I wish they'd fix up and add features to the Autorouter. Seems no one can
compare to Specctra; I'd love to see someone offer a fixed up version of the
Protel/Neural Route engine. Be neat if it could parse/interpret do lists and
import/export Specctra format.
Here's one... I just got Protel to import a fully routed, 20 layer pcb from
PADS. It created a 12M design file (DDB was 16M). Even translated some of the
rule and net classes correctly. This thing has 2360 components, including two
901 ball BGAs 91mm-.06 ball), two huge 400 ball FPGA's, a powerPC, a 128 bit
data buss, three other busses, and a compactPCI interface.
I played with the Protel autorouter on a reduced section of the board. What I
did was to unroute, netlist out what was left, delete the netlist, then
reimport the reduced netlist.
I manually dogboned the 901BGA FP with vias in the lib editor, replaced the
FP in the design, updated the netlist/connected copper,and sure enough,
Protel's autorouter completed 100% in 20 minutes. I had to get rid of the
rule import errors/duplicates.
In a message dated 5/25/2001 5:22:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> I would be glad to challenge anyone who makes the statement that "Protel is
> good for small boards" and provide designs to prove it. Claims like this
> come from (in my very strong opinion) ignorance of never using the program.
> I have used recent versions of PCAD, PADS and Protel and was afforded the
> opportunity to evaluate Cadence. All have the capability, but I doubt if
> you can design faster in PCAD, PADS or Cadence than you could with Protel.
> Library management alone will slow your design down in any of these
> programs. I will add that to compliment Protel correctly you should buy
> the Spectra router, which you would need to purchase for any of the other
> programs for larger designs. I have PADS and the new Blaze router but have
> never figured how to configure it properly so I gave up on it for now. I
> should not formulate an opinion that the router is not up to task, just
> because I cant get the darn thing working. If any of the programs are
> suited for small board it would have to be the "scalable" design suites
like
> PCAD, PADS, and Cadence. In order to design large designs with any of
these
> programs you may be looking at 30k in upgrades to make them a suitable
> design package.
>
> Personally I think your boss like most managers has never tried Protel and
> has formed his opinion based on sales information that he receives from
> vendors he is familiar with or he is simply outdated. If you want to see
> a large design, one of the many I am proud to show off from this "low end"
> design tool email me and I will be glad to forward you as many designs as
> you want. We had one design that we had considered sending to PCD
magazine
> for board of the month.
>
> I ran my own independent design bureau for the past six years and recently
> found out that only one of the three design bureaus in the DC area were
> profitable without government subsidies for design tools, mine. Protel's
> cost was certainly a factor in helping me make a decision but ultimately my
> decision to use Protel was made on capability. Compare....Cadence cant
> even import any drawing package, compare PADS is still DOS code, compare
> PCAD is somewhat better but cumbersome. The last version of PCAD I used
was
> 14, a simple feature like "loop removal" , standard features found in PADS
> and Protel was a $4.5K option, get real! Compare...import a netlist on
> the fly on PCAD, or have a nightmare importing a netlist in PADS. I have
> seen more designs hosed up with PADS netlist import/ export / compare/ eco,
> its a joke. Seriously compare, but don't make a statement "Protel is good
> for small boards" I take it seriously them are fightin words
>
>
> Please feel free to call me or email me if you want my real opinion
>
> Mike Reagan
> EDSI
> Frederick MD
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 301 620 0080 ph
>
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