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At 11:52 AM 10/4/01 -0700, P H wrote: >I am a system designer who does small FPGA design and >PCB design upto 6 layers. Should I pick Protel or >PCAD? As a system designer, you would be an engineer type. Protel is *mainly* for engineers (which is why simulation is a big part of the system). PCAD is marketed for printed circuit design specialists, typically -- but not always -- working in a large company environment. Looking at the PCAD user group (the list is [EMAIL PROTECTED] last time I looked) the people tend to be what used to be called draftsmen/draftswomen, and relatively few of them are self-employed. Unless I miss my guess as to your needs, I highly recommend Protel, not only over PCAD, but also over every other package out there, assuming (1) you are doing this professionally, where time is money, and (2) you are not on the bleeding edge of design difficulty and complexity. In the first case you need a professional level tool, so you won't want one of the $1000 or less packages, and in the second case, you don't need to spend the $20K to $50K or so that Allegro or Mentor will set you back (and even then those tools might be cumbersome overkill). Protel should be able to easily handle the work you describe. Very easily. Right now, the weakest part of the tool is the autorouter. It was a very good router when it first came out as Neuroroute, subsequently purchased and integrated by Protel, and it might even do what you need, but Specctra it is not. However (drumming fingers on the table, he says) a new, much improved autorouter is expected this year. I have no special information regarding that, other than comments at PCB Design East from Protel people, and Protel could easily disavow that. But they know and we know that it is overdue. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abdulrahman Lomax Easthampton, Massachusetts USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
