CadSoft
25 years of Innovation
• November 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of CadSoft EAGLE
• To celebrate, we surveyed engineers involved in the field of PCB design to get a snapshot of the industry trends in 2013
• Here we present our findings.
Celebrating 25 years
What did we find?
Respondents are fresh faced....
79% of respondents have worked in the industry for under 10 years
98% of respondents were male
...and largely male...
We received responses from 42 different countries
...and span the globe.
They are targeting a variety of applications...
Audio Video Control sys-tems
Open hardware
Robotics Energy harvesting
Lighting Imaging0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
A massive 74% are targeting control systems in their designs
...mainly control systems...
46% are involved in open hardware
...and open-source hardware applications...
Nearly a quarter work on 10+ designs a year
...with many being prolific users
30%
29%
17%
24%
1-3 4-6 7-10 10+
Why do they choose
CadSoft‘s EAGLE software?
They consider functionality as the key reason...
Extre
mely Im
portant
Importa
nt
A little
bit importa
nt
Not that
importa
nt
Not at a
ll importa
nt0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
PriceEase of useFunctionality/performanceSupport
87% want improved library management
...and know exactly what they want added next.
73% want an improved user interface
What trends are they seeing in the industry?
• 64% believe this to be case– With more than a third believing dev boards have
had an enormous impact.
Dev boards are reducing the need for custom PCB design...
• 83% agree this is the case– A quarter believe they are essential.
– element14 was the most popular forum by far (45%)
...and peer-to-peer communities are important...
Despite acknowledging the importance of P2P communities, 41% say they are not active participants
...but that doesn‘t mean they‘re using them
Whilst the majority say they do not value social channels…
Meanwhile the industry is split over the value of social media
…42% admit they have an influence and use these channels for design inspiration…
Meanwhile the industry is split over the value of social media
…with only 36% saying they are not important at all.
Meanwhile the industry is split over the value of social media
This suggests designers are struggling to filter out the noise on these channels and
focus on following design influencers.
Meanwhile the industry is split over the value of social media
25 years of milestones
• As well as surveying our customers, we wanted to reflect on the history of CadSoft
• We‘ve built an interactive timeline to highlight just how CadSoft and EAGLE have developed over the years
www.cadsoftusa.com/about-us/
25 years of milestones
Still growing at 3x the industry rate
Some facts:• Founded in 1988 in Germany by two engineers• Headquartered in Pleiskirchen / Germany
• Development located in Germany• Offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Richfield, Ohio; and Munich, Germany
• Strong user base• Acquired by Premier Farnell in 2009 as a key part of its support for the
whole design process
For 25 years CadSoft EAGLE has been satisfying design engineers around the world by offering the same core functionality as expensive commercial PCB design software at a fraction of the cost.
www.cadsoftusa.com
About CadSoft
• EAGLE is an acronym and stands for:
Easy Applicable Graphical Layout Editor…which also works in German:
Einfach Anzuwendender Graphischer Layout Editor
• Easy, affordable way for customers to implement board designs– one fifth the cost of some competing design solutions
• Makes finding & ordering components faster and easier• Sold as “perpetual” licenses with maintenance & support included• Integrated into element 14
– Support forums on “the knode”, parts libraries, PCB service– Connected to the Premier Farnell webshops
• One of only few design tools for Mac (also runs on Windows & Linux)• Sold by design modules with multi-seat licensing
About EAGLE
• All images are sourced, with thanks, via the Wikimedia Commons image library project, except for:– Slides 16 & 17, credited to Farnell element14– Slide 4, credited to Flickr user ‘Meggy’
Image credits