I just recently purchased Autotrax - I thus far haven't had near as many problems as some have. I have come across a few bugs which are fairly easy to avoid (hopefully to be fixed in an update). The spice simulation is pretty good, a bit sluggish, but since I am new to spice, it may just be something normal that I'm not used to. The only thing I'm disappointed with thus far is the parts library - it's a bit small for my taste. One can add parts to the library, and it looks like they plan to seriously increase the size of the parts library in future updates. I've heard the autorouter isn't as good as it could be yet - I personally don't know as I haven't used it on difficult / detailed projects, the lightweight stuff I've done the auto router seemed to work fine. to give an idea on spice - I entered a small schematic of a FM transmitter section, oscillator running at ~800KHz, no intelligence input (conveniently, I happened to have a schematic at hand ;) - on my 1.9GHz w/ WinXP Home, 256M Ram, it took about 2 minutes 30 seconds to complete the simulation and display my wave form on the oscilloscope. My bottom line feeling - at this point, at $95.00 it's for the most part worth it (with 12 months of upgrades, I'm looking forward to some of the changes they have listed in their up and comming sections, I have to try adding in other companies spice models to see what happens as well, I may change my views after I attempt a few), at $495 I'm not sure I'd make the leap. I only have one other program to compare it to (QCad), which was $380 for unlimited pins, no simulation - a bit more difficult to use, but substantially larger part library. Being as that I am enrolled in classes right now I can get student discounts on some software, so it really makes me look twice at various packages before I jump to buy. I'd definitly suggest downloading and trying, but DO NOT run it on 98, even in the manual (and I think the website somewhere), it says to run it on NT, 2000 or XP and that it won't work fully on 95, 98 or ME. I like it, and I think it has outstanding potential. Whether i will stick with it, or use something else, I don't know yet - it's too early for me to make that type of determination. -Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bob Ammerman" To: Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 2:05 PM Subject: Re: [EE]: Autotrax - any good? > I tried a very recent free download. I managed to crash it about 3 times in > 45 minutes of use before giving up and going back to Eagle. > > I was trying to use the SPICE capabilities, which of course Eagle doesn't > have. I thought it would be a useful tool to strengthen my understanding of > the analog world. > > Bob Ammerman > RAm Systems > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jeremy Darling" > To: > Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 12:38 PM > Subject: Re: [EE]: Autotrax - any good? > > > I have been looking it this software also and was wondering if anyone else > had seen it :). Also is the install limited to a single system or can you > have it on a few and just need the CD would be nice information to know. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Davd P Harris [mailto:dpharris@TELUS.NET] > Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 11:29 AM > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU > Subject: [EE]: Autotrax - any good? > > > Hi- > Can people give me opinions on Autotrax? They have a special on now, > until the 14th- Full version for $95 (usualy $495). They also have a > Lite version ($45 and 600 hole limit), and a free version (300 hole > limit). See: http://www.autotraxeda.com > > I am not usually nterested in special offers, but this seems to be an > awfully good offer -- caviets? > David > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu