Orcad compared to others? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MadModder
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 01, 2012, 08:54:20 pm
content: I've used Orcad capture cis and Orcad layout+, and later on pcb editor. It works pretty well, but there are some small annoyances I think.I'm wondering if someone has used both orcad and altium designer, that Dave uses, and has an oppinion on which they prefer. Maybe even diptrace. And why.

author: Write_to_Smokegenerator
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 02, 2012, 07:42:04 am
content: I had the pleasure to do a PCB with OrCad, years ago, unfornatly I don't have the money for the altium Designerso i can't say anything. But PCB Desgin with OrCad was not that bad compared to Eagle.If you have the opportunity to do sometingn with alt i would suggest you try it out.cheers

author: elmohandis
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2012, 01:51:37 pm
content: From what I have seen, Altium is still the best package is the way that Schematic and PCB layout are both integrated into the same tool. Most of the other (even expensive) tools still carry on historical roots and the two tasks are sort of decoupled into different packages within the suite (whether it be Cadence Orcad/Allegro, Mentor PADS, or the others).I really see Altium as way ahead in both the integration and user friendliness it offers. The weak point in it however is signal integrity analysis. It is based on some rules of thumb and is not comparable with the more advanced signal integrity tools offered by Allegro and Mentor Hyperlynx. Designing in Altium and trying to use the Hyperlynx for SI analysis is also not very straightforward since export/import is not really perfect. I have seen issues with the board stackup not being exported, in addition to missing passive component values after import.The advantage of working with native Cadence or Mentor Graphics tools as I see it is the full compatibility with their SI tools. If you do not care about SI analysis, Altium is definitely the way to go. (I dare say it is even the way to go if you DO care about SI issues, if you can live with simplified SI analysis.Regards

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2012, 02:43:50 pm
content: Orcad is an 'has been'It used to be the ferrari.... When there was nothing else.The first windows version was crummy.. Especially compared to what protel did.Things reaLy changed with protel 99se. This was about the period where cadence bought orcad. And then it all went to snot. Prices shot up and nothing was really done woth orcad as cadence was too busy with their real breadwinner : ic design tools.A couple of years ago we got a 'dear john' letter. Orcad is dead. Please move to expedition. There is still orcad schematic but pcb is gone. Game over. And at 20k$ for a schematic licence.. No thanks. It isnt even integrated with pcb. Cant do cross probing... Ill go with the 6.5k$ altium thank you very much.

author: ml-eng
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2012, 06:29:55 pm
content: I suggest Pulsonix, the user interface I much better than the Altium interface. Unfortunatly it is quite expensive.

author: MentorGraphicsPCB
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: March 20, 2013, 08:45:53 pm
content: Since this post thread began, Mentor Graphics has released HyperLynx 9.0. Check out the announcement on our blog or our YouTube channel dedicated to HyperLynx:PCB Design Software & Tools Bloghttp://www.mentor.com/products/pcb-system-design/blog/post/introducing-hyperlynx-9-0-fastest-time-to-accurate-results-64562b8b-716c-48dd-a511-7acae8d430f0?cmpid=7833HyperLynx PCB Analysis YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/user/MentorGraphicsPCB

author: jeroen74
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 20, 2013, 09:26:47 pm
content: I have been a long time user of Orcad Capture and Layout too, from V6.x up to V10.3. It has a couple of weird things, but I got used to them. I think the old stuff worked pretty well.At my new job they have no CAD package at all, as they outsourced everything. No decision has been made yet whether we'll move to do PCB things ourselves or keep it being done by third parties; after all, no big changes or developments are planned.Anyway, I had to design a simple PCB so I decided to give DipTrace a try. I'm not too excited by it at all really :-/ The schematic editor cannot even do 45 deg lines I found out today! And both Schematic and PCB never do what I want, so they constantly annoy the hell out of me; mainly moving around lines/traces and components is an annoying exercise as it always seems to select exactly what I do not want to select. I guess it's just difficult to adapt after using another package for so long. I also don't like the unpolished looks of the schematics. Even Orcad/SDT looked better in the 1990s...Though, I think with a bit more of development, DipTrace is a promising package.

author: Gall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2013, 05:32:28 pm
content: Orcad is heavyweight and inconvenient even for simple tasks (especially for simple tasks). I don't use it anymore.

