>> Hi, has anyone of you got experience with Borlands ULTIBOARD,
ULTICAP and
>> ULTISHELL to make pcbs and schematics ??
>I don't know where Borland come into it. UltiBoard et al are products
>of Ultimate Technology in the Netherlands.

Correct! it's owned by Ultimate Tech. The Netherlands.

I'm using this product for about 9 years now. Choosed for it due to
the few PC platform alternatives at that time. Had to choose between
Ultimate and Racal Redac (Cadstar). The latter was a real pain to use
at that time, and OrCad didn't had a decent PCB layout program.
I admit that the Ultimate product, especially in the early days, was
very buggy. But it still seemed to be the right package for me in
terms of possibilities and fast 'schematic to PCB' time (I can
virtually use it with my eyes closed now :).
Right now it's less buggy and a Windows version is also available for
some years. I'm still working with the last released DOS version (5.1)
which runs at lightning speed on a modern Pentium machine.

For me, the biggest drawback of this product is that they still use
more or less the same engine with just added features in new versions.
The method of library management, shape editing and technology
management (general pad, drill, trace and via sizes) is still very
poor. On the other hand, all thinkable options are there.

>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

I've used the Designer series also, but right now I use the downgraded
Challenger 2800 (max. 2800 pins) version which can do the job for me
also. The Challenger 2800 costs about Fl.1200,- (approx. $600), and
the maintenance contract is about $200 per year.

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

I agree. But I've learned PCB designing the UltiBoard (=hard) way and
I'm so used to it that I still use it. If I had to choose a new PCB
design product again, I would probably bought something else.

Daniel...