Steve Baldwin wrote:

>I have (had) the designer series. I would estimate that buying that
>product would rate as my biggest mistake since starting up my
>business. They charge an arm and a leg for annual maintenance, yet
>send out buggy Beta software and new additions never quite make it
>onto the CD until just after the next bill is due.

I had the hobbyist license/deal when it first came out.  I paid $99 for the
package and $50 for two years of support.

I agree with the buggy software with the biggest problems I have include:

1.  Difficulty creating library devices.
2.  If you double click on a label, the application crashes.

These problems have been around literally for years.  To be fair, it works
better for me than the Ivex products which seem to crash randomly every time
I download them and try them again.

>A CAD program that breaks nets is not much more than a drawing tool.
>I'm not in a position to throw away US$10k lightly  but this
>product was of more use to me in the bin and the full Protel98 suite
>cost me about the same as the last Ultimate maintenance bill.

I agree.  The layout tool is basically useless.  I've never been comfortable
enough with it to switch from Protel's "Easytrax".

>Unless you are stealing it, IMHO you are paying too much for it.

I have to say that about all cheap schematic capture and layout programs.
I'm looking at EWB (schematic capture and layout tools) and SuperCAD.

myke