Peter Clifton

A look at how the various communities and projects can collaborate to achieve common goals, and reflections on how this can fit with the life-cycle of our mature open-source EDA packages.

A look at how the various communities and projects can collaborate to achieve common goals - despite their differing design choices seemingly being etched in tablets of stone (should that be layers of copper clad FR4?).

I will aim to address some of the dynamics between project developers and their communities, reflecting on lessons I've learnt within the gEDA project - and on some of the challenges brought by working more closely with those who might be viewed as our "competition".

I will propose some areas I see as low-hanging fruit for potential collaboration - and some problems to be overcome on the way. There should also be opportunity to explore some more controversial ideas on project re-factoring, drawing upon aspects of last year's EdaCore proposal, and my thoughts on how a common underlying library might be used to bring about the start of project convergence without losing the individual identities and design goals of the projects involved.

If the audience is receptive (or argumentative!), a decent Q&A session would be welcome here!

Panel discussion on PCB design tools.

Other people: Peter Stuge Kaspar Emanuel Wayne Stambaugh Tomasz Wlostowski

A talk on the utility of 3D modelling to PCB design, and a brief review of where open-source tools currently stand compared to commercial offerings. Having introduced the ideas, and why we may desire to add 3D functionality to our software tools, I will attempt to give a very brief introduction to solid modelling (3D CAD), and compare the requirements for rendering graphics vs. working with engineering models. I would aim to touch upon the subjects of BREP models (vs. surface models), and interchange formats such as STEP (AP203 / AP214), and their complexity.

An introduction to the gEDA and PCB projects, their background, history, current status and future plans.

Will likely include anecdotes from the point of view of myself, as a (now mostly inactive) core developer on both projects, and my thoughts on where open source EDA tools need to head in order to remain relevant in a world where "free", but closed commercial tools becoming ever more prevalent.

The aim of this talk would be to introduce the gEDA (and associated) projects, how its loosely structured suite of tools can fit together to form diverse EDA workflows, with some anecdotes from my point of view as both from a developer, and user of this software.

The design philosophy behind the suite will be presented, along with discussion on how its modular (or fragmented?), yet flexible design has in the past created problems for those seeking to improve our user-experience for those who desire a more integrated work-flow.

I will present a section on where I see the common challenges of open-source EDA, and where I see opportunities for collaboration to further common goals in this area.

There may be a live demonstration of the tools in action, although at this stage I have not planned exactly what form that might take.