Thoughts on AutoTRAX PCB layout software?

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You are kidding, right? A thousand dollars a station with 24 stations in the classroom? Sorry, no cigar.

Jim

-- "If you think you can, or think you can't, you're right." --Henry Ford

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It goes down to $250 a seat, in volume.

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I just downloaded the demo and tried it. It's got a weird user interface and crashed on me after a few minutes, when I autorouted a schematic (the option was there so I thought I'd try it) and then tried to undo the changes I had made. I don't think I'll be using it instead of Pulsonix!

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Starts at about $3,000, IIRC.

Leon

Yes, the user interface is different. How much per seat does Pulsonix cost?

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OK and how much for a "typical" seat?

Hmm, did you once operate from Bradford?

If so I, or rather one of our departments was one of your customers many years ago. The package was called something else though.

For the a point of comparison, Agilent hands ADS (normally a "high five digits" package) to universities for some "very low four digits," and Ansoft does similar for HFSS. In the ADS case, that was something like 10 licenses, whereas it was just one for HFSS.

Academic software licensing is weird...

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I can't remember. Like most professional software you have to ask them for a quotation. They don't put prices on their web site because they vary such a lot between countries. The dollar going into free-fall doesn't help with price information, either.

Leon

Previously they posted it clearly on their website, it was there when I had looked one day. The fully blown unlimited version 'was' listed at approx. $8K USD a year or more ago.

-- Sincerely, Brad Velander.

I can't remember. Like most professional software you have to ask them for a quotation. They don't put prices on their web site because they vary such a lot between countries. The dollar going into free-fall doesn't help with price information, either.

Leon

Indeed. I've asked them about it, and they say it's gone now basically due to the U.S. dollar having dropped like a rock: They realistically can't go and, say, double the U.S. prices, but with the dollar's falling value, they're trying to discourage those outside the U.S. from buying from a U.S. vendor and effectively getting it for, say, half price.

It's a little odd to suddenly be in a country that's kinda dropped into "second world" status in some ways. :-)

Full-blown schematic/PCB (including auto-router) is US$7250 node-locked, although these days they have plenty of extra "cost" options (database connectivity, chip packaging, SPICE, etc.) that can still increase the price from there. It's US$4875 without the auto-router, which I think is potentially the better deal: If you really want a good auto-router, you might be better off applying the money saved to another standalone program, as the Pulsonix auto-router falls into the "good if not great" category, IMO. (On the other hand, Leon claims the Pulsonix auto-router is better than the very inexpensive Eagle auto-router... I'm comparing it here more to the old Protel "advanced" (gridless) auto-router, which I recall as being better than Pulsonix's and -- at the time -- cheaper. But I do mainly RF/analog stuff these days, and hence very seldom use an auto-router.)

If you're in the U.S. and e-mail their rep

I imagine they'll still send you the complete price sheet -- they did for me. (I won't post the full list publicly out of respect for Pulsonix's wishes...)

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The Pulsonix autorouter is in fact Electra, and does a very good job.

Leon

Hi Leon,

In general I suppose that's true, although I've had some rather simple boards where it does some rather brain-dead things (e.g., taking horribly circuitous routes where there's a rather obvious path that's much more direct); I even e-mailed an example to Pulsonix and asked if there was anything I could do to "smarten it up," and they responded back with an acknowledgment that, yes, it was acting a little brain-dead on my example file, but, no, they didn't know of any tweaks to help much.

I never say the old Protel advanced auto-router do quite so bad. :-)

It is called addict them when they are young.