OrCAD - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 08, 2020, 06:55:56 pm
content: Why no love for OrCAD here? (no dedicated forum for it). Currently promoted for only $750!!! Wow! (list $3000) perpetual license w/ 1 year maintenance.I find all of the available PCB EDA softwares to be ... awful. Each in their own awful way. I've tried most of them. Not gEDA but from the looks of it, no thanks.Proteus is the best I've found. Price point is acceptable, the flaws are acceptable. Library mgmt is horrid but livable (barely). I like it enough that I've been keeping my maintenance payments up for years now.Altium is obviously more powerful but it's just too horrible for me to use, even if it were the same price as Proteus. I actually bought a 2yr license, regrettably, for CS but it has way too many flaws and I abandoned it quickly.I'd never considered OrCAD b/c the price was touching Altium but at sub-$1000 I want to give it a shot.What's the consensus on its usability?I wonder if it doesn't get much love because of the pricing, or because it stinks like the rest.I recently had a bout of anger with Proteus and ventured into KiCad again. What a joke. Just coincidence, but the day I tried it (for the 3rd time over last few years), the support forum's cert had expired the day prior. Come on guys. Also on first-run it spews out all the errors from obsolete (moved or unavailable) footprint or device libs. I uninstalled. I got desperate and re-installed and on second installation it just hangs forever when launching eeschema. Some leftover turd from that just-prior installation must have ruined things. So I didn't even get to the point to be newly dissatisfied with the schema editor.thanks for letting me get a rant in along with my question.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2020, 09:35:25 pm
content: As someone who used Orcad Pro for 3 years, and used Altium for the last few months, here is my opinion:Orcad PCB editor is excellent! Altium is not even in the same league for features, convenience, speed and especially stability. Altium's "rules editor" is utter garbage compared to Orcad's "Constraints Editor".In Altium it's not easy to see what is the final effect all your rules have on a specific net. In Orcad constraints manager show it in the form of convenient spreadsheet, and you can adjust these parameters on the fly for specific net if you so desire, in Altium you will have to fight with that stupid "rules" editor.Orcad SI simulation (sigXplorer or something like that) is also a major advantage if you work with anything hi-speed.Footprint creation - got to give a plus to Altium. In general it's a pain in Orcad, because it forces you to create padstacks for each (different) pad structure you're going to have. For standard packages, you can use free Library Expert to generate footprints and 3D models for Orcad, but for oddball parts (like a lot of modern power parts like hi-current DC-DC converters, output stages and stuff like that) creating a custom padstack for these oddball pads is super-annoying. These pads are still a pain in Altium, but at least it doesn't force you to muck around with padstacks. Also Altium has built-in IPC footprint/3d model generator, even if it isn't as good as Library Expert, but still better than nothing.One major (for me) annoyance of Orcad PCB Editor is that it doesn't allow opening more than one board at once (if you've got only one seat license), though it does let you open it to work with multiple footprints at the same time.Library management - I'd say it's about on par, but I like Orcad's way of storing each footprint as a separate file. I didn't try Altium 365 yet (as I don't like idea of being forced to stay on subscription), but Orcad has CIS option, which, from what I heard, is above and beyond Altium's cloud, and it doesn't require any subscriptions to function. On another hand, it's a paid option.Schematics - I prefer Altium, but I'd say they are on par feature-wise.Overal impressions - Altium seems more cohesive, it "feels" like a single product, when Orcad Capture and PCB Editor are two separate things - different shortcuts, GUI layout and philosophy, etc. Though there are efforts to make UX more consistent. Also Altium is Windows-only, while Orcad natively works in Linux (and from what I heard, it works better on Linux than on Windows). Altium is also more expensive than even Orcad Professional if you compare MSRP. Orcad provides a growth path, when you have the same UX from the basic Standard edition all the way to ultra high-end Allegro, which is a double-edged sword. Altium has built-in support for panelization, Orcad doesn't.So at the end of the day, each of them has strengths and weaknesses.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2020, 10:45:56 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 08, 2020, 09:35:25 pmOrCAD has separete product - Panel Editorhttps://www.orcad.com/resources/library/orcad-panel-editor-overviewI didn't try it, but looks more impressive than Altium...

