Brad wrote:
> my first investigation would be of Pantheon. I haven't seen it
> personally but it is the one package which seems to be targeting RF
design.
> Price ? I don't know but I would bet approx. $30 - 50K CDN ($20-33KUS). Of
> course there is the Mentor or Cadence packages but we all know what they
> cost (bare bones $70 - 100K CDN ($45 - 65KUS) per seat a number of years
> ago) and I have not 'heard' wonderful things about them either. Oh
> shouldn't forget Zuken (originally CADStar), they were supposedly big in
the
> RF world years ago but I wouldn't know anything definitive.
> Previously where I was doing RF I had used PADS but that wasn't
> microwave design and I would compare it about equally with Protel as far
as
> how I believe it would handle microwave design. (yes, note that I was a
> dedicated PADS supporter for approx. 8 years, I would still go back to it
> anytime. I had never had a problem with PADS and generally had always
found
> easy work arounds that made sense when I did hit a wall.)
>
Well I guess from what I am hearing non of these packages ( except Mentor,
Panthreon of which I know nothing about) don't offer much more than Protel
already does. When it comes to RF, unless the sim tool is integrated these
CAD tool become nothing more than drawing tools with built in DRCs. My
experience ....even though I also own PADS,is I would never use it for RF
because it has three defects, There is no command for placing a Pad, a
via, nor will the DRCs support rf easily. ( I know there are work arounds,
but I have to design fast or I don't make a decent living) Accel does a
fairly decent job of being a drawing package, though the DRCs can get hosed
up, same with Protel if your aren't careful. Cadence, I'm not even sure
how anyone even completes a job with it, let alone do rf. Maybe there is
another add on module I haven't seen. Vie seen good engineers design rf
with autocad, not that I would ever make that choice.
Unless a package has some fairly sophisticated, integrated sim tool built
in, non of these packages really stand out as being superior for rf design.
So Protel, if you want to add any new features to next release, lets see
1. better router 2. better high speed design tools
Mike Reagan
EDSI
Frederick Md
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