This examination of the Protel package usage is a good exercise... Protel should pay attention to this.
<rant mode on> My pet peeve with the Protel Explorer concept is that I have to open everything, in a specific place, without any changes in the windows environment, in order to get the design up and running to edit it... I can't keep my users from being confused about the stupid thing... I just want it to go away. I want the option to disable the stupid thing and use the program like it was in the 98 version... without all the bugs.. At least it made sense to everyone back then. Archiving files, Rev Control, argh... must be done manually anyways... with or without it. They have added a layer of complexity that was not wanted or needed... I presume that it simplifies the desire to do their paranoid licensing checks over the network... but it provides me with nothing but trouble... no net value to the company... I prefer a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach... One program one function... Windows explorer does ALL that is needed to handle organization of files... PCB should read PCB's. Schematic should read Schematics, PLD should do PLD's... SIM should simulate.. this things do not need to be hidden inside an extra layer of hierarchy.. I archive just the .pcb and .sch and throw away the ddb file... the backups... the superfluous junk files... This is in order to capture the important files for archiving... I do not use the 1 file for all files approach to Protel, I use the Windows file system to keep the files out where we can see them... where we don't get confused about which file is which.. and what rev is what...etc... The ability to do IPC-356 Netlist out or ODB++ file output, or the GENCAM format might be useful... If it doesn't make our lives more complex than it has too.. I dislike what the Autorouter does, It breaks the DRC rules and creates more cleanup for the designer... I'm sure it makes sales though... looks awesome in the demo... If they ever did make it do what it was advertised to do it would be worth the extra cash.... I don't do sim, signal integ, pld, 3D, The print manager is sucky... and buggy... and makes me repeat the setup steps over and over with every edit session I set up...the 3D implementation is a... not too funny joke... A good translator to solidworks would be way more useful... The CAM manger is ... well could be better... still have to set it up every time... And the 'Microsoft' approach to releasing software before there is good beta testing and debug... is just poor customer relations... Protel has a reputation of being the 'Jack of all Trades' and Master of none... and when do we get to put our feet up on the desk like that guy who's in the picture on the box? <Rant mode off> As a caveat, I still like Protel better than PADS... (which truly sucks with terrific force...) all things are relative...after all :) Still wish they had not used the Explorer concept as a required option.. it sucks. - Bill Brooks (don't quote me...I use sarcasm as a tool... lol) -----Original Message----- From: Jon Elson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 12:34 PM To: Protel EDA Forum Subject: Re: [PEDA] Protel usage [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The following is my usage of Protel - Schematic yes - PCB yes - Powerprint yes - CAM Manager yes - Simulator sometimes - still have great difficulty providing models for many components. - Autorouter yes - usually try it on every board, and usually take the best result from a few trials and finish/clean-up by hand. I trick myself into thinking I'm saving time this way, but I can't say for sure. - 3D Viewer no - PLD tried it some, simulation works to test out designs, but couldn't implement any Xilinx chips with it. - Arrange Components no - Autoplacer no - PCB Miter no - Signal Integrity no - Database Link no Jon * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
