Autodesk EAGLE Announcement - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Kean
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 07, 2023, 05:46:03 pm
content: We knew it was coming...Just posted by Autodesk athttps://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Autodesk-EAGLE-Announcement-Next-steps-and-FAQ.htmlQuoteMore detail at the link...

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 12:15:38 am
content: For free users then, the short answer is to stick with a pre-autodesk eagle version (if you've ever touched a later version use the options to export for older eagle versions) or move to KiCAD (which can also import eagle files from at least some eagle versions).

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 12:23:22 am
content: It was pretty obvious from the start that this was going to happen. I don't know anyone who still uses Eagle, I bet they never had more than a few thousand subscribers.

author: KE5FX
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 01:46:25 am
content: Open-source it, Autodesk. Its value went to zero the minute you put your hands on it, but there's still room for redemption.(Also, I would like a pony and a Gulfstream V to haul it around in.)

author: Pack34
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 01:49:40 am
content: End of an era. It was the first ecad tool I learned.The wording is confusing. Is Eagle and Fusion 360 PCB considered two different products?

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 04:43:04 am
content: Quote from: Pack34 on June 08, 2023, 01:49:40 amIIRC the PCB part of Fusion 360 spun off from the Eagle code base?

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 05:17:20 am
content: Quote from: james_s on June 08, 2023, 12:23:22 amBut it did take them longer than i expected. Way longer

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 07:13:52 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on June 08, 2023, 04:43:04 amYes, it is also still using the same xml file format. It is now embedded within fusion360 and uses about 20 times as much ram.We use it for boards. You can work with it, a few improvements on routing were made. It can now export ODB++.They are slowly adding stuff. But overall experience remains slow and buggy.

author: Pack34
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 08, 2023, 07:35:10 pm
content: Quote from: Jeroen3 on June 08, 2023, 07:13:52 amSo it sounds like this announcement really isn't a big deal? You already can't buy it as a standalone and I don't believe you could for years. Seems like Fusion 360 PCB itself is continuing on. Just now looking up some videos of it and it looks like they really overhauled the UI.Personally, I don't see the huge desire/need to integrate ECAD and MCAD into the same tool. Just feels like it makes the final product much more bloated. All they need to be able to collaborate is to be able to move 3D models back and forth. Bring-in your board outline from a DXF, export a final STEP file of the design so you can fit check. It doesn't need to be the same physical program.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 12:41:09 am
content: Quote from: JPortici on June 08, 2023, 05:17:20 amBig companies always move slowly. It could have gone on for years without earning any profit before they finally threw in the towel. I've seen more than once where a company that ought to know better falls for the sunk cost fallacy and continues developing a product long after it should be obvious that it's going to fail.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 01:57:32 pm
content: Quote from: Pack34 on June 08, 2023, 07:35:10 pmbut them being on the same package reduces a lot of exporting/importing steps. It's nice to have when you have different people working at enclosure and board. Of course when you use a pre-made enclosures (for which is wish there would be more STEP files available) you can import the model and all the relevant details before you start drawing the PCB

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 02:24:23 pm
content: Quote from: JPortici on June 09, 2023, 01:57:32 pmMeh,I use KiCad and FreeCAD myself, and the "KiCad Stepup Workbench" in FreeCAD is quite powerful. FreeCAD does have a bit of a *&^%$#@! user interface, but apart from that it works quite well with KiCad. I've seen demo's of importing a 3D model of an Hameg enclosure in FreeCAD, making an offset from a contour and then push that directly into KiCad in a 5 minute demo, and half the time of the demo was for "video / tutorial things".But also, when the mechanical and the electrical guys in a company are separate teams, then they can both do their thing in their own software, and then every now and then synchronize their efforts with a few imports and exports.I also wonder how big the overlap is to people wanting both mechanical and PCB design, and combining both programs would just add a lot of extra crud for those people. To me it makes much more sense to keep those programs separated, but it is a plus if there are good import / export functions between those programs, so my views are pretty much on par with Pack34 in this regard.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 04:44:47 pm
content: I don't use Eagle, but if I did I would also be inclined to have separate programs for PCB and mechanical. However, Labcenter's Proteus is a good PCB tool which also includes simulation. You can not just simulate the electonics but run programs on your not-yet-built processor-based PCB to debug the code before sending off to manufacture. It strikes me that the overlap there is similar to the overlap with Eagle/Fusion - I've never used the feature but I see users that make extensive use of it and it seems to be in demand. Perhaps we are just olde phartes that haven't got with the flow yet.

author: XFDDesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 06:39:01 pm
content: The writing for this outcome was on the wall when AutoDesk took over Eagle. The instant they said, "No subscriptions!" you knew the subscriptions were coming and they were just lying about it. I switched to KiCad back then and have only become more satisfied with the new tool. Eagle died long ago.

