just tell us what might be your best tools and we
can try to do it !

~~~
Robotbeat
As someone who uses FreeCAD on and off, I thank you very much for your
efforts! There are a lot of features.

It is definitely not lack of features that holds FreeCAD back, though. It is
the UI/usability/stability. In fact, I'd prefer a solution WITHOUT cloud
features as it's a liability in my profession, and in general ends up putting
an expiration date on the program (as eventually servers get turned off, etc).

Again, thank you SO much for your efforts.

~~~
vejmarie
You are welcome. The Cloud implementation I made, is fully compatible with the
minio server which is an open source implementation of s3 written in Go,
meansing that you can keep everything in house and this was something super
important to me. FreeCAD is a huge piece of software. Thanks for your support
! I agree with you we change too much things but since 0.17 we moved to
something more modular with new object which were reuired to implement a
descent assembly workbench. This is done and I do not think this is going to
change that much anymore (but who knows) ;) We will do it the best as we can
for sure.

------
henrikeh
I wonder if a joint hardware-software development project could benefit KiCad
in a similar manner that the Open Movie Projects have helped Blender’s
development.

For those who don’t know, Blender has developed a few complete
animations/shorts with artists and developers working jointly, thus bringing
in real world experience to the project.

I wonder if something similar could be done with an open hardware project.

------
ecaradec
A few days ago wayne did post that his position was terminated :
[http://kicad-pcb.org/blog/2019/10/KiCad-Lead-Developer-
Annou...](http://kicad-pcb.org/blog/2019/10/KiCad-Lead-Developer-
Announcement/)

~~~
natashabaker
This is referring to WIT's funding. As per the post:

 _In the short term, I will continue working on KiCad while pursuing as many
avenues as possible to generate enough revenue to allow me to continue to work
full time on KiCad._

~~~
pjc50
Who are WIT, anyway? Their site is a placeholder:
[https://www.wit.com/](https://www.wit.com/)

~~~
nereye
Archive.org can help in cases like this, e.g.:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190517010832/https://www.wit.c...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190517010832/https://www.wit.com/)

------
kuon
I love kicad and use it daily.

One of my most wanted feature would me to be able to select a trace and get
simulated electrical characteristics, like resistance, capacitance, inductance
(for example to design a loop antenna, I integrated a few of them in my
lastest PCB, for NFC, and had to calculate by hand)...

Of course this is not a small feature but wishing for that says a bit on how
good kicad has become, there is very little small feature to wish for as most
are here.

------
aritmo
At first sight the title seems to wrong, that software is easier to be open
compared to hardware.

~~~
woodrowbarlow
agreed; open hardware generally guarantees the possibility of open software,
even if the product ships with closed software.

however; the interview is really talking about using open software to create
your open hardware designs. if you've developed your schematic using
proprietary software, then only people who have the same proprietary (paid)
software can contribute.

another interesting point they touched on is open instruction sets (e.g.
RISC-V). people are developing open hardware platforms with open software
solutions but in the middle there is ARM or some other proprietary processor
instruction set.

------
LeonM
I've been out of the EE world for a couple of years now, but looking at the
screenshots of KiCAD schematic capture tool, it looks remarcably simular to
Eagle (same colors, graphics, etc). Are KiCAD and Eagle related in some way?

~~~
analognoise
Nope, they're completely separate. Codebase, people, timeline.

Eagle predates KiCad by a wide margin, iirc. KiCad started in France, Eagle
was German (iirc). I think modern Eagle is on Qt, KiCad uses wxWidgets for
it's GUI library.

