Yip, I too have a 6 month copy of Tsien BoardMaker 3, got send for free as an existing (mid 1990's) Boardmaker customer.
I haven't used it yet, but this DXP major changes, ATS and associated pricing fiasco has got us seriously looking at other far more cost effective solutions. I wonder if Protel realise what it is doing to its existing "have purchased upgrades and support since V1.0 customers". In our company before Protel we used Boardmaker (V1 I think) so moving to V3 should not be too much of a problem. Also price is �250 per year for the first seat and �125 per year for the second, is unbeleivable compared to ATS for one seat. See http://www.tsien.co.uk After reading all the DXP comments I feel I should be spending my time evaluating Boardmaker rather than DXP. ian > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: 05 September 2002 10:19 > To: Protel EDA Forum > Subject: [PEDA] Hard Look at other Programms > > > > I just thought I'd throw you guys my 2c worth and another option. > > Around 6 months ago I found myself in a position where I needed > to do some > design work at home - we use Protel98 at work - so I downloaded > the demo for > 99SE and started to use it. Disapointingly, I came across the some of the > same "issues" that I see at work and started to look around > before stumping up. > I contacted several companies including a UK company called > "Tsien" (spelt like > that) and when I mentioned that I was looking at Protel, they > quite literally > gave me a full copy of their system "on trial" for 6 months, no questions > asked. It has some features missing, in particular, there's no > autorouter, but > it's got some features that leave others standing: > > Very impressive plane and split plane control with an automatic > thermal break > generation tool and a built-in plane viewing facility. Trace ploughing is > dynamic!! no repouring polygons at all. > > True rotation of SMD parts by any angle - even polygon and > rectangular pads get > plotted correctly in the gerber (this has been a great bugbear > for me in the > past because I often design irregularly shaped boards). > > Pin swapping from the PCB editor with automatic back annotation of the > schematic. > > Bill of Materials export to CSV format and reverse field stuffing > in parts from > excel > > Via tenting control on an individual basis - really useful for those BGAs > > In the (integrated) schematic tool, they've got a mechanism for > getting power > connetions displayed on a part by part basis. No more hidden > connections and no > more explicit power pins to be connected (Hooray). The text with > the power > ("global" as they call it) connections changes automatically if you the > connections. > > Annotation of parts is completely under user control although the > mechansim for > creating the parts in the first takes some getting your head round. > > > There are loads of tools that I haven't played with. In > particular, I've just > had a realease from them which has a star earth return feature to > allow nets to > be connected without erroneous DRC errors. Not played with it yet. > > > It's coming to the crunch time when my free trial license runs > out and Craig > Elison's comments exactly matched what I thought at the beginning > - "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 asked the Tsien people again and > again about > the pricing. It is leased at 250 a year which includes all the > new versions, > no capital outlay - it's pin money. > > For the record, I have no personal connections with Tsien. > > > > Kiernan Fitzpatrick > > > > > ************************************************************************ > * Tracking #: CD32527E7C1D9C46B123E98DD4928916F7058F29 > * > ************************************************************************ > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
