I'll agree with Chris. We've used p-cad for almost 20 years very successfully as our stuff is 100% analog in nature. They tried to migrate us over to Pro-tel some years back and we soundly rejected it due to the clumsy schematic capture tool. We're now gradually moving to Altium since they've discontinued p-cad support, but so far, all of the users consider the Pro-tel based Altium schematic capture "amateurish" compared to the old p-cad tool. We've done beta work with them for 8 or 10 years and told them this constantly with no satisfaction. My lead board designer isn't thrilled with the pcb package either, but we haven't used it enough to get used to it, but I've got 15 people who have gone from happy campers to grumblers. Our FPGA guy is in love with the development tool, but still hates the schematic capture part. Even a service bureau we use in peak periods has avoided moving to Altium in favor of p-cad for the same reasons. Bob Croslin The Nielsen Company -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Knudsen Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:18 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Questionnaire Edwin, Altium bought Protel several years ago. They are now the same product. Altium also iced P-CAD (www.pcad.com). I've used Protel->Altium since 1995 for low-density & relatively simple boards (it's not rocket science here, it's rock-science...). It is _my opinion_ that Altium's SCH editor is clunky (always has been). However, the PCB side provides a good bang/$ for a mid-range product. You should also check out their FPGA integration with support softcores, etc. It's intriguing... -The autorouter & autoplacer are useless. No matter what the glossy brochure says, you will not get satisfactory results from either feature. -However, their 'Interactive Routing' mode (basically autorouting when you use your mouse to point the way) is surprisingly intuitive. For a listing of the current gripes (of which there are many...) go to: http://www.altium.com/community/en/forums.cfm The user forum is very active and the Altium support folks are regulars (this seems to be a bit unusual for the industry...). Feel free to contact me off-line if you would like some more info and price-proof opinions. Best of luck! Regards, Chris www.ner.com ---------------------------------------- Chris Knudsen New England Research, Inc. 331 Olcott Dr Ste L1 White River Junction, VT 05001 802-296-2401 [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Liu, Edwin" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 10:52 PM Subject: Re: [TN] Questionnaire Hi Guys,Thanks for your help.All the softwares suggested by you are listed below,Is there anyone be good at all the softwares? Any other software need be updated? PADS Altium Mentor Cadence ViewMaster Protel Pulsonix Vutrax pCAD-200x pCAD Master Designer Power PCB Expedition Thanks/Best wishes. Edwin -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Foster Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 1:17 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Questionnaire If I was doing very large digital boards which required a lot of autorouting I would probably prefer Expedition. For anything else I would go with Pads. When it comes to drawing by hand or handrouting its hard to beat pads. Pads is actually a very powerful layout tool from the standpoint of control of the design. Thats my 2 cents. But the only tools I have used are Protel pads expedition -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Liu, Edwin Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2009 7:54 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Questionnaire Questionnaire: I guess that there have many engineers here,so which kind of software do you like best to design the PCB?Why (Like as Protel,Power PCB) --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------