Protel 98SE

CAD software occasionally turns up on ebay.

Why *anyone* would want to use Protel escapes me though. We have a demo copy to view some layouts and for the life of me I can't make

In comparison Powerlogic-PowerPCB / Pads is a breeze for example and I like using Orcad Capture especially.

Graham

Try sci.electronics.cad. At one stage one of their regulars was acting a middleman for transferring old Protel licenses and software.

------------------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

If you are feeling adventurous youi could try Kicad - a free open source program. I run it on Linux Mandrake 10.1, but it will apparently run on Windows. It is a functional full featured PCB design program from Schematic -> PCB design -> Gerber/postscript/HPGL output, 3D visualization, schematic and PCB footprint editors, pretty comprehansive libraries etc It is at least as good as the old Protel Autotrax and has a project manager. I have just done a board for a TQFP44 pin device - OK I havent seen a finished board yet, but it has worked flawlessly so far. I didnt find it too hard to learn, a couple of days work to board plot stage from scratch.

Richard

snipped-for-privacy@ieee.org wrote: