I thought I'd post my response to a question that I got on a user forum at the IET

> Thanks Andrew, useful info.! I'll have a look at
> gEDA website and see how it works. One question
> though: If you use gEDA and a client wants a
> design done in Orcad, how will you get the
> software?

> Do you have a selection of different packages
> (I would have thought this would be really
> expensive tdo that)?

[background] My design house Paramita Electronics uses gEDA for all of it's in-house electronics development, and for around 85% (based on turnover) of my client work aswell.

Essentially, I have two kinds of clients - those that already have a toolchain and those that don't.

Those that don't, largely are only concerned that the work is up to a suitable standard. The package that I use isn't much interest to them unless it affects the design (in terms of vendor lock-in gEDA is arguably better than proprietary solutions) so we use gEDA and they pay nothing for the license.

Clients that already have a toolchain, already have licenses. So I usually offer to work onsite at their establishment, using their licenses, or I ask that my hourly rate includes an expense fee to cover the cost of the EDA tool.

In my experience, these clients don't mind hiring me onsite - I then use one of their licenses. My last large client had no problem with me using one of their altium licenses (they had 70 seats!!). They know that a consultant will cover the cost of EDA somehow - so the fact that I let them solve the problem whichever way is most economical to them is a bonus, rather than plumping for an expensive suite and limiting my clients to that, I can be more flexible.

Paramita Electronics Product Development Blog

Andrew Whyte here. This blog is a record of progress of paramita ltd, a UK product development consultancy.

Since I set up shop in May 2008, I've been rushed off my feet! Working to design the electronics for exciting products like: motor control for a training device for surgeons, to smart utility metering devices...

In case you are wondering why that last link is so cryptic, I have to explain - the client has requested that details be kept confidential. In fact, the market for smart metering devices is very competitive, so it's really important that paramita ltd take our secrecy seriously. Luckily, we keep our data encrypted with industry standard encryption and backed up regularly.

paramita ltd has an advantage over our rivals, in that we preferentially use the gEDA toolchain for our development. gEDA is an open source electronic design toolchain. This means that we don't pay thousands of pounds for software that locks you, our clients, into using a particular design flow. With the gEDA toolchain, we are able to deliver our designs in an open format. If any client isn't happy with our service, they can take the design, to someone else to develop.

paramita ltd delivers real world, working electronic designs, not vendor lock in.