author: boB
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 06:58:06 pm
content: We, at two companies now have been using Eagle for 23+ years. I used to use PADS and OrCad before that.We bought 13 seats of Eagle and are at version 6.50 which works just fine for us. It was like the Hackaday article said.... Smaller companies could afford Eagle but not what Autodesk has made of it after version 7.KiCad is getting better and better but still doesn't have quite the feel when panning and zooming that Eagle has/had. Someday we may switch butright now, why fix something that just isn't broken ?boB

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 07:01:01 pm
content: Quote from: XFDDesign on June 09, 2023, 06:39:01 pmThe fact that they clearly lied through their teeth was a real turnoff for me. They explicitly said no subscription and then only about a month later announced it was going subscription. They either knew damn well that was the plan when they said it wasn't, or it is a case of gross incompetence. Either way it is unacceptable and severely tarnished the image of the company.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 07:23:45 pm
content: It's straight out of the asshole MBA playbook:money is cheap, borrow lots and buy up smaller, successful companies.This gives Wall Street and investors the illusion of growth- when actually you're just increasing in size, incompetence included. Don't forget AutoDesk offered Altium a $3.9B takeover bid 06/2021AutoDesk long-term debt is $2.3B and the approach was reasonable back when interest rates were low and megalomania the way to run a business. Dinosaurs used this strategy as well.But now, imagine the costs in servicing that debt. All of these companies that used the borrow borrow borrow strategy are up the creek now because they have to pay more for their loans.And of course they have no real notion of managing their acquisitions, making sustainable money, outside of gouging their customer base. I expect mismanagement and death of many cash cows.Saddest part is the Hackaday article comments people lamenting what small business is going to do, they need a stable low cost tool instead of this subscription-based greed and screw you over system.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 07:46:41 pm
content: Well small businesses can use KiCad, it can do everything that Eagle could do, and the UI is of comparable quality. I used Eagle briefly and it's pretty clunky and kludgey too.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 08:25:28 pm
content: It's unfortunate all the corporate energy goes into increasing their subscriber base and getting more money out of them - instead of innovating, adding features and debugging. Altium included.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 08:28:24 pm
content: Quote from: Pack34 on June 08, 2023, 07:35:10 pmI disagree with that. Recently I went through a product development cycle for a product that needs to be as small as possible. Up to the point I needed really accurate 3D models for all parts of the PCB to make sure the casing fits. But it still resulted in chicken & egg situations and vague requirements as I didn't know the mechanical limits and the mechanical designer didn't know how small the electronics could be. For the project the end result still isn't super optimal but good enough. For such a project it is handy if you can replace a component on the PCB and immediately cycle through the mechanical design with the mechanical designer. IOW: for products which are a tight fit, I certainly see an upside to having a tight integration between the mechanical and electronics side of a product.

author: JPortici
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 09, 2023, 10:59:44 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on June 09, 2023, 02:24:23 pmLet's just say that i would appreciate the extra layer of convenienceHaving a piece of software in which there is a single project and I do not have to touch anything that YOU are doing but i can see the outputs combined at any time, and YOU do not have to touch anything i'm doing but you can see the outputs combined at every time and we can both share notes.Not having to do manual export/conversion/import is always nice.Not that i would ever, EVER use fusion 360. I tried and it looks like a potentially great product, but subscription only and having your data on the cloud.. why would anyone fall for that? i really don't understand. The moment i have to submit my data on the cloud and depend on that, no alternative, i'm out.Also, it sucks completely that if kicad would ever integrate mechanical design it would have to pass through freeCAD. Because the workflow is questionable at best but the freeCAD community is adamant in being different rather than being as good as, or better. As Kicad was before they managed to appease both the "different" crowd and the others, used to other tools, but for the time being i have little faith in freeCAD growing up.I was actually discussing this today with a colleague, i updated inkscape to 1.2 the other day and was greeted with the new UI. of course you can find backslash on the internet, to me it was "FINALLY" they moved on from the good old fashioned "this is a linux thing get used to it" look with icons that would look better made on paint instead of gimp, and clunky UI overall. Reallly feels a much more professional product (and i was productive on it before, it was just unnecessary painful compared to almost any other paid product

author: macegr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2023, 06:41:18 am
content: Quote from: JPortici on June 09, 2023, 10:59:44 pmI was limping along with an old (paid, professional) license of Eagle until Kicad finally allowed reversing the Y axis to the same direction used by every other CAD program. That was my canary, over the years I'd check back in on Kicad and keep finding that dead canary. Suddenly I checked in to find the option for reversed Y axis released, I figured that was a really good sign and dove in to find that many other stupid decisions were overruled and resolved. So I made the switch.