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2020, 11:10:02 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 08, 2020, 09:35:25 pmActually, I'm doing this in Altium with Sch/Pcb lib files and add these references to DbLib rather than to a project, much easy to manage overall compare to "pure" files.Also, have an option add more than one footprint (high-density etc.) for same part into same PcbLib file if needed since Altium allows it by default.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2020, 11:22:07 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 08, 2020, 09:35:25 pmI don't know about the latest Orcad version but in version 17.2 only the PCB editor works in Linux (which is still a big plus).I disagree about the pad-stack editor; it isn't difficult to deal with. Making parts is not a tedious process IMHO but again you need to get some routine. Most of my projects involve making several new footprints.@electrolust: any CAD package has a steep learning curve and Orcad is not different. Orcad Capture is a relatively modern program but PCB Editor is a typical Unix mainframe application which takes some getting used to. But it is a very productive piece of software once you get the hang of it.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 12:00:37 am
content: thanks, i'll give it a go.BTW I do enjoy the Altium IntLib format. I believe CS doesn't have the IPC footprint wizard of Designer, but I use PCBL anyway. I guess I'll have to get some experience with per-file footprints to see how I like that. It has to be better than Proteus anyway.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 12:40:11 am
content: Quote from: olkipukki on July 08, 2020, 10:45:56 pmYes it has, but it costs extra $$$, so it's not fair to compare it to Altium's built-in functionality.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 12:42:56 am
content: Quote from: olkipukki on July 08, 2020, 11:10:02 pmOrcad PCB doesn't have the concept of footprint library, all footprints are just a pair of files in the file system.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 12:45:11 am
content: Quote from: nctnico on July 08, 2020, 11:22:07 pmTry creating a footprint forthis part(don't forget custom solder and paste masks for bottom pads) and let us know how long did it take

