At 11:47 PM 9/25/2005, yijie wrote:
Hi
I am a current user of Expedition, but is considering purchasing Protel too.
But I am not sure if Protel can support me in the same manner as
Expedition does.
For example:
1) Mentor can go up to 120 layers; Protel only 32 layers.
That's not quite correct. Protel supports at least 70 layers. 32
layers is the positive copper limitation, you can also have 16
internal planes, 16 mechanical layers, plus the appropriate top and
bottom layers: solder mask, component legend, paste mask.
I have *once* seen a design where the number of layers in Protel was
possibly a limitation, a 50-layer multilayer ceramic module. However,
using the full 50 layers was not necessary, or was it desirable, the
design was accomplished within 32.
Unless what you are doing is very unusual, layer count will not be a
practical limitation.
2) Mentor can go down to micron units; Protel can only design in mils units.
This is not correct. The database unit in Protel is the microinch, I
think. Sometimes people read the specification incorrectly, for it
says 0.001 to 99999 mils. That was not a slip, it is indeed 0.001
mil, or one-thousandth of a mil, one millionth of an inch, 0.025
micron. The Protel resolution is forty times higher than the reported
resolution of Mentor (unless Mentor can handle fractions of a micron,
I don't know).
There maybe other Protel limitations, but I am only now aware of
these 2. If anyone out there can tell me more about what Protel can
do or can't do, this will help me in considering purchasing Protel
for my PCB design.
I would appreciate if someone can offer me advantages of Protel that
Expedition does not have.
Protel is probably simpler and easier to use. This can translate into
faster design. Expedition is a more powerful system, at least in some
ways. It ought to be, it is far more expensive.
If you really want a comparison, do put some effort into finding
someone who is an expert user for both systems. Someone who is an
expert user with one system and who tries another and finds it hard
to use may just be experiencing the difficulty of switching systems,
for they will be organized differently.
Ultimately, you may want to try Protel; and when you do, especially
if you are familiar with another system, you will almost certainly
find yourself frustrated at times. While it can be helpful to read
the manual, engineers are often averse to doing this, and sometimes
the manual can itself be frustrating, it is probably not organized to
help you translate Expedition procedures into Protel procedures. So
in addition to whatever you can find in the manual, if something
seems difficult or not well-implemented to you, ask here or on the
official Protel DXP forum (or whatever it is called now). One
question can save you hours of difficulty.
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