PCB design software

[Webbot]

I've been using Eagle for a while now and I've learned to love and hate it. I love the fact that you can add your own components with an associated schematic/board layout although it takes ages. You can also create 3D POV ray tracings of the board (see Admins tutorial - this is more of a 'plus' for PovRay than for Eagle IMHO).

I hate the user interface and also that occassionaly things fall back to a German user interface (especially when designing library packages/symbols). But my biggest hate is not being able to easily to design a board so that the smallest amount of copper is etched - and therefore requiring a shorter amount of time to do the etching and making your etch compound last longer.

Easy-PC from Number One Systems seems to allow you to do this with their 'Pour copper' command.

I know this forum is somewhat inclined towards Eagle - but does anyone have any good/bad comments about Easy-PC based on practical experience. It may be good to have 'Pour Copper' but only if i don't lose the things I like about 'Eagle'

[Admin]

My #1 complaint about Eagle is the lack of intuitiveness. I always find myself re-reading the tutorials every time I want to do something. The autorouting isn't the best, and the part creation feature is just painful.

I asked an EE friend a few weeks ago and he said:
"Castle Creations uses PADS
and another good looking one is Altium designer"

I'm also looking for good Eagle replacement recommendations. If it had all IEEE standard packages already in the library, and an Eagle compatible gerber file creation tool, even better! I also require 3D viewing capabilities . . . it saved me tons of time/money for Axon prototyping.

(Webbot, sorry for the partial thread-jacking )

Oh and I just added Easy-PC to the robotics software list.

[Commanderbob]

If you want to etch less copper use the polygon tool. It is equivalent to pouring copper. Just draw a polygon around your board and name it the same as the signal i.e. gnd or vss. Click rats nest and it should fill your empty spaces with copper.

[Webbot]

Cool - thanks for that - just what I wanted.