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 03:12:10 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 09, 2020, 12:45:11 amQuick & dirty is to combine pads to form the odd shape. Otherwise create a custom pad shape and import that into the pad stack. I have not done the latter (yet) but I have modified pad stacks which where made this way.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 03:30:48 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on July 09, 2020, 03:12:10 pmI have. A lot. Hence my opinion ("super-annoying"). The worst part is that when you create custom shapes for pad and masks, you can't see other layers as a reference. And to make things worse, you will need to remove & readd the padstack for changes to custom layers to become visible, because "refresh padstacks" didn't seem to reload these custom layers (other changes do become visible, so it's a clear bug).In Altium you just draw custom shapes right in the footprint, and as long as your "copper" layer's shape intersects an actual "pad", it will be considered connected. I suppose you can do similar thing in Orcad, though I haven't tried that personally. The one thing I like in Altium is that you can edit pad parameters right in the footprint, so no need for back&forth between footprint editor and padstack editor. This is also useful for oddball pads, because you can easily get rid of "default" solder and paste masks which are a part of a padstack, as you're going to draw custom shapes for these layers too anyways.Unfortunately (for me) these customs pads are becoming more common in power parts as manufacturers looking for ways to improve heat transfer from die to the board so that a part can withstand higher current without overheating. And I'm yet to see an eCAD which makes creating these kinds of footprints less of the PITA it is right now.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 04:52:58 pm
content: OMFG. so far, so bad.first, the orcad trial (and so I assume regular orcad) uses a non-standard installer. so orcad doesn't show up in the application control panel where you can see the size and remove it. ok, well as long as it's self contained in its own directory I suppose it's ok, but really this introduction screams that the entire suite is going to be super hacky.the install eats quite a lot of disk space (22GB). the installer doesn't check to see if you have enough disk space. the install takes super long (1hr), i'm guessing mostly because it has to download 22GB from the internet. (the installer itself is just a shim to download the actual binary content.) i didn't have enough space. it took me 3 tries because i had to extend the disk, then realize that windows didn't see the added space yet, then do it again.then i find that the tutorials are for 17.2, whereas the current version is 17.4. 17.2 dates back to 2016 and 17.4 looks different, with slightly different flows, at least in "tutorial #1", getting started. from the 30s that i've been able to use it, so far 17.4 does seem better than what is shown in the tutorial.it actually launches Capture CIS, not Capture. (The Trial is the full bells and whistles version.) It takes >20s to launch ... to an empty start page with a webview. really? like the installer, no caching whatsoever.tutorial 1. step 1. create a new project.the flow is different than the tutorial, but close enough to understand how they improved it in 17.4. but then ... nothing. instead of opening to the new project, a window frame is drawn that is transparent (onto the start page) with no content. the new tab has no title. after some futzing I figured out i can create a second new project and then that second project tab still has no title but it does have the file hierarchy. "page 1" the first schematic page is not created, contrary to the tutorial.File > New > Design doesn't react.Design > New Schematic is greyed out.When I close the new project I don't get prompted to save, and nothing is written to disk. If I change the project location (when creating it), to an unwritable folder, I do get warned that Capture can't write to disk and it doesn't allow me to create it. So at creation time, it definitely is verifying writability but it isn't actually writing anything.So, then of course I go to the orcad site. Where it's hard to find the forum link. When I get there ... "forum shut for maintenance".i guess it's cadence and they are in no risk of going under, but really?So then I try to save the project in C: drive instead of a network drive. It works, I think. The tab for the project still has no title, but the first schematic page is created. I still can't do Design>New Schematic to create a new page. The page itself is an absolutely horrible fucking combination of dark mode and light mode.EDIT: the dark/light thing can be toggled. (overall UI and schematic have independent settings). it's just the defaults are bad. Judging from the 17.2 tutorial, 17.4 is their first foray into dark mode, so I guess it's understandable. But hey Cadence, what a waste of money. There are many better places to spend those development resources ... no one is buying your $3000 (starting price) suite for dark mode.I also found that after creation, I can move the project from C: drive to the network drive, then open it and it works. Also, after doing that, I can subsequently create new projects on network drive.The whole thing reeks of software developed by college interns. And I haven't yet even placed the first component on a schematic. It just reminds me of Linux, back when FreeBSD was still competitive and you had to find a modeline for your X Windows setting that would work with your monitor. Yes, after endless futzing you can get everything to work, and the control you have makes it powerful, albeit fragile. But come on, this is 2020.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2020, 07:15:13 pm
content: You are probably better off using version 17.2. I have not tried 17.4 yet but I have the feeling 17.4 is the beginning of redoing the schematics editor. On one hand maybe a good move since it hasn't changed much in over 20 years OTOH it means things will be in flux for a while.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 01:52:41 am