author: twistedresistor
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 14, 2023, 10:41:52 am
content: Well. R.I.P. EAGLE.And thanks to Richard Hammerl, Joern Paschedag (and Jorge Garcia pre AD) who were saints in the EAGLE newsgroups. No matter how stupid the question and no matter how often it was already asked, they always helped.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2023, 09:38:18 pm
content: No kidding.Wondering what Adafruit and Sparkfun, that are heavy users of EAGLE, are going to decide.

author: XFDDesign
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 12:09:13 am
content: KiCad is the most likely path forward, since it is the most common route for we former Eagle users.

author: Infraviolet
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 06:23:16 pm
content: My suspicions are that (for versions modern enough to be autodesk ones) the free eagle version, activated then put in offline mode, would work fine forever past the shut-off date. But you'd never be able to activate extra copies on new computers after that date.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2023, 06:36:17 pm
content: Ultimately people are going to have to switch to something else. Jumping through hoops may kick the can down the road a bit but sooner or later one is going to have to face the inevitable.

author: ArdWar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2023, 06:59:37 am
content: Loved eagle due to how lightweight it was (pre Autodesk). Perfect for a quick dirty board. No need to thinker that much with complex component database is actually a plus here.Oh well, KiCAD it is now going forward

author: john858
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 19, 2023, 09:12:14 pm
content: Yup, the day has finally come, sort of... I think the only thing to do is vote with our feet and go somewhere else, then maybe they'll get the idea. For me I'm switching to Altium they're all over this and offering $995/year for EAGLE users: altium.com/go-altium

author: bgm
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 06:09:29 am
content: Quote from: james_s on June 09, 2023, 07:01:01 pmPretty much.I have *ZERO* tolerance for this kinda BS. It affects people in the support way more than it affects people in greenfield design - a fact that sadly gets lost on a lot of engineers.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 06:28:52 am
content: QuoteThat doesn't look a good deal to me (disclaimer: I'm an Altium user). They compare the offering to thecurrentFusion360, whereas I think they should compare it to the old Eagle. So there is no perpetual license and you're basically renting the thing, plus going to be shafted next year once they know you're locked in and can charge whatever the hell they like. Get it in writing that it's aperpetual$995/year and it looks a little better, but I'd be really surprised if you got that.

author: bgm
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 20, 2023, 06:30:08 am
content: Quote from: john858 on June 19, 2023, 09:12:14 pmNo.Subscription based software is *NOT* a solution.Sorry but I've been burnt so many times on this. It isn't quite as evil as "online" service software (for example, like Eagle has turned *into*) but it is still bad.

author: fatbeard
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2025, 01:49:51 pm
content: , I know.Only just found this thread...For both me and the company I last worked for the credo is: no software that depends on subscriptions, hosts, cloud or third parties; you'll never know when they pull the plug and if they do it's bye-bye to your intellectual property...The more emphasis they put on something, the likelier it is that the opposite will happen. Bin d'Aire-Dunndead.Subscription software is essentially a money-pit: subscriptions for the software, subscriptions for the support, and mostly blingy updates that introduce new (or old) errors but introduce no practical features for the majority of users. And when they find the revenue failing or go belly-up, the plug gets pulled...I started out under DOS with OrCAD and Layo1 and later upgraded to Tango; under Windoze I worked with ProtelSE and dabbled some with Mentor and Cadence, never got the hang of those...I'll stick to Eagle 5.12 (missed the boat on version 6) and until KiCAD supports pin- and gateswap (that already was available some 30 odd years ago in OrCAD!) I see no reason to swap programs.The OS may force my hand by no longer allowing 16-bit programs, but I can always choose not to upgrade or run in a suitable emulator...

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 04:24:28 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on June 15, 2023, 09:38:18 pmLooks like adafruit went to F360 (or stuck with EAGLE) and Sparkfun went to KiCAD.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 04:35:42 am
content: Quote from: johnboxall on June 06, 2025, 04:24:28 amIsn't Adafruit supposed to be the poster child for open source?

author: johnboxall
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 04:50:13 am
content: Quote from: EEVblog on June 06, 2025, 04:35:42 amApparently. Looks like they're the poster child for lots of things now.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 05:05:33 am
content: Quote from: johnboxall on June 06, 2025, 04:50:13 amNothing new there...

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 06:54:23 am
content: Is the KiCad import for Eagle projects good enough to just import them into KiCad?

