Hello everyone,

Excuse for putting my 2 cents in; however, I feel one software package is
being left out of the loop and should be a contender. While I was working in
Austin we converted up from CADNETIX to VeriBest. We did do some evaluation
on other CAD packages and decided, primarily due to cost of upgrading, to go
with VeriBest. I am know using Cadence Allegro w/ CCT. I will not give my
opinion on which is better; however, I will comment on some of the pro's and
con's. Since I am not reviewing upgrades on VeriBest, I will reference
Version 14 or VB97 against Cadence Allegro version 12.

Routing - Veribest has a terrific interface within the Advance editor, it
handles 45deg routing so much better then CCT/Allegro as far as push and
shove is concerned. There were some quarks with the router modifying traces
you didn't want modified; however, when I left my previous company there
where enhancements scheduled to fix this problem. All and all you can hand
route much faster within Veribest.

Mechanical tools - Veribest runs on top of Microstation which gives users a
complete mechanical package built into the tool. Of course more then half
the stuff in Microstation will not be touched by the average designer, at
least the capability is there if needed. Allegro appears to be adequate as
far as board design is concerned.

Defining rules - Veribest has a very friendly user interface for defining
constraints on nets; however, we initially had problems with losing some of
those constraints and spent some time entering them back in. Allegro is a
bit more complicated; however, from what I have gathered from other power
users, it has tremendous flexibility and stability. There have been some
limitations that are being addressed.

Stability - Veribest was running under NT and we had system problems causing
some lost work. We also had an occasional corrupted database which would
take sometime to repair. I have found Allegro to be very stable running
under UNIX; however, I have not seen the NT interface and the potential
problems that may occur.

Autorouting - This is a tough one - I like the way Veribest uses gridless
shape based routing without allowing crosses and conflicts, to add to this
it's push and shove on 45deg routes makes it easy to complete the rest of
the connections. CCT seems to have a high completion ratio; however, most
designers take it back into the Allegro side for completion. Allegro is
considered by most as an exacto knife.

File structure - Allegro has everything built into one file; however, a far
amount of knowledge has to be known to create shortcuts, batch programs,
user configureabilty, etc....  as compared to Veribest. Veribest has a huge
file structure with certain files depending on each other. This creates more
room for having a corrupt data base and handling archiving and general file
management. Veribest does have easily configurable user interface for
creating shortcuts. I feel you have more flexibility with Allegro if you
have the expertise, but you can get up and running much faster on Veribest
with less flexibility in the long run. According to Karl Bates Cadence is at
least better then Mentor.

Summary,

Allego/CCT Pro's - Stable, extensive rule set, extremely user configurable,
good for ECN's, good file structure

Allegro/CCT Con's - Poor interactive routing, must have extensive knowledge
of programming to customize, limited mechanical tool, complicated rule set,
set in there ways (to big to pay attention to the little guy)

Veribest Pro's - Good interactive router, easily configurable, built in
mechanical tool, nice interface for entering rules, good support group for
enhancements.

Veribest Con's - Unstable database, large file structure, limited rule set,
more then what you need on mechanical tools.

Shop around .......

Regards,
Paul Danna
PCB Design                        Compaq Computer Corp.
Phone (281) 518-6735        PO Box 692000
Fax (281) 518-6122              MS080403
[log in to unmask]   Houston, Texas 77269-2000

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