Eagle Freeware EDA Schematic, PCB Layout, Router

CadSoft Online

Freeware

The EAGLE Light Edition can be used for free!

Limitations

The following limitations apply to the EAGLE Light Edition in general:

The useable board area is limited to 100 x 80 mm (4 x 3.2 inches).
Only two signal layers can be used (Top and Bottom).
The schematic editor can only create one sheet.

Apart from these three limitiations the EAGLE Light Edition can do anything the Professional Edition can do. You can even load, view and print drawings that exceed these limits!

The Freeware version of EAGLE Light adds these limitations:

Support is only available via email or through our forum (no fax or phone support).
Use is limited to non-profit applications or evaluation purposes.

What does "non-profit" mean?

The definition of non-profit is fairly simple and straightforward:

If you earn money by using the Freeware version of EAGLE Light, you have to register it.

This allows anybody who wishes to use EAGLE Light for their private hobby projects to do so. Also students can use this version for any educational projects. It is even ok to use this version in a commercial environment, as long as you just want to evaluate the program. As soon as you start using it for commercial projects, you will have to register it. As an exception to this, board manufacturers may use the Freeware Light Edition to generate production data (e.g. Gerber files) from board files they have received from EAGLE users.

How do I get it?

Follow these steps to install the free EAGLE Light Edition on your system:

Go to the Download area and get the file that contains the EAGLE program installation data for your language (English or German) and your operating system (Linux or Windows).
Install the file you have downloaded onto your system.
When you first start EAGLE, you will be asked whether you have a personalized license disk, or whether you want to run EAGLE as Freeware. To use the Freeware license select the "Run as freeware" button.

Is it really useful?

Maybe you think the limitations of EAGLE Light won't allow you to do anything meaningful? Well, take a look at this 68HC12 board, which does not exceed the capabilities of EAGLE Light (in fact you can do even bigger boards than the one shown there).

How can I register/upgrade?

If your application exceeds the non-profit domain, or if you prefer to have a printed manual, CD-ROM and full support via phone or fax, you can register your program copy and receive your own, personalized license file. Any files you have created with the Freeware version of EAGLE Light can be used with any registered version of EAGLE Light, Standard or Professional. So if your project exceeds the limits of EAGLE Light, you can always go to a higher level (and you only have to pay the difference between what you have and what you are upgrading to).

Copyright

The Freeware version of EAGLE Light is copyright protected software, © 2001 CadSoft Computer GmbH, all rights reserved worldwide. No part of the executable files that come with EAGLE nor the freeware.key file that implements the Freeware license may be altered in any way. CadSoft reserves the right to decide whether to continue this Freeware program with the future versions of EAGLE.

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