[sdiy] PCB designing software

[Brock Russell]

Hi 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).

I didn't know HiWire II was still available. I've probably got a demo for 
it on 5 1/4"
disks kicking around here somewhere. Of course I now remember that you are
the other former smARTWORK user on the list, which was also a Wintek
program from waaaaay back, and I see it is still available too.

>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...)

This reminded me of another very usable CAD program written and supported
by a guy in Florida, Circad by Holophase. http://www.holophase.com/
Also $995. Certainly the fastest CAD program in the world. The import and
export filters are a bit dated, but that doesn't impact the usefulness. It has
one nice feature for DIYers, you can load in scanned images and zoom them
to size, then lay tracks on top of the image allowing one to copy scanned
boards or artwork from magazines, etc.

Brock