I am working on a program which will convert Futurenet Version 6.10 files to other schematic capture formats. I use PADS PowerLogic, and that is the format I am concentrating on, but I could add other formats if there is any need or interest. I have a preliminary version of the program posted on my website at:
The Futurenet program was a high end schematic capture program back in the MSDOS days. I paid almost $2000 for it around 1989. It was owned by DATAIO. After a few years they removed the requirement for the hardware dongle and supplied the public domain version 6.10. It is still a very powerful and easy to use program, and will generate netlists that can be used by PCB design programs. However, the interface is clunky when you are used to Windows standards.
I have a lot of schematics in this format, but they are binary files, and I have not figured out all of the file format. However, I am making good progress, and the FN2PADS program will produce a valid PADS ASCII file that is readable. I look at this project as a challenge. Please let me know if anyone has any interest.
PS: I am using Google because I do not have access to an ISP provided newsgroup account at this location. It seems to work OK.
Paul E. Schoen