GitExtensions is a free and open source GUI for the popular source-control solution Git.

Pros:

• Very capable Git GUI
• Manages reposatory submodules really well
• Surprisingly fast and responsive
• Easy to use, very intuitive

Cons:

• The installation can be a bit confusing (Need to install Git and KDiff3 separately)

Engineer Suku’s Awards:

• “The Solution” Award (Won)
• Great Open-Source Effort (Won)

“Every time you fail you learn, but if you get it right one time, everybody calls you an overnight success and you just smile all the way to the bank.”

Mark Cuban

FreeCAD is a free and open source parametric design software.

Pros:

• Very capable CAD package
• Exports and imports all of the major formats
• Runs in VirtualBox really well (Both Linux and Windows)

Cons:

• Needs some getting used to.
• Can be a little unpredictable at times

Engineer Suku’s Awards:

• Excellent Design Software (Nominated)
• Great Open-Source Effort (Won)

A Board Release Procedure helps you to avoid mistakes when finishing a PCB design and ensures the proper archiving of the source files.

Robert Feranic from Fedevel Academy has a great video on Youtube explaining in more detail.

“The industry requires 99.99% accuracy. So we can accept 0.01% error, but we prefer even that not to happen.”

I think that every hardware design engineer (and software developer) should aim to meet these standards!

Check out this very insightful episode of The Amp Hour podcast (Episode #407) where Chris Gammell and Gregory Charvat discust factory atomation and industrial sensors among other things.