EAGLE (program)

EAGLE was a scriptable electronic design automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto-router and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) features. EAGLE stood for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor ( ) and was developed by CadSoft Computer GmbH. The company was acquired by Autodesk Inc. in 2016 who announced to support the product up to 2026 only. EAGLE has been phased out with Fusion being used for PCB design.

EAGLE was a scriptable electronic design automation (EDA) application with schematic capture, printed circuit board (PCB) layout, auto-router and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) features. EAGLE stood for Easily Applicable Graphical Layout Editor ( ) and was developed by CadSoft Computer GmbH. The company was acquired by Autodesk Inc. in 2016 who announced to support the product up to 2026 only. EAGLE has been phased out with Fusion being used for PCB design. ==License model== Since EAGLE version 8.0.0, there are Premium, Standard, Free, and Student & educator editions, with the Standard and Premium versions sold on a monthly or annual subscription basis, requiring online reactivation at least every 14 days (30 days since version 9.0). In January 2020, EAGLE 9.5.2 was discontinued as a standalone product and is only licensed to users as a bundled component with an Autodesk Fusion subscription. In 2023, Autodesk announced that they will no longer sell nor support EAGLE after 7 June 2026. Up to this date, active Autodesk Fusion subscriptions with or without EAGLE Premium will continue to give access to Fusion Electronics as well as EAGLE Premium functionality. Comparison of features for the various available editions: For comparison, the former (no longer obtainable) perpetual licensing scheme for EAGLE 7.x.x with costs referring to the 2016 prices for a single-user license: ==Community== A large group of textual and video tutorials exists for beginners to design their own PCBs. The DIY electronics site SparkFun uses EAGLE and releases the EAGLE files for boards designed in-house. SparkFun Electronics is a company that has grown due to the hobbyist market exemplified by Make magazine and others. Many of these companies offer EAGLE part libraries which define schematic shapes, pinouts, and part sizes to allow for correct layout in the PCB layout editor. Other popular libraries include Adafruit, Arduino, SnapEDA, and Dangerous Prototypes, element14 (a subsidiary of Farnell, former owners of CadSoft) also have some libraries available from their site. Using ULPs to convert EAGLE .BRD files into Specctra-compatible design files (with file extension .DSN) it is possible to export designs for usage in conjunction with advanced external autorouters such as KONEKT ELECTRA, Eremex TopoR or Alfons Wirtz's FreeRouting. For further touching-up the finished designs in session format can be imported back into EAGLE via .SES to .SCR script file converters. ==Controversies== In spring 1991 the dongle protection scheme of EAGLE 2.0 had been cracked causing a decline of 30% in sales, while sales for a reduced demo version with a printed manual saw a significant increase. As a consequence in 1992 CadSoft sent thousands of floppy disks containing a new demo of EAGLE 2.6 to potential users, in particular those who had ordered the former demo but had not subsequently bought the full product. The new demo, however, also contained spy code scanning the user's hard disk for illegal copies of EAGLE. If the program found traces of such, it would show a message indicating that the user was entitled to order a free printed manual using the displayed special order code, which, however, was actually a number encoding the evidence found on the user's machine. Users sending in the filled out form would receive a reply from CadSoft's attorneys. The act of spying, however, was illegal as well by German law. In 2014, EAGLE 7.0.0 introduced a new Flexera FLEXlm-based licensing model, which wasn't well received by the user community, so that CadSoft returned to the former model of independent perpetual licenses with EAGLE 7.1.0. Despite announcements to the contrary in 2016, Autodesk switched to a subscription-only licensing model with EAGLE 8.0.0 in January 2017. Without an online connection to a licensing server to verify the licensing status every two weeks (four weeks since version 9.0.0), the software would fall back to the functionality of the freeware version. This caused an uproar in the user community, in particular among those who work in secure or remote environments without direct Internet access and users for whom it is mandatory to be able to gain full access to their designs even after extended periods of time (several years up to decades) without depending on third-parties such as Autodesk to allow reactivation (who may no longer be around or support the product by then). Many users have indicated they would refuse to upgrade under a subscription model and rather migrate to other electronic design applications such as KiCad. ==See also== Comparison of EDA software List of free electronics circuit simulators Video Disk Recorder (VDR) – another software written by Klaus-Peter Schmidinger ==Notes== ==References== ==Further reading== (NB. Includes a copy of EAGLE 4.09r2.) ==External links== (Autodesk's EAGLE web support forums) news://news.cadsoft.de (CadSoft's EAGLE support newsgroups via NNTP) (CadSoft's archive of old EAGLE versions)

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