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Premier Farnell buys design software firm CadSoft (Eagle) – via oomlout
Premier Farnell has acquired CadSoft Computer, developer of the Eagle brand of electronic design software.
Premier Farnell will market the CAD software through its element14 online community of development engineers. It also plans to extend the CAD software’s capabilities by linking it to their databases in a similar methodology to the DesignLink platform.
“The CadSoft Eagle CAD software extends our portfolio and gives us more tools to help our customers in their design process,” said David Shen, Global Head of eCommerce and Technical Marketing of Premier Farnell.
Along with the launch of DesignLink, which provides a link from CAD tools to product data on Farnell’s website, the acquisition of CadSoft indicates the distributor’s aim to support more of the design process.
The distributor could end up paying euros12m for CadSoft whose software is used by more than 40,000 electronic design engineers throughout the US and Europe.
FEED
If this means that Farnell will sink some money into beefing up the parts library for Eagle then I’m all for this.
Comment by Flemming Frandsen — September 24, 2009 @ 11:49 am
But if this means that Farnell recovers some of the cost of creating parts by jacking the price up three or four times, and no longer offering a freeware version, I’m all against this. I recommend Eagle to so many people getting started in electronics. And honestly, I don’t really care about a larger parts library. No matter how big a part library is, it never has the exact part I need, so I have to make it anyway.
Comment by macegr — September 24, 2009 @ 1:00 pm
Yeah, I totally agree with macegr. I always highly recommend the freeware version of Eagle to people getting started in electronics. I would be a shame if this resource were taken away.
Comment by Jack — September 24, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
I smell another OrCAD.
Comment by John — September 24, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
@Jack so it might be time to download and put aside just in case!
Comment by Jason — September 24, 2009 @ 4:29 pm
Kicad is an open source (GPL) software for the creation of electronic schematic diagrams and printed circuit board artwork :
http://www.lis.inpg.fr/realise_au_lis/kicad/
Eagle is a plague, the freeware version DO routing mistakes or oversights.
I don’t understand why people still recommend it.
Comment by Forth — September 24, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
@Forth- people recommend it because it’s ubiquitous. and everything makes mistakes. Shall I philosophize further on the fallibility of man and all his works?
Comment by John — September 24, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
It is time to switch to gEDA.
Comment by atommann — September 24, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
I think gEDA is not quite mature yet. But, OTOH, with the absence of a good freeware CAD, it might get to its tipping point…
Comment by RafaelGCPP — September 25, 2009 @ 5:51 am
Hi guys, Firstly I’m a Premier Farnell employee.
I can say there are no plans to stop the EAGLE free version. In fact it’s been available to download from our element14 community site for over a month now http://www.element-14.com/community/docs/DOC-13200. There will be quite close integration with element14, and video tutorials posted for new users. Element14 could also be used to collaberate on designs.
The two founders of the company will still be here for a period of time to help, and we are genuinely looking for feedback and comments from engineers to make CadSoft a better product. Any ideas, suggestions or other feedback can be posted here http://www.element-14.com/community/thread/1644 to talk to the guys behind the deal.
Believe me, it’s in Farnell’s interest to have a better product with more users
Comment by Alistair Winning — September 25, 2009 @ 10:58 am
My post seems to have disappeared. I’m from Premier Farnell. CadSoft tools will remain free, and probably be upgraded. There are no current plans to scrap the free version, in fact it can be downloaded from our element14 site
Comment by ally — September 25, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
This sounds bad. Generally when another company buys a software house to get their program it’s because the marketoids have convinced the bosses that they can leverage it to make more money.
What that usually entails is making it into a bloated piece of crap with every opportunity to link into their sales web site exploited. If they just added more parts, a parts list export feature with import to their web site and kept everything free it would be good, but you know they are never going to settle for just that.
Comment by MoJo — September 25, 2009 @ 4:42 pm
Xmmm, I don
Comment by Zapper — September 27, 2009 @ 4:24 am
Thanks Forth for the kicad tip, looks awesome!!!
Comment by Zapper — September 27, 2009 @ 4:32 am
If founders will then leave the product, that will be not good.
Comment by Stanislav — October 2, 2009 @ 3:08 pm
maybe they can finally make a good interface for the program!!
Honestly they should hire some external people to improve the GUI and usibility.
Comment by DDD — October 8, 2009 @ 12:14 am
Immediately, I see this as a good thing. Farnell aren’t tied to any particular suppliers and, in other areas, they provide a literally awesome service.
I expect there will be closer connection between Eagle and their product database, providing BOM costings and automatic ordering. This is something I welcome.
For hobbyists, if they attract extra business through the software, I don’t see any need to charge for the software. I’d be very surprised if the free version disappeared. If anything, the limitations may be relaxed a little (on the basis that the bigger the board, the more components might be purchased).
Comment by Kevin — January 27, 2010 @ 6:52 pm