Hi All,
I have been using Eagle for many years, teaching my daughter layout skills using Adafruit products (in addition to home hobby stuff).  After autodesk purchased the product from Cadsoft, they forced a $15/month subscription fee.  Now, they are bundling this with Fusion 360 and increasing the cost to $60/month.  I think this is way to much for this type of use (non-commercial) so I guess I have to move to a new product.

Suggestions for a replacement that might let me migrate a few designs?  I've heard kicad might be ok, and fritzing.  Anyone have experience with them?  I dont want to re-learn from scratch although I know some things will be different.

Thanks

Hi,

DesignSpark PCB is free from RS Components and works well. I have heard it has a degree of similarity with Eagle. IMHO the weakest part is the component library editor... I've gone round in circles on more than one occasion.

Persist with the design rule checker, it is your best friend.

I send the  manufacturing files to PCBWay and have two and four layer boards arrive from China in seven days... from sending the files to the courier knocking on the door.

A last point; you will almost certainly suffer from the "it's different so it's wrong" syndrome. I always do when migrating to a new program.

Good luck