Learning schematic layout - Orcard or PADS?

Andy,

If you just want to learn about PCB layout then there are much cheaper options than PADS or Orcad. I use Cadsoft Eagle and I like it. It takes a bit of getting used to but its not bad. Its really no different than any other system I've used: Once you know how to do things its pretty good. It has some limitations but for the price you can't beat it. There are also various license arrangements from free to the full blown professional. There is a not-for-profit license that you would qualify for if you're just tinkering around.

I'm not sure that you will be able to avoid learning PCB design if you want to do layout. That's sort of like saying you want to drive but you don't want to study to get a license. Sure in the end you may be able to point the car somewhere at you'll probably move if you know just a little bit. But the results will be less than desirable. If your PCB isn't designed correctly you can completely negate a well designed FPGA or ASIC and cause the whole assembly to not even function.

There are other free packages out there as well that will allow you to learn. Someone has a list of over 60 packages that are reviewed and linked. I can't recall off the top of my head but its been posted either here or in sci.electronics.design. Try google to find it.

Cheers.

That would be my notes and links to some 60 ECAD programs at

Terry Pinnell Hobbyist, West Sussex, UK

That's the one. Sorry Terry, I just couldn't remember. I'll bookmark it this time :)

Have a look at Pulsonix:

It's cheaper than Orcad and PADS, and is much easier to use.

Leon

A few quick comments; I've only used Protel, Accel, OrCAD, and PADS.

Protel: If you find a "stable" version, it's actually pretty good and the price is right. Unfortunately, there are often main unstable, buggy-as-all-get-out versions inbetween the good ones! Protel runs schematic capture, PCB layout, SPICE simulation, etc. all within its own window. This makes it feel "well integrated."

Accel: Bah. Gets the job done, not as "user friendly" as Protel, but has better database connectivity if you want to extract design details externally. Accel feels a lot like a "design by committe" -- on paper it looks quite good, but in practice it's spendy for what you get and doesn't feel particularly "slick."

OrCAD: OrCAD seems to be in serious need of some _good_ programmers (as well as some good technical writers!). Things like tree view hierarchies don't support, say, renaming "in place" (selecting a line item and hitting F2 to rename it), the hierarchy itself is somewhat "fixed" and not completely "free form" (i.e., you can add any type of files you feel like) like most newer development environments are, etc. OrCAD's strength is its database connectivity -- this seems somewhat better documented and developed than other tools. Likewise, the strong database backend lets you do some pretty nice "multi-select editing" in one fell sweoop. Still, for the price I think OrCAD is not very impressive -- I'd almost bet a nickel that OrCAD is one of the slowest growing packages out there these days and that OrCAD is more just banking on the users they've had for years and years -- ten years ago, OrCAD

PADS: I don't have that much experience with it yet, but their motto of being "designed to meet the needs of the power user while keeping the beginner is mind" strikes me as fitting. It really does seem to have more "power tools" than Accel or OrCAD (and probably Protel, but Protel made it pretty easy to write your own extensions if you wanted to). So far I like it... but I'm not having to pay for the license!

So far Protel is my favorite, but with more experience I might shift towards PADS. Pulsonix does look very attractive, but I've never had the opportunity to use it.

Unless you have plenty of money around, I'd suggest starting out with one of the cheaper schematic capture/PCB layout packages (something preferably under $1K?) to see what you like and don't like. Or even use some of the free packages for some "trial" project, and then get a few 30 day free evals from the commercial vendors to see what you like. I've been quite impressed with how sophisticated some projects on the really cheap and even free packages are.

---Joel Kolstad

Maybe the crap is go (1) Capture is crap.

(2) And I could teach the course ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I couldn't agree more. You wouldn't believe how many expensive invitations I get for Orcad tutorials and seminars.

It still is. See

I use PCB386+ to make some rather complex boards.

Capture will make correct EDIF netlist for PCB386.

Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs (among other things)