Xcircuit:  Why is still used? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2015, 08:08:24 pm
content: Hello.I see many people use Xcircuit for making schematics to put in documents (specially those of academic purposes) and such, some even use LaTeX. I remember one of c4757 (sorry, I still fail to remember your robot nickname) projects providing schematics rendered with that software.Why? Isn't possible to do the same with a regular schematic tool? Are there some aesthetical limitations?I see sPlan and some Autodesk tool provide sophisticated ways to make schematics more pretty. I wonder if that can be implemented in other schematic tools such as Gschem and Eeschema.Kind regards

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2015, 08:30:38 pm
content: Because other options need money and don't run on all platforms?

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2015, 11:32:41 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 27, 2015, 08:30:38 pmThat would be an obvious explanation, but I would like to know the advantages of using Xcircuit in a more detailed way.Maybe those could be implemented in another schematic capture program and not need too use different programs for that. Who knows, the future of FOSS EDA looks promising!

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 01:05:44 am
content: Well, in a university environment, if you already use LaTeX (which is great, BTW) , it makes sense to stick with things that work with LaTeX best. And you are not capturing huge FPGA-based designs anywayAlso, do you have any examples?

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2015, 04:39:40 pm
content: Other packages probably don't create useful output. I doubt you'll find a PostScript plugin for Altium (printer output sure, but that's full page, what if you don't want the full page?), or most any others. PDF is fine, but you have to crop it down to embed a schematic rather than a whole sheet.In the past, I've used 125 or 300 DPI bitmaps, which aren't bad considering. Also "free" software used to create them (Paint!).Tim

author: codeboy2k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2015, 07:28:07 am
content: I always found xcircuit to be excruciatingly hard to use. But I like using TeX for documents when I need to make publications that mix text and graphics, since it always scales well, and this is becoming more important in todays multi-device world.TeX (or more likely the LaTex macros) are easy to use once you know them and their are editor packages to help with it too.I've just recently discovered Tikz. It's a TeX macro package for graphics, and it makes beautiful schematics.http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/collpits/http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/mosfet/Circuitikz is the package built on top of tikz to make circuits and networkshttp://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/tag/circuitikz/and here's some general electrical engineering examples:http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/area/electrical-engineering/I love the Bode plot on that last page... remember that it's scalable, so you can shrink or zoom it and you won't get pixelated graphics like a bitmap would.That Bode plot alone is a compelling reason to use TeX in your published docs... Try importing a gif or png and see how bad it looks when you try to print or view it at different resolutions.

author: neildarlow
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: August 29, 2015, 05:31:10 pm
content: Many years ago both Xcircuit and gEDA PCB were being developed at the same academic institution.I suggested that both authors work together to permit Xcircuit to export a netlist format that PCB could read. Obligingly, this was done and these two programs were usable together as a suite.Sent from my Xperia Z3 Compact using Tapatalk.