[sdiy] OT: OrCad

[j vallier]

I use Orcad at work and I hate it. Compared with even my nearly 10-year old 
version or DesignWorks 2.4 for the Mac (which I still use on a Mac Plus and 
am more productive than my dual Pentium desktop at work) it is neandrathal, 
unintuitive, and full of bugs that have cost me untold days of rework. I 
wonder how many Les Pauls we had to sell just to pay for my lost/ineffecient 
time designing the last project with Orcad...

On the good side, it is entrenched in the industry and compatible with many 
vendors and PCB layout tools, or if you have Mac haters in the office. It is 
a good if not the only choice if your company works with many contract 
manufacturers. Prepare for a steep learning curve if you want to use it for 
more complex stuff. The "getting started" tutorials will have you up and 
running quickly but fall short on "power user" info.

What would I recommend? Don't know. Designworks has free downloads for both 
PC/Mac and also exports Orcad netlists. Great if you want to be creative and 
design things, bad if you like to fight with design tools. I'm generally 
disappointed with most design tools out there, especially considering what 
you pay for them. Why did IDEs for software get so much better the last few 
years while EDA has not evolved much past DOS-land?

Sorry for the negative feedback, but that's my experiences with it in a real 
life situation. I am sure some people love it and if they do, I wish them 
the best.

Peff






>From: harrybissell <harrybissell at prodigy.net>
>CC: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>Subject: [sdiy] OT: OrCad
>Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 23:00:43 -0500
>
>Any listmembers using OrCad on a professional basis ???
>I'm charged with giving my company an informed opinion
>about the product... so I'd like to have YOUR opinion...
>
>TIA
>
>H^) harry
>
>
>


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