Picdude said:
> How about Mentor Graphics ... supposed to be an excellent package, and
> I've  seen some really neat features in it such as importing from a 3D
> cad file so  it can flag you against placement of components where space
> does not permit,  etc.  Really nice stuff!  And it's allegedly around
> $10k.

Hi Neil,

PADS has been purchased twice in the last few years, most recently by
Mentor Graphics. I am quite experienced with PADS having been a longtime
customer (before their buyout) but Mentor Graphics appears to consider it
the orphan stepchild. SPECCTRA was previously the router for PADS but now
it includes their own "BlazeRouter" which uses 50% more vias than
SPECCTRA. I have no idea why Mentor bought PADS, perhaps to kill it off.
They offer it for sale, but as their second-tier product. Considering you
can spend $10k on PADS, I shudder to think what Mentor charges for a
usable version of Expedition, their "premier" product.

This type of company charges a fortune to get the features you need turned
on in the software. Perhaps that's the thing that irks me the most.
Example: to get automatic mitering you must get the "design for
manufacture" option at "only" $995. Need test point pads? You'll want to
get the "design for test" option. Want 1-degree component rotation or
thermal analysis?... At least with Protel and Eagle the feature set is
fixed.

The state of EDA is fairly depressing. Perhaps I'll just continue using
old tools until Protel or Eagle catches up (or something open source comes
along, ha!)

Cheerful regards,

Bob

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic:
[PIC]:,[SX]:,[AVR]: ->uP ONLY! [EE]:,[OT]: ->Other [BUY]:,[AD]: ->Ads