content: The trial is only available for 17.4. 17.2 isn't available via pirate locations I'm aware of (only 16.x). So for now at least I'm stuck with it.I've gotten through a few more of the tutorials and am so far quite pleased with "capture". The aspects of library mgmt that they have exposed thus far are very nice vs what I'm used to.I wouldn't really use "ultra librarian", but still disappointed that it apparently isn't in the same place in 17.4 and I can't find it.I will let my previous vitriol stand, since it's still valid for what we call OOBE in software (out of box experience). So awful. But once over that hump, I like it and am likely to make the purchase.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 03:11:43 pm
content: Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 01:52:41 amBefore you commit to transaction, make sure you understand & are OK with limitations of Standard edition of PCB editor (as I understand that's the license you're seeking to purchase). As far as I remember, that license level does not include things like length matching. This was a must for me, so I had to purchase Professional license (though I managed to negotiate an excellent price of $0 for the license + $1800 for one year's long maintenance subscription).Also whatever license you end up buying, make sure to order a USB key (it's like $100 extra), as that will allow you to move software to a different computer without involving support to create a new license for new host. This service is free while your subscription is active, but it will cost quite a bit of money if you let your subscription lapse and then contact them.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 06:42:40 pm
content: yup. i did notice that differential pair stuff only comes in pro.vs proteus @ same price point, i will give up differential pair, and simulation. i'm not doing high speed stuff other than USB so diff pair is just a nice to have and not critical. i do question how strong proteus' diff pair is anyway, without SI features. Will I regret not having diff pair even for something like USB2.0? As long as the PCB editor can easily show the length in real-time or mouse hover, so that I can do manual length matching, I feel I can handle the other aspects. I've not done this yet in Proteus so I don't have a point of comparison.simulation OTOH, i enjoy how proteus does simulation. i can crank out simple stuff even easier than using circuitlab/etc. and the MCU simulation can be helpful. OrCAD PSpice is waaaay too pricey for me. I'll have to find a workflow where I export the netlist and use ltspice/tina/etc.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 07:18:08 pm
content: Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 06:42:40 pmNo, standard license includes differential pairs. I'm talking about length matching of regular traces, like for DDR3.Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 06:42:40 pmAgain, standard license does include sigXplorer, so you can do post-routing signal integrity simulations, as well as pre-route reflection sims. This is a BIG thing for some use cases. You can't do parameter sweep though (you will need SI option for that), but you can do it manually if you so desire. This is helpful, for example, if you want to determine the best value of termination resistor.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 08:30:21 pm
content: And let's not forget cross-talk simulation. I can see that being handy for audio applications too. Many years ago one of my fellow engineers had made a layout and by accident he put a long trace from an SPI bus parallel to a trace carrying an audio signal -> time for a respin! The result was a 'prrt prrtt prrrt' sound every time the SPI bus was active. Cross talk simulation would have likely caught that error at the PCB design stage.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 08:44:27 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 10, 2020, 07:18:08 pmI can't find an english language page, but on all the other language pages, the features themselves are all in english, so:https://www.orcad.com/pt/products/orcad-pcb-designer/compareper that, diff pair support is not in standard, nor any SI. However on the "buy" page, it does say "diff pair routing" supported, and pre-routing SI included. It's too bad the trial version only comes "fully loaded", as I won't be sure what features I won't be getting.https://store.ema-eda.com/pcb-products/orcad-pcb-designer-standard/with pro adding "advanced" diff pair routing, and post-routing SI.QuoteI am having a hard time finding difference between SI and sigXplorer, do you have any brief description or a link where I would find it?thanks so much, very very helpful.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 09:32:00 pm
content: Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 08:44:27 pmAsk your sales rep to send you a comparison PDF which lists all features available at different license levels. The document I have is now outdated as they've added quite a bit of stuff since I was buying my version. For example, impedance and crosstalk analysis were Allegro-level features, but they added these to Pro at some point (not sure about Standard).Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 08:44:27 pmThis is BS. Demand them to set up the trial license for exactly what are you going to buy. They can do so 100%, as they've done it for me (and that allowed me to determine that Standard license was not enough for me). This is the only way for you to truly evaluate if what you're getting is going to work for you.Quote from: electrolust on July 10, 2020, 08:44:27 pmsigXplorer is the name of a tool used to set up and run signal integrity simulations (you can launch it standalone if you want to just play around with it, you don't need any schematics nor board). That tool has different features enabled depending on your license level, see attachment for details, but remember that this list is out of date right now. Again, that picture is a screenshot from the PDF which compares features available at Standard, Professional and Allegro license levels.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2020, 10:47:03 pm
content: Quote from: asmi on July 10, 2020, 09:32:00 pmah great. i'll do that.

