Good day to all. I'm part of Microchip's Design Partner program and Microchip has made=20 an offer that seems to be too good to pass up. Microchip is apparently switching all of their electronic CAD=20 software over to Altium. As part of that deal, they have extended an=20 offer to all Design Partners to purchase the Altium software for the=20 price of $2500 USD per seat. This is a price reduction of about=20 $4500 (List price US $6995). The first year's software maintenance cost of $1500 per seat is=20 included in that cost. However, the on-going cost is that yearly=20 cost of $1500 per seat. What the Altium sales rep told me is the maintenance cost includes=20 frequent updates (weekly or daily) for new symbols and=20 footprints. He says that Altium's intent is that individual users=20 don't have to spend time creating new library components / symbols=20 for newly-released parts. Instead, all of that is provided by Altium=20 as the new parts are released. Individual users do have to create their own custom symbols, of course. My questions to the PIClist community are this: 1) How do Altium users like the software? 2) Is it reasonably easy to use (after the initial learning curve)? 3) Is it stable? 4) Do you have to constantly check the output files (Gerber) to=20 ensure that they are accurate? 5) How is the documentation? Is (was) it easy to learn to use? I'm currently using a combination of old software and new. My first=20 'real' electronics CAD package was something called 'EE Designer II'=20 and I *really* like it. I still use it to this day - but its not=20 optimum for SMD designs. It works, but its normal resolution grid is=20 only 12.5 mils and its usually not worth the hassle to use its fine=20 resolution mode of 5 mils. That said - I routinely design boards=20 that consist mostly 0603 components with it. EE Designer II was superceded by EE Designer III, then the company=20 went through some kind of shakeup and the software path split. One=20 company's version is called EDWIN, the other is CADint. We stuck=20 with the CADint people. CADint is based in Sweden and they have a US=20 rep. CADint is *really* powerful. Its default resolution is freaking tiny=20 (microns or tenth microns - don't remember) which means that it=20 switches seamlessly between English and Metric measurements with=20 absolutely NO error whatsoever. The software has tons of features=20 but I'm guessing that we use perhaps 10% of the package's capabilities. But (and there is ALWAYS a 'but'): the documentation sucks, bordering=20 on non-existent. We discover new features by playing with the=20 software, then making notes on what we did to make a particular feature wor= k. The up-side of the CADint software is the incredibly easy=20 ground-plane generation and the even-more-incredibly-easy Gerber file=20 generation. And: the software NEVER crashes. Not once, ever, in the=20 more than 20 years that I've been using EE Designer II and=20 CADint. I've done thousands of board layouts and spent more than ten=20 thousand hours using the software (both EE Designer II and CADint)=20 and it has NEVER crashed. This issue concerns me - I've heard some=20 horror stories regarding lost work from people who used Protel. I've also got a sweet-heart deal regarding the annual software=20 maintenance costs for CADint. My personal workflow is to create the PCB layout in EE Designer II,=20 then import into CADint for ground-plane generation and Gerber file=20 generation. However, I've been teaching our engineers to use CADint=20 rather than making them learn an obsolete package. As a result, I'm=20 the only person who still uses EE Designer II at my shop. Everyone=20 else uses CADint. The main reason that I am considering spending a ton of money to=20 change CAD packages is because of symbol and footprint=20 generation. CADint is super flexible and it takes a relatively long=20 time to create new footprints in the package because there are so=20 many options. In fact, I normally generate new footprints in EE=20 Designer II, then import them into CADint. It takes WAY less time=20 doing it that way. I've been sitting on this question for a few weeks now. The offer=20 from Altium expires next week and I'm either going to spend 10 grand=20 purchasing new software for 4 seats - or not. We are a tiny company=20 and spending this kind of money is something that I don't do quickly=20 or lightly. I'm hoping that feedback from the PIClist community will=20 help me decide. Many thanks! dwayne --=20 Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax www.trinity-electronics.com Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .