A follow on from
QFP centre slug over signal vias

There are some interesting comments in the QFP thread which are to do
with PCB design and they have caused me to pull out my current soap box.

I would like to be a bit extreme and say there should be a tax of a few
thousand pounds or dollars imposed upon those that give away free CAD
packages. The money raised should be provided to vendors who sell real
CAD packages to subsidise PCB layout training in order to allow cost
effective and reliable pcb design, assembly design, rework and design
for test to be taught properly.

Why is it that an electronics engineer will design a circuit and then
feel that he is competent to lay out the circuit using a free CAD
package? The fact that the CAD package was free meant that management
were not involved and the consequences of a PCB being laid out by
someone with little or no knowledge of the pcb industry or even the
assembly industry were not considered.

The list of stupid things we see is very long, it results in pcbs and
assemblies being more expensive to procure, less reliable to
manufacture, difficult to make, impossible to test, slower to get into
production and just downright rubbish. The free CAD package cannot
provide intelligent data means that a reverse engineering process is
required to attempt to undo some of the stupidities we see. Words like
DRC and libraries are an unknown for many using these packages.

Also I'd rather tell a six year old that Fred, their pet turkey, is
required as a sacrifice for thanks giving day than explain to a young
circuit designer with a free CAD package that he is delving into areas
that he should stay out of and that his layout is very bad. That doesn't
mean I don't do it but Fred's demise is easier.

I could go on but mince pies are calling
Happy winter solstice
Rex




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