You say these people are very serious about their product. I'm not sure. I found their web site the 20th of February. They were offering a free schematic capture. I downloaded it and sent in an email to get the key. I never got it back. Even after several emails. Your comments interested me. I'm ready to dump Protel 99SE and I will not got to DXP. So I hit their site this morning after I saw your reply.
First thing is see is they ended the free schematic in March. Still waiting for the key requested in Feb! Price is a big factor for me so the next thing I looked for was their pricing. I went to the sales link. No pricing I could find. I went to "More Information". Using their site index for "Prices", "Trade-in Prices" and "Upgrade Prices" got "Page Not Found" errors. I'll keep an eye on them, but I'm not going to even try their demo if I don't know the pricing before hand. I could fall in love with it and then find I can't afford it. I also would have wasted my time evaluating the demo. I also didn't find any info on tech support. Do they have phone support? They are in the UK, but I see they have a rep or two in the states. A unhappy Protel user -----Original Message----- From: Peder K. Hellegaard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 8:20 AM To: Protel EDA Forum Subject: [PEDA] SV: Hard Look at other Programms Do yourself a favour: Take a look at the relative new tool called PULSONIX (www.pulsonix.com) Those guys are very serious and the package is low priced but with very good functionality and not to forget: Very stable. In addition, if a user finds a bug (it is software though) and reports it, it is usually fixed within a few hours (and this is the fact) and the user receives the updated files. This is the customer care you always has been looking for. The Pulsonix EDA tool imports design files AND library files from a lot of other EDA tools, and this also works perfectly. >From a former Protel VAR -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: Michael Reagan (EDSI) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sendt: 4. september 2002 14:48 Til: Protel EDA Forum Emne: [PEDA] Hard Look at other Programms Dennis and Waldemar wrote >here is one more guy who want to know what you will find out looking for other EDA Software. The Programs I found where either very expensive (unpayable for me) < Here is what I have found so far: Orcad PCB: users satisfied with Orcad until Cadence purchased Orcad . OrCad PCB may have licensed routing code and "other" code from Protel and vice versa, The interfaces are very similar. Also similar in functionality and price, and features. Protel 99SE has an edge with more layers, generally more capability. Both are in the same price range. Both are good capable programs. Cadence has not done much to improve ORCAD layout since purchasing it. Don't look for good support from Orcad unless you plan to drop Orcad layout and upgrade to Cadence tools. Orcad also shares the same buggy autorouter, but the Orcad users I talked to don't know the difference. Maybe Orcad debugged their router. If you want to make OrCad work properly, you need Spectra. PADS/INOVEDA/now MENTOR: Lets face it this is DOS code dressed up to look like a windows program the same approach that Acad did with their programs. It is fairly stable. Commands are awkward, looks like it was designed by Unix programmers. While awkward and limited, it is still a good program. I have seen droves, herds, packs, groups, and all of PADS users switch to Cadence in the past year. Maybe they made a mistake and should have switched to MENTOR. To get a real working setup of "PADs" be ready to spend some money. I doubt if you can seriously do any PCB work (equal to 99SE) for under 30K. Their new router is fair, lets face it Spectra is still king of the hill. I don't know what MENTOR was thinking buying this Product from Inoveda. They were going out of business anyway, so why pay for any money for them. (Sounds like the Accel deal) PADS offers less features at a higher price than MENTORs EXPEDITON did, I'm not sure how Mentor plans to sell a program with less features at a higher price. ( did I repeat myself, sounds like the Accel deal again) MENTOR EXPEDITION: Guys and Gals This is the real McCoy of Software. This is the program everybody but me should be using, This is the yardstick that all tools should be measured to. So why cant I use it ? Be cause I cant import a netlist into it. That is a major hurdle for design bureaus, since we get netlist different sch packages . If your design is in house, both schematics and pcb. There is no better tool. OK you say you cant afford it? 36K with all the bells and whistles. Don't look at how much the tool cost but how much you will save when things are working the way they should. This tool will actually save you money This is VERIBEST software, which I saw several years ago, it was good then and it is better now. I have not seen anything better , period. INTERCEPT: I just spent a few minutes on the phone yesterday with the rep. BUZZZZZZZZZZ drop them to the gator trap! They use Spectra for routing. OK Spectra is good. If you couple Spectra with Protel, you can probably do a board as good as any piece of software out there except the MENTOR stuff. Cadence: See INTERCEPTcomments with Spectra. Same old trick another day with Spectra. Lets face it if Cadence didn't purchase this software they would have folded years ago. ************************************************************************ * Tracking #: 0ABD3E4F9E846144B1FEDB6FB5C7FD604A086EB2 * ************************************************************************ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