author: electrolust
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 11, 2020, 03:17:11 pm
content: Ah, there is a tutorial specific to 17.4.. I think I was actually viewing the 16.x tutorial before, not 17.2. Anyway, it's close enough and I get it. If you already have worked in other EDA packages, it's a breeze to get through.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2020, 06:51:48 pm
content: When I made my purchase, they gave me free e-learning courses for Orcad Capture and PCB Editor basics as part of a deal. And these were very good to get me up and running quickly.

author: bugblatter
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 10, 2020, 12:10:00 am
content: Hi,Sorry about the thread resurrection. If I've posted in the wrong thread, my apologies in advance.I was wondering what other people are experiencing at OrCad maintenance renewal time.I purchased a standard license some years ago and towards the end of the current maintenance cycle, upgraded to the professional version. The cost of the upgrade was the difference in price between the licenses + the one year maintenance fee for pro. This was just a few months before my standard maintenance cycle was ending. I'm being told now that the pro maintenance expires at the same time as the standard, even though it is only a few months old.Has anyone else run into this situation? It doesn't seem right to me. Shouldn't the pro maintenance last a year from purchase?Thanks

author: RomDump
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2020, 04:47:09 pm
content: Quote from: bugblatter on November 10, 2020, 12:10:00 amAre you sure you paid for maintenance when you went from Standard to Professional?Yes I ran into a similar situation.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2020, 07:10:39 am
content: Quote from: asmi on July 08, 2020, 09:35:25 pmWait a sec, what about this? Does it available in Pro package?

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2020, 10:24:14 am
content: I think this video shows Orcad 17.4 (or later). I have 17.2 Professional running and that doesn't have a panelisation function.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2020, 12:08:34 pm
content: Quote from: nctnico on November 28, 2020, 10:24:14 amWhy you didn't update to the latest?Are you out of maintanence or something else?

author: nigelwright7557
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2020, 12:51:45 pm
content: It amazes me how much some people will spend on PCBCAD software.I sell mine for £4 on ebay !It cant be too bad as I have done around 300 pcb's with it and sold hundreds.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2020, 02:17:25 pm
content: Exactly, so many amazing things people are doing like buying a water in plastic bottles instead of a tap water or spend thousands on air tickets although they're free to walk from point A to B...

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2020, 03:39:28 pm
content: Quote from: olkipukki on November 30, 2020, 12:08:34 pmI'm out of maintenance; I'm not sure whether updating to 17.4 is worth it. I do have the initial release and first service pack but due to the many changes there might be bugs fixed in a service pack I don't have access to and other things might have changed for the worse.Quote from: nigelwright7557 on November 30, 2020, 12:51:45 pmThe magic words are: DDR4 and design verification. If you are doing designs with memory running at clock speeds of 1.6GHz you need PCB tools which support length matching, differential pair phase alignment, impedance & crosstalk simulation. The same for stuff like HDMI, MIPI, PCIexpress, USB3, etc. A board spin sets you back about 2k euro just in costs. With tools which can verify these kind of designs you can be very certain that the board will work the first time. Debugging these kind of boards is a huge challenge which needs expensive equipment and/or lots of time. Suddenly spending 5k euro on a piece of software is peanuts compared to the alternative.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2020, 04:34:36 pm
content: Quote from: nigelwright7557 on November 30, 2020, 12:51:45 pmHere's the feature matrix for the various OrCAD licenses, which gives a reasonable indication as to what features professional engineers may need to do their jobs and are willing to pay for.Care to indicate which boxes your software can tick?https://www.parallel-systems.co.uk/matrix/[Note: the basic version is still on offer - I paid £430 including 12 months' support and maintenance!]

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 01, 2020, 11:03:32 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on November 30, 2020, 04:34:36 pmDid they provide any training videos or just software packages with support?

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2020, 07:40:35 am
content: Both. See:https://www.youtube.com/user/parsysEDA/about

author: nigelwright7557
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 12, 2020, 08:47:59 pm
content: NOTE: This message has been deleted by the forum moderator Simon for being against the forum rules and/or at the discretion of the moderator as being in the best interests of the forum community and the nature of the thread.If you believe this to be in error, please contact the moderator involved.An optional additional explanation is:

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 12:20:43 pm
content: OrCAD - How many updates / hotfixes usually on annual basis?As comparison, Altium has released 15+ updates for version 20, and two times less for version 19.They do a new release each and every year now.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 12:24:38 pm
content: "e-Learning for OrCAD(6-month license)"https://www.ema-eda.com/offers/buy-orcad-todayIs somebody used it? How useful for a beginner?

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 12:26:28 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on November 30, 2020, 04:34:36 pmDo you have access to Ultra Librarian for OrCAD that mentioned inhttps://www.ema-eda.com/offers/buy-orcad-today?

