[sdiy] Altrium Designer/Protel

[Jim Patchell]

Tom Arnold wrote:
> I know at least a few people on here have used Protel, has anyone used
> Altium Designer?  It looks like Altium has killed off Protel and only Altium
> Designer is available now, but I cant find many comparisons between them.
>
> I've been reading some bad things about later versions of Protel anyway so
> maybe Altium isnt a path I even want to consider, but Protel seems to have
> an exceedingly strong following so I want to look into it.
>
> Downloading Proteus right now to give it a spin around the block...  This
> will make the 9th or 10th package I've looked at today and sofar all have
> failed my rather simple tests.  ( personal preference tests, nothing
> "broken" about most of them... ).
>
>   
I would try and find something different.  I use DXP at work...I 
personally feel it is an overpriced POS.  I have been a protel user 
since it first came out.  The original program was easy to use and very 
lean.  It is now very obtuse, and a big fat bloated pig.  DXP is 
protel.  And starting with Protel version 3.0, bugs seem to have started 
working their way back into the software.

I so far, have not found anything I feel is a good value for home use.  
I am currently using Protel PCB version 2.7 (an old windows 3.1 version) 
and Orcad Version 9.2 for schematic capture.

Oh yeah...I have heard bad things about new versions of ORCAD as well.

-Jim