[sdiy] PCB designing software

[harry]

Well y'all

I've been using Hiwire II from Wintek (a DOS proggy) for the past oh...
15 years. It runs fine on everything through windows 98 (have not tried anything

more recent).

It costs $995 for one. I bought a number of units at once and paid about $650.

It consists of a number of 'modules'... transparent to the user but capable of
running 'scripts' which call these modules and process the CAD artwork. It does
Gerber, Excellon outputs... and is set up to handle multilayer boards.
Does Schematics as well...

255 layers, dedicated (by convention in the scripts only... ) to
Layer 0 = global
Layer 1 = solder side
Layer 2 = comp side
Layer 255 = silk

Does Soldermask and power plane generation automatically. It will not properly
'check' a multilayer power plane to netlist... OTOH neither will our $50K
ViewLogic system (there is a workaround....)

I keep waiting for them to upgrade it... but I realize that with some good
script programming it will do anything that any of the better proggys will do.

It uses a hardware key so you MUST buy a copy.  If anyone does I can trade some
scripts with you... (such as custom gerber plots, custom hole sizes etc...)

Customer support is from the author, who lives in Florida. I imagine he sits on
the
golf course with a cell phone and sips pina coladas, answers your calls and
stays
in the low 80's...  (what a life...)

H^) harry

Brock Russell wrote:

> >Hey,
> >
> >Just was wondering what software y'all use to design PCBs
> >
> >I'm currently using Cadsoft Eagle, but I want to know if there are any more
> >powerfull packages out there (and don't say Protel, I tried their demo,
> >software has glitches, bug and just feels to bloated or how do you say it)
> >
> >Thanks in advance,
> >Steven
>
> Hey Steven,
>
> What problems did you find with Protel? I'm a Protel user and I know
> there are very few bugs in the current release. The Protel Users group
> has only 37 bugs in the current bug list and none of them are really
> serious, most belong in the nuisance category.
>
> Bloated? Depends on  your point of view. The Proteus gave a list of
> the other main packages and I have tried all of them except Allegro-
> I've never worked for a company that could afford it, let alone buy it
> myself - and they all suffer from feature-itis. With the exception of
> P-CAD which seems targeted to pcb design houses and mass
> production users, they seem to want to be all things to all users,
> so they have a gazillion options.
>
> What are you looking for that is not in Eagle? Last time I used it I
> thought it was a pretty solid little package. The smaller versions
> are certainly limited but it seems to me you have to spend a large
> amount of money to get to the next level of design package and if
> it is primarily for doing single and double sided audio and low
> speed digital boards and you are not making money with it, it may
> not be worth it.
>
> Brock

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