I have located the box containing my original Protel disks and manual. Unfortunately, I no longer have a computer with a 5.25 disk drive installed and anyway, I have no idea where the "key card" required to run the PCB editor is. The requirements for this program, Protel PCB Edit V3.12 are: IBM-PC/XT/AT computer or compatable. (There is a note that the program uses integer arithmetic, so there is no advantage in installing an 8087/80287 Numeric Coprocessor.) MS-DOS or PC-DOS, version 2.0 or greater. One Unoccupied Half-card Slot (for the Key Card) 2 Disk Drives - one floppy and one either floppy or hard disk. 256K (or greater) RAM CGA or EGA graphics card Colour Monitor Microsoft Mouse Printer (for check prints) Plotter (Pen and Ink) (It supports HP-GL, DM-PL and Roland DXY 800 languages) Photoplotters (Gerber) are also supported and Excellon format drill files can be produced. The manual carries the name HST Technologies Pty. Ltd. and the copyright dates on each of the disks are 1985, 1986, 1987.
Someone at Protel subsequently "lent" me Protel Toolbox which offered a Design Rule Checker, Automatic Placement, Photoplotter Utilities (Gerber viewer and panelizing), Net List Editor, Protel to DXF converter, PCB File scanner (genrates a report on the PCB file) and something for "Multi-layer Routing. I cannot recall what was being charged for these add-ons. The copyright date on the program disk is 1990. The manual that came with these tools carries a copyright notice which says "Original Reference Manual Copyright ACCEL Technologies Inc.. It is also noted that ACCEL market the product in the Americas under the name "Tnago-Tools". This was the first Protel PCB program and I recall that I bought it from a Board manufacturer for about $850 (Australian Dollars). I think it was marketed under the Tango brand name in the US. I did not get the related schematic package as I already had the Omation schematic capture which produced Protel-compatible netlists. (I found it somewhat unreliable package which required occasional reboots of the computer.) Just a bit of history to put the conversion problem into perspective. Bob Mitchell Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote: > At 01:17 PM 5/13/2006, Henry Ford wrote: > >>Well, see, I know that it is Protel because: >> >>a. I bought the software from the original Australian >>company, and >> >>b. When it opens, it says: >> >>Protel-PCB Layout System V3.03 >>Protel Systems Pty Ltd (c) 1986,1987 >>Distributed by HST Technology Pty Ltd > > > I'm fairly well puzzled. Easytrax, fresh download from Altium, opens > with Protel Eastytrax 2.06 and copyrights are 1988,1989,1990. > > Apparently there was a Protel program before Easytrax. Never heard of > it before. Researching it on the web, I get even more confused. > Autotrax was a more advanced program, at least as marketed in the > U.S., quite similar to Tango Series II PCB from Accel. > > Accel had been the U.S. rep for Easytrax, selling it as Tango, and > apparently decided that there was money in it, the way I heard it, > and ran a crash program to create Tango Series II, which, amazing > coincidence, was quite similar to Autotrax. Took some time for Protel > to recover its U.S. market.... > > Grubbing around Google, I found a U.S. engineer had a resume with a > course he had taken: Protel PCB Layout(Protel 1996) > > Clearly there *was* an early "Protel" program; I find that Protel, > founded in 1985, was marketing a PCB layout system in the U.S. by > 1986. So this is, indeed, pre-Easytrax. (Or Easytrax was this program > renamed, but the rev numbers would have gone backwards.) > > Easytrax, and later versions, begin with a version number. The > format, however, looks similar to what is quoted below. It's not > impossible that Easytrax would read these files. Easytrax is all over > the web, and you can get it from Altium, as well as Autotrax. That's > where I'd look. > > An example of how Easytrax opens: > PCB FILE 5 > COMP > R7 > AXIAL0.4 > 4k7 > 855 2922 60 3 10 7 > 935 2922 60 3 10 7 > 800 2875 1 1 2 > CP > 800 2875 62 62 1 30 4 13 > 1 > CP > 400 2875 62 62 1 30 1 13 > > To make the plot thicker, so to speak, the file creation date for > this file was 1985, even though the Easytrax executable provided by > Altium was dated 1990. Maybe it was recompiled then.... > > And Autotrax: > PCB FILE 4 > COMP > R66 > RES.4T > RES.4 > 755 4450 60 1 10 7 > 755 4450 60 1 10 7 > 1200 4500 0 0 2 > CP > 800 4500 50 50 1 30 1 13 > 2 > CP > 1200 4500 50 50 1 30 1 13 > 1 > CT > > Notice that the Autotrax file has an earlier version number than the > Easytrax file. Both these files are demo files included with the > programs in the downloads from Altium. These file formats certainly > look identical, at first glance, but, of course, there may be > differences in detail. > > The formats below look, possibly, more primitive. But Eastytrax might > handle them. I'd assume that if Easytrax was the next generation > Protel software, it would load the previous files, or a converter > would have been provided. > > But the files may, quite simply, be Easytrax files. Worth trying. > > By the way, Protel Advanced PCB version 2 is available for download > as a demo, version 2.5 I think it is. Will load existing files, will > only edit files below a certain size. > > >>I opened up three files with my handy-dandy text >>editor and these are the first few lines: >> >>PCB #1 (each file chosen at random, by the way) >> >>616 >>20 3055 278 4425 1 137 0 >>20 3055 276 4325 2 137 0 >>20 3055 276 4225 3 137 0 >> >>PCB #2 >> >>1544 >>20 4030 514 3750 3 137 0 >>20 4210 514 3750 1 137 0 >>20 4120 514 3750 2 137 0 >> >>PCB #3 >> >>809 >>20 5865 514 4535 3 137 0 >>20 6015 514 4535 2 137 0 >>20 5940 514 4460 1 137 0 >>11 5940 125 4535 12 135 0 >>30 5810 5810 4560 4590 135 0 >> >>Further on down, they each get into component specs, >>for example: >> >>D4 >>LED-V >>Small LED >>6435 5690 6705 5825 81 15 6470 5725 >> >>Regards >>Yvet >> >>--- Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> >>>If the files are older than Autotrax and don't load >>>into Autotrax, >>>something is wrong. Before Autotrax, in the >>>beginning, when the world >>>was new, was Easytrax, also called Tango Series I in >>>the U.S. >>>Autotrax would have recognized an Easytrax file >>>(though there might >>>be a special load process, I was not an Autotrax >>>user, except for the >>>demo version, which I used to develop a Tango Series >>>II - Autotrax >>>converter (in both directions). >>> >>>But version 3? Version 3 would be later. Just before >>>Protel 98. >>> >>>So when you open the files with a text editor, what >>>do you see at the top? >>> >>>Is it a binary file or an ASCII text file? Early >>>versions *only* came >>>as ASCII text files. >>> >>>In short, what makes you think that these are Protel >>>files? >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >>____________________________________________________________ >> >>>You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum >>> >>>To Post messages: >>>mailto:[email protected] >>> >>>Unsubscribe and Other Options: >>> >> >>http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com >> >>>Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): >>> >> >>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] >> >>>Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): >>>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] >>> >>> >> >> >>__________________________________________________ >>Do You Yahoo!? >>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >>http://mail.yahoo.com >> >> >>____________________________________________________________ >>You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum >> >>To Post messages: >>mailto:[email protected] >> >>Unsubscribe and Other Options: >>http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com >> >>Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): >>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] >> >>Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): >>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > > > > ____________________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum > > To Post messages: > mailto:[email protected] > > Unsubscribe and Other Options: > http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com > > Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > > Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] --- avast! 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