Cadence PSD 14.2 giving way for Protel

[richmon74]

psd pcb

sometimes ago Cadence PSD was the highest topic of discussion in this forum and was actually rated the best in all ramifications. as such , i've been trying everything possible to get a copy but to no avail.

Recently Protel has become the dominiering topic of discussion. can someone help me? is Cadence PCB series suddenly fading out or is it that the introduction of protel dxp have turn things around?

 

[roli]

cadence psd 14.2

richmon74,
Your post was OK, and Technical Info, or Tools Comparison is OK too in Elektroda. The follow-up post was indeed irrelevant to your Technical Info request.

It looks like Protel DXP is gaining ground, even though being perceived as a weak PCB tool. Still - the top leaders are:
Mentor Boardstation (WG2002),
Cadence PSD (AKA Allegro),
Mentor Power PCB (formerly Innoveda, Pads Software).

The 2 later have also interface for 'Specctra' - the BEST PCB router. Some people consider PowerPCB 'BlazeRouter' to be 2nd to none.

A GOOD PCB tool should also be measured by its 'interfaces' to other tools. PowerPCB is VERY good in importing/exporting databases from/to other tools (importing popular Schematic Capture databse - alike Orcad - is another criteria). Supporting ECOs, and backannotating ECO to Schematics.

 

[tobs]

cadence psd

my 2 cents:

Cadence is of course high price, but give you many possibilities:
ASCII files to be modified by ANY language (C/Perl/Batch/...).
good tools for forward/backward annotation.
bad library support. but an good ASCII editor or a cool Excel spread sheet will give you everything you want to have (or you expected to have bought)
can much more than you expect (can much more than it is documented)

You will probably have a 14.0 doc nearly complete if 14.2 is forgotten...

Tobs
(using Cadence since 13.5)