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What is "ICanCAD"?

ICanCAD is a CAD editor for analog and mixed-signal (analog and digital signals on the same chip) circuit design that is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Version 0.2.0 (April 2002) has fairly complete schematic editing functionality (think of a "draw" program with wires), but no support as of yet for netlisting or EDIF I/O.

Can I use ICanCAD now? What do I need?

The short answer is "Yes," but it comes with some fairly major caveats:

ICanCAD is prototype software; it has had only a few hours of testing by actual design engineers. It will break (though, like most Lisp applications, you probably won't lose much data, if any, when it does).

Owing to copyright uncertainty, ICanCAD does not come with any prebuilt primitive libraries (i.e. you have to draw your own transistors and such).

Only two file formats are supported, both of them completely obscure. EDIF output code is included, but it is only half implemented -- and I haven't worked on it for a while, so the half that is written probably has some bit rot. Consequently, you will need to do some Lisp programming in order to get more than just PostScript out of it.
BUT:

Development has been focused on Allegro Common Lisp using CLIM as the GUI toolkit, largely for historical reasons. Unfortunately, there does not yet exist a free CLIM that supports a large enough subset for ICanCAD (though McCLIM seems to be getting close). ICanCAD executables for Windows and Linux are available, but if you want to play with the source code, you will need to either acquire an Allegro development system, attempt to port to LispWorks CLIM, or (shudder) to another GUI toolkit.

If that is not enough to scare you off, you can download the current version, including the latest source and documentation files, from the Installation instructions page, which also has more to say about required software.

What is ICanCAD's future?

That's a good question. The original development strategy was focused narrowly on using ICanCAD as an additional design editing station for a particular legacy CAD system, at least in its initial deployment. It was intended that ICanCAD would subsequently evolve to provide stand-alone schematic entry and simulation of custom IC's, with export/import interfaces to other tools, but there is no longer a timetable for this.

The original short-term goal has been largely met, but at some cost; the resulting system requires unfree components (namely CLIM), and lacks features (namely simulation interfaces, and any means of design import/export) that would make it useful to anyone else. As of 1 April 2002, the constraints that made this strategy desirable have disappeared, but so has the funding.

As a result, ICanCAD now sits at a crossroads. The logical next thing to do would be to port it to a free GUI toolkit so that people could pick it up at no cost. This seems like the minimum requirement to make it self-sustaining as an Open Source project, but it's unclear when or how such a port will happen. (I've been looking at two possible Lisp Open Source GUI toolkits, clg and McCLIM, but it would be a big job even if either was "ready for prime time," as the saying goes.)

Does ICanCAD have a mailing list?

If you are interested in receiving ICanCAD progress reports and such, send an empty email to "icancad-subscribe at rgrjr.dyndns.org"; you will get a confirmation message by return mail, to which you must reply. (This proves you have control of the email address, lest someone try to subscribe you without your permission.) Use "icancad-unsubscribe at rgrjr.dyndns.org" to unsubscribe, and "icancad at rgrjr.dyndns.org" to post queries, comments, and/or bug reports to the list. Mailing to "icancad-help at rgrjr.dyndns.org" will remind you of this, and also tell you how to request copies of old postings. The icancad list is unmoderated, and the volume is currently, ah, low.

Where is ICanCAD documented?

There is now an ICanCAD User's Guide page that links to all available user documentation pages. Since ICanCAD is still "alpha-grade" software, it still needs lots of fleshing out; users unfamiliar with the way my mind works will probably need to read the code.

See also the Internal Documentation page, which serves as something of an introduction to the way my mind works.

ICanCAD now has a CLiki page devoted to it.

Bob Rogers <rogers@rgrjr.dyndns.org>

Last modified: Fri Apr 26 22:10:58 EDT 2002