GEDA

infobox software
name = gEDA


caption = Schematic capture using "gschem"
author = Ales Hvezda "et al."
latest release version = 1.4.0
latest release date = 27 January 2008
operating system = Unix-like
genre = Electronic design automation
license = GNU General Public License
website = http://www.geda.seul.org/

gEDA is a suite of collaborative software used for electronic design automation. The project's name stands for "GPL’d suite of electronic design automation tools".

Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, gEDA is free software.

Description

The gEDA project offers a mature suite of free software applications for electronics design, including schematic capture using "gschem", attribute management ["gattrib"] , bill of materials (BOM) generation, netlisting into over 20 netlist formats ["gnetlist"] , analog and digital simulation ["ngspice", "gnucap", "Icarus Verilog", and "GTKWave"] , and Printed circuit board (PCB) layout ["pcb"] ."

History

The gEDA project was started by Ales Hvezda in an effort to address the lack of free software EDA tools for Linux/UNIX, and the first version was released on 1 April 1998. The tools are developed primarily on Linux machines, although an effort is made to ensure that gEDA runs on other Unix-like systems.

Properly, the term "gEDA" refers to all free-software projects and applications that have voluntarily associated themselves with the gEDA project (via the "geda-dev"/"geda-user" mailing lists). In contrast, "gEDA/gaf" refers to a smaller subset of tools “grouped together under the gEDA name” and maintained directly by the gEDA project. These tools include: [ [http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:faq gEDA Project FAQ] ]

* "gschem" — A schematic capture program
* "gnetlist" — A netlist generation program
* "gsymcheck" — A syntax checker for schematic symbols
* "gattrib" — A spreadsheet programm that manipulates the properties of symbols of a schematic
* "libgeda" — Libraries for "gschem", "gnetlist", and "gsymcheck"
* "gsch2pcb" — Forward annotation from schematic to layout using "pcb"
* Assorted utility programs

Finally, the term "gEDA suite" refers to a packaged distribution of "gEDA"/"gaf" and other gEDA Project tools made available as an ISO CD-ROM image in order to simplify and automate the installation of the more commonly used gEDA Project tools.

Windows

A knowledgeable computer user can use the available source code (and available GPL'd libraries) to build gEDA to run under Microsoft Windows. [ [http://www.geda.seul.org/download.html geda.seul.org "Words to the Wise" (bottom of the page)] ] [ [http://archives.seul.org/geda/user/Dec-2006/msg00113.html gEDA Users Mailing List Archive, "strange build failure" December 2006] ]

At points in time, individuals have even created Windows-compatible binaries for distribution. Whether those developers lose interest in that effort or they become overwhelmed by unsophisticated Windows users who require more hand-holding [ [http://archives.seul.org/geda/user/Dec-2006/msg00064.html gEDA Users Mailing List Archive, "strange build failure" December 2006] ] than the typical user running gEDA under a Unix-like OS, those Windows-compatible binaries have historically not been updated to include the latest improvements to the elements of the suite.

References

External links

* [http://www.geda.seul.org/ gEDA Project Homepage]
* [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8438 “Circuit Design on Your Linux Box Using gEDA”] — Overview article by Stuart Brorson in the [http://www.linuxjournal.com/ Linux Journal]
* [http://www.geda.seul.org/docs/current/tutorials/gsch2pcb/tutorial.html gsch2pcb tutorial, how to go from schematic to pcb layout]