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 06, 2025, 01:44:22 pm
content: This is more a KiCad question then an eagle question.The eagle importer for KiCad works quite good. Last time I used it was several years ago, and you get around 90% of the design in a 30 seconds conversion. The other 10% is mostly cleanup of little things. For me personally it's tempting to spend quite a lot of time on trivial details, such as replacing eagle's resistors with KiCad native resistors, or the squiggly ones with rectangular european resistors. ("European style" resistors are objectively better because you can put the value inside the rectangle, and this saves space on the schematic.It is possible that not all features of eagle get imported well. But after the conversion you can always run DRC to check whether the netlist generated by the schematic editor matches with the actual copper on the PCB. That gives a lot of confidence that the most important part is translated well.

author: macegr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2025, 07:38:13 pm
content: I threw a huge fit when Eagle went subscription, starting a chain reaction of doing a bunch of other things they said they wouldn't do. Many of us were able to chart the entire arc of Eagle's demise and fade to irrelevance years later, on the same day as the announcement. I was directly dismissed, scoffed at, talked down to, and eventually blocked by Autodesk management because they either didn't believe that this was the beginning of the end, or didn't want anyone else to realize it.In retrospect, most of my consternation was due to the existence 15+ years of Eagle designs, muscle memory, dreading the hunt for a new EDA software and the learning curve necessary. I did switch to KiCAD and even in 5.xx found that my worries were overblown. Not about Eagle's downfall, which happened, but about the learning curve and suitability of KiCAD.I've been "subscribed" to KiCAD for years in the form of a monthly donation. It won't replace the big players like Altium, but the price, usability, and features are in the sweet spot that Eagle used to occupy.The import tools are fairly good and I also found redrawing simple designs and making new parts to be less of an obstacle that I had feared.

author: rpschultz13
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2025, 12:18:15 am
content: I have opened a few eagle projects in Kicad and printed them. Kicad does better with editing footprints anyway. But the Kicad importer for Eagle is very good.I've been trying to decide what to do about Eagle, I know it pretty well. Can I still use it after June 2026 without support? I don't think I want to go F360, so I'm thinking about learning either Kicad or EasyEDA. My intent is to learn SMT for assembly at JLC.

author: squadchannel
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2025, 12:36:55 am
content: if you have a permanent license from the Cadsoft era, I think you should keep using EAGLE. don't have, should switch to KiCad.default state, I think you'll get frustrated because the controls and how things look are completely different. so you need to tweak the configuration. like mouse settings or cursor jump settings etc.who don't care about color schemes can leave it as is, but I found it bothersome, so I changed the colors to match EAGLE.Kicad has some features Eagle has, and some it doesn't. especially the behavior when moving components is different.it's fine once you get used to it. I got used to it in three months.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2025, 12:46:06 pm
content: Quote from: rpschultz13 on September 05, 2025, 12:18:15 amI'd say that KiCad is pretty good overall. I've read quite a few success stories of people switching from eagle to KiCad, and in hindsight wished they had done so earlier. And that was years ago, and KiCad improves significantly every year. There is a lot of development going on for KiCad. But apparently some people can't get to like KiCad. Maybe they gave up too quickly (each new program needs some time and effort to get used to), but for some people their brain is simply wired "differently". About 12 years ago I switched to Linux, and needed a new EDA suite. I evaluated a few programs, including eagle, and did not like it much. Then I evaluated KiCad, and liked it so much that I just stopped evaluating and did not even look at 2 or 3 other candidates on my list. And back then KiCad even had some serious flaws, such as library management not working at all. But I saw that fresh development was happening, and guessed (rightly so) that it would be fixed.For me, KiCad vs EasyEDA would not be a hard choice at all. I completely despise web based software, and very much like FOSS, so I can't even understand why you are thinking about both those programs. I also don't like vendor lock-in, and that's one of the driving sources for leaning towards FOSS software, even if functionality is less. I rather contribute to FOSS, then be enslaved by a company that sluices my money to shareholders while doing the absolute minimum to maintain their customer base.But all that said. If you're having a standalone license for the old Eagle, and you're happy with it, there is no big urge for you to change anything. Whether you can keep on using what you have now after 2026 probably depends on the license you have.

author: macegr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 10, 2025, 06:02:59 pm
content: Quote from: squadchannel on September 05, 2025, 12:36:55 amOne of the main reasons I used EAGLE was because many other people used EAGLE. When you are operating at a hobbyist level, you want that community inclusion and support; you want to share tips and tricks and files with each other, you want to create library parts for each other, you want to recommend your software to newcomers and welcome them into your community.I'm not quite sure how Autodesk is so good at killing the soul of everything it touches, but that vibrant community that used to exist around EAGLE is gone. Autodesk didn't want enthusiasts, they wanted dutiful customers. And that's how their forums look now. It's 50/50 frustrated customers, and community members who are clinging to the idea of enthusiasm but have to start every response with apologies or gaslighting.The KiCAD community is where most of the enthusiasm and excitement moved.