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 02:36:35 pm
content: Quote from: olkipukki on December 15, 2020, 12:20:43 pmIn 2 years I was on maintenance subscription, they were rolling out "Quarterly Incremental Releases" every, well, quarter, also there were bugfix/maintenance releases in between QIRs which were more often, but I can't remember by now exactly how often they were.Over my time on a sub, they basically re-implemented 3D view engine from scratch, and added a fair bit of functionality in it like ability to move parts right in 3D view which will back-propagate to the layout, or collision detection, cutout views. Also in one of QIRs they've enabled some features to Professional license which were previously only available at higher licenses (things like impedance and crosstalk visions, via z-height, dynamic phase matching for diff pairs, etc).So I think if you use OrCad professionally and can afford it, I would say maintenance subs are worth their money.

author: asmi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 02:45:04 pm
content: Quote from: olkipukki on December 15, 2020, 12:24:38 pmI did - it was thrown into my purchase deal. It was extremely useful, as part of a course they shipped some paper learning material (and it's a big binder of paper!), plus videos (which I've downloaded so that I can refer to them at any time). I was given also a video-only introductory course for Capture (schematics tool). Both these were great, and showed many features I didn't even know about.That said, the PCB part of a course did not cover some aspects like high speed designs, simulations, which I assume weren't included as to not overload the PCB basics course as much as to leave them opportunity to provide more in-depth (and more expensive!) training courses.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 15, 2020, 09:26:56 pm
content: Quote from: olkipukki on December 15, 2020, 12:26:28 pmI don't know, I've never looked. I always draw my own symbols from scratch as a matter of good practice.

author: apurvdate
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2020, 04:26:51 am
content: I'm making this purchase today.. opting for an additional USB lic dongle on top of that.. Lets see how this course turns out..Quote from: asmi on December 15, 2020, 02:45:04 pmThe representative of ema-eda India did not mention any printed material. It'll be great if I can keep the videos downloaded as you say

author: owlhawk
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 18, 2020, 12:16:59 am
content: Quote from: asmi on December 15, 2020, 02:36:35 pmThat matches what I saw in the past also, but they seem to have fallen behind this year. It used to be a QIR with new features each quarter and "hotfix" releases about every two weeks with bug fixes. Since they put out version 17.4 last fall, there have been no new feature releases and the "hotfix" ones are more like every month or two. I'm not sure if this is the new normal, or just due to coronavirus and/or them being busy on bug fixes for the 17.4 release. They will have a hard time convincing me to renew my subscription if it goes another year with no feature updates.Quote from: olkipukki on December 01, 2020, 11:03:32 pmIn addition to the included training, Cadence made the online versions of all their courses available for free as of few months ago. Log in to support.cadence.com, click on Training Courses, then filter by PCB design courses and price of free. They have the Intermediate and Advanced PCB editor classes, which cover the stuff missing from the "Basics" course included when you buy the software. Also specific courses on high speed design, PSpice, and a bunch of other stuff. I thought I knew orcad pretty well, but learned a lot of new tricks from these.I believe this is all accessible to anyone who has had a orcad license and created a cadence account at one point. I don't think you even need a current subscription. Not sure if it will remain free long term or not... the emails I got didn't mention a time limit.

author: olkipukki
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2020, 10:53:55 pm
content: Wonder if Cadence training will supersede EMA EDA since both cover same topics?

author: Shadowfire
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 28, 2020, 09:28:45 am
content: I bit the bullet and bought PCB designer Professional, and the Pspice option.PCB Editor in this version DOES include the panelization features in that video, I played around with it very briefly.

author: nigelwright7557
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 10, 2021, 03:59:38 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on November 30, 2020, 04:34:36 pmGiven I have done 300 pcb's with no problems I dont care about all the stuff I dont need.1/ Draw schematic.2/ Use schematic to pcb converter.3/ In PCB entry use component auto placer.4/ Use auto router5/ Fix anything auto router couldnt do and sort out star grounding.6/ PCB to Gerber file converter.7/ Send to pcb maker.