Hello,
I realize Altium produces both, but can Gerber files be produced for a moderate sized (50 component) double sided board requiring SMT and no VLSI in either, with the same end results?
In otherwords, is Protel DXP overkill or necessary to achieve desired plot files for manufacture?
Ivan
Thank you sir, for your prompt and informative reply.
Ivan
Hello,
Have you had a look at the CAD tool TARGET3001! It is impressive tool at a low cost. ...richard
DXP has a rather nice flood fill, it also has a nice rip up and relay function,neither of which IIRC isn't in Circuitmaker for smaller size projects like yours, other than that it will make little difference to your design.
Andrew
Both output Gerber files for manufacturing the pcb's. I doubt that there is *any* purchasable pcb cad that does not output Gerber's (why would anyone buy it if it did not).
If it is simple hobbyist stuff Circuitmaker will be OK. If it is anything more serious don't use either of those you have mentioned. Grab Terry Pinnell's (? spelling?) excellent list of pcb cad and try the demos of several of the cheaper ones to see which one you fancy best. Don't spend a fortune on overgrown bloatware (Protel, Cadstar, etc) - they are certainly functional but are overly expensive and designed with lots of bells and whistles to attract (un)technical management (accountants) and not the engineers that use them. All the bloatware gives them a desperately steep learning curve.
Every pcb designer has their own favourite - i.e. the one they know - and will assure you that their choice really is the best. However remember that multilayer SMD pcb's were commonly laid out with DOS based software - the big increase in productivity came with moving from tape and film artwork to cad artwork - and just about all windoze pcb cad outstrips those old DOS packages.
Andrew,
Thank you. I would like to email you directly about CM/DXP, providing you wold permit me.
If so, please send your email addres to me.
Thank you.
Ivan
There's quite a lot of dated ECAD products still hanging-on. I'm surprised how many still look suspiciously like they are DOS based. Some quite well-known products too! In fact one that begins with O owned by a company beginning with C......
Prescott
How about the one that begins with P... owned by the company beginning with M.... ? As far as I can see there has been almost no development done on that tool in the last 8 years. At that time it was still mostly a DOS core running under a Windows GUI. And they still have many of the same old limitations and bugs (or should I use the more politically correct, work-arounds).
-- Sincerely, Brad Velander
I'm
based.
with O
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