Re: Would you be interested...?

I use Pads Logic and Pads PCB for schematic and layout respectively, but
they are around $2000 for the pair.
There are some free layout packages that are a lot better than the old dos
pads, but after using Pads PCB, I can't make myself use anything else.
Clay, as far as the autorouter setup, I only use it on larger boards with
lots of logic and little analog. Once you read the book, set and save the
autorouter settings, you can recall the settings and re-use them, so setup
is a cinch. If the autorouter is set well, it looks almost like I layed it
out by hand. I always go back and touch up the layout afterwards anyway.

If we are talking 50 or so logic components, I would definately autoroute
it.
If someone does the parts placement and saves it in Pads PCB format, I could
easily route it.

James

----- Original Message -----
From: Clay Cowgill <vector_clay@hotmail.com>
To: <vectorlist@synthcom.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2000 12:18 AM
Subject: Re: VECTOR: Would you be interested...?

> >what s/w cad tools do you use? I'm looking at some tools to do a Lunar
> >Lander "clone" but I can't find a package for less than $1000 that'll do
> >the
> >job.
>
> I use OrCAD Capture and OrCAD Layout Plus. I'm sure both are well over
$1K
> each now-a-days, although I think there's a free-webbased version of OrCAD
> Capture now. I got 'em cheap a while ago when we bought a whole bunch of
> seats at work. (When I last checked on the UPGRADE price for my Layout
Plus
> to go to the latest version I think it was like $1800!)
>
> At work we use OrCAD Capture for schematics and PADS 2000 for board
layout.
> Also multi-$K dollars...
>
> There are a fair amount of cheap schematic/layout programs out there, but
> for any "real" project, it really pays to have "real" tools. (So you can
> cross-probe schematics/nets, enforce design rules, have auto route shove
and
> completion, DFM, etc.)
>
> I must admit that even though OrCAD's autorouter is quite good (for an
> autorouter) I don't use it anymore. For the size boards I do I can route
it
> by hand faster and better than it would take me to properly constrain the
> autorouter to get similar results.
>
> I think there's a really old DOS-based version of PADS out there for free
> now. I used it for the first SW/ESB boards. Having never seen anything
> else I was none-the-wiser to its shortcomings. ;-) You could probably do
> most anything in two layers with most any capture/layout tool, it's just a
> matter of how much time you'll have to put in to get the results you
> need/want.
>
> The MultiJAMMA main board (which is really pretty low complexity compared
to
> a full game board) is about 50 components, 700 drill hits, and around 100
> nets. I had about 22 hours of routing time in on it. Since a single FPGA
> or something now-a-days can have more nets than that whole board, if
you're
> using "modern" stuff (fine-pitch surface mount, 0603 and smaller
discretes)
> you'll want a real tool. If you can hack by with some DIPs and PLCC's you
> can use less sophisticated stuff, but rip-and-redo can take a LOT of time.
>
> (Oh, while I'm at it-- if anyone wants to e-mail me please use
> cowgill@home.com and NOT clay@yahoo.com. My yahoo account seems to be
> cross-linked to two separate databases and is pretty-well totally
screwed.)
>
> -Clay
> ________________________________________________________________________
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Received on Sun Jun 25 10:45:56 2000