On 28/05/2011 03:49, Jesse Lackey wrote:
> For examples showing high level sophistication in EDA, check out the
> demos at altium.com.  It is a whole nuther league above Eagle.  Big boy
> EDA.  Cost is around $6K, but I haven't sprung for it yet.

I agree, Altium seems to have a very "modern" approach. Features include=20
a SQL type search/select/manipulation tool, so you could for example=20
find and select all components with pads of a certain shape in a certain=20
net and class, and alter them. This would be a 30 second job.
It also has inbuilt spice and IBIS simulation at board level, so during=20
routing you can check your trace impedance and graph crosstalk between=20
nets, reflections (if you set up the IBIS models) etc. You can adjust=20
the formulas that calculate and display this information automatically too.
It has FPGA tools built in too (I didn't try these so don't know too=20
much about them)
3D step models, you can import a case design form e.g. Solidworks and=20
check it all fits okay.
And much much  more - I just tried it out for a while and was extremely=20
impressed. Depending on our direction on the future, we may consider=20
spending the money, but we couldn't justify it at present as a "simpler"=20
tool is still more than sufficient for our needs.
As Jesse noted, it is in another league compared to many other tools.

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