Robert Mitchell wrote: > 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! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. > Virus Database (VPS): 0619-3, 12/05/2006 > Tested on: 14/05/2006 1:49:58 PM > avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. > http://www.avast.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] Just to round off the original question about importing very early pcb files into more recent versions of Protel, I came across an old PC (486 processor and 8MB RAM) which has both a 5.25" and a 3.5" floppy drive. I used this to copy the demo pcb files from the Protel PCB V3.12 issue disk to a 3.5" disk. I found that these files can be opened and displayed quite well in both Altium Designer and Protel 99SE SP6.
Bob --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0620-3, 19/05/2006 Tested on: 21/05/2006 3:11:31 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.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]
