Sorry, i'm on the Digest format so i'm slow to play. Of course
we all have days like that. My first thought when i saw your email
was "How long HAVE you been using Mentor?"

  It would be a great idea to collect positive and negative points
about each PCB CAD  system in a central forum with tips and
hints for "taming" each system. I've used a Gerber PC800, THeda
[excellent software], Mentor and hand taping and played with EE Designer,
PCad, Protel, Intergraph.Douglas & Vamp. Cadence is probably next.
They all had their good points and shortcomings. Many of these
softwares have user group forums where the users of that specific
software share their roadbocks, successes and work arounds. Some
of these are public & some are restricted to users only.

 Having an Independent forum might accomplish the following:

  1) People interested in purchasing a new CAD system could get
      a better idea of which CAD system would best meet their needs,
      based on comments from users [not salesmen] about each
      system's strong & weak points.

  2) We could all see that it's not just our particular system that drives
      people crazy - they all have their quirks. Misery loves company.

  3) CAD vendors might be quicker to resolve issues they know are posted
      on a public forum instead of buried in some User Group page/email
forum that
      are mostly read by only the users of that system or even only
available to
      users of that system. Once you've bought the system and have
committed
      several data bases and lots of infrastructure support to it it's hard
to jump ship
      and vendors probably count on this. Most user groups seem to have Top
10 lists and
      lots of problems with assigned ticket numbers. What they don't seem
to have
      many of are problems that have been resolved by the Cad vendor. And
      Lord help you if your bug report is classified as an "enhancement
request."..................
      We don't need to be angry but we need to be firm.

4) Over time we might be able to compare notes and evolve some minimal PCB
    CAD system requirements and help those software engineers understand
what
    we really need and why.

5) This could actually be fun & constructive at the same time.

 The benchmark seems like a good starting point. [By the way, every
vendor who participated deserves 10 extra credit points for showing up
and those who didn't get minus 10 points for not having enough faith
in their own systems to participate. Since we're involved in electronic
design
we all understand the dangers of public demos (just ask Bill Gates!) but
we are also understanding if something fails on the "Big Day."  Also
100 extra credit points to PC Design Magazine for insisting there would be
a benchmark even if it was only with one participant.]

 The only possible glitch in this is finding a sponsor. Organizations that
need
advertising revenue or membership from CAD Vendors might understandably
be reluctant to irritate their revenue sources. If anyone does step forward
to sponsor
this we need to make sure we as a design community support them 1000%. How
do
we pull this great idea off?

 "The opinions expressed herein are my own and
not necessarily those of my employer."


          Thomas Martin
          Contract PC Board Designer

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