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2013, 06:13:23 pm
content: Ok, this is a really old thread, but...I don't get the problem with Orcad, I find it easy to use, and of course, extremely capable. My only complaint is that a few of the capabilities which I really feel it should have are only available in the expensive CIS variant. Having used it at work for years, buying a copy for myself when I set up my own business was a no-brainer.Orcad Capture plus the standard edition of PCB Designer (a feature-restricted version of Allegro, but with no artificial limitations imposed on board size or complexity) is about £2000. (Not sure where the $20k+ figure came from, it may well be the cost of one of the more upmarket licence options, but PCB Designer Professional is still only a fraction of that).

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2013, 07:02:56 pm
content: Quote from: AndyC_772 on March 21, 2013, 06:13:23 pmSounds like the CIS package with some options. Things like the PSpice simulator are a lot extraNeil

author: AndyC_772
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2013, 07:49:18 pm
content: Capture + PSpice has an rrp of £3995; it was on special offer last year at half that. I think the $20k must be for Allegro.

author: VanitarNordic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 30, 2013, 01:21:07 pm
content: Orcad is not user friendly at all. for every adjustment or small edit you have to go through complex process. Specially PCB editor. I give thumbs up to Altium. My personal opinion.

author: EngPhoeNIX
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 01:35:40 pm
content: Altium is the BEST

author: peter.mitchell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 12, 2013, 01:54:01 pm
content: I recently did my first (and last) board with orcad, i really am not impressed. It is almost as annoying as kicad

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2013, 07:39:11 pm
content: I have been using Orcad capture CIS for >10 years and Orcad layout for several years (I was able to buy a license relatively cheap). It has some quirks but it works really quick for creating schematics and PCBs. The CIS option and a parts database is a must have. With those creating a bill of materials without errors / manual labour / correct part numbers is just a mouse-click away. A big advantage of Orcad layout is that it has spread-sheet like entry for lots of things. Putting components somewhere at a certain angle is a matter of typing the coordinates and angle.I've also used Layo1 for a long time but its cumbersome compared to Layout. The MS-DOS version worked great but the Windows version not so much. Recently I had to make some changes to a design made in Layo1 but I opted to redo the whole PCB in Layout to get the work done faster.I have used Altium for two projects but I found it very obfustigated even though I'm a former Protel Autotrax user. Altium is probably the only software package for which I really needed the manual to get going. I've also used Geda and PCB under Linux but I found using PCB challenging because the net names are not attached to the traces. Out of curiosity I have tried several other free packages including Kicad but with most of them drawing traces wasn't easy.I've never used Eagle although I did consider buying it. From what I've read the copy protection scheme could damage files or render files useless even if you are a paying customer. I can't have that so I didn't took the chance and paid for Orcad.

author: jeroen74
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2013, 07:56:36 pm
content: I used Layo1 too, must only be known to us Dutch peopleThe version I used back then did not even have copper pours, only a cumbersome polygon fill, that was not editable. This was in the mid-90s.I tried FreePCB a few years ago out of curiosity. No idea what became of it.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2013, 10:45:32 pm
content: there WAS (not the use of past tense) nothing wrong with OrCad. For years it was the reference for PC based schematic and PCB design. Sure there was Viewdraw and Ariadne and Pads and Hiwire and Smartwork (yikes..) and Tango and Layo and Ultiboard and Vanguard and Daisy and Circuitmaker and others.but somewhere along the line they fumbled the ball a bit and Protel came to be ( out of frustration with OrCad's lack of support and willingness to listen to customers demanding some features )by the way, OrCad = Oregon Cad. They were based in Oregon.And then the move from dos to Windows happened and EVERYONE , apart form protel , was late. Protel was the first.They were also the first to have schematic link realtime with PCB. And then the world exploded.... everyone was all of a sudden 'borging' everyone else. Some of the big boys stepped in like Cadence.Cadence borged OrCad for 2 reasons1) the existing user base2) the Masstek router technology embedded in OrCadCadence then drove the development straight into the wall , through the wall and into the drink... subsequent releases (post OrCad, so Cadence release) began being troublesome , buggy and brought nothing really new. To the point that somewhere mid 2000's every OrCad user got a 'Dear John' letter... basically telling everyone to get screwed , move to their higher end pcb tools and orcad was just going to be schematic with little development and a stalled pcb section. The price went through the roof at that time. OrCad layout is gone , and the shematic front-end is old , crusty and badly supported. At this point the whole orcad system is just a collection of loose programs tied together with some scripts , spit and ducttape. it still feels like it is 1999 ...They call this sort of CAD tools the 'shrinkwrap' CAD. meaning it is sold in a cardboard box sealed in plastic schrinkrap. ust like any other software you find in a computer store.the big players (Cadence, Mentor , Zuken )are not used to , and don't work like that. you buy a yearly licence to run ( not an update fee like altium , but a real licence to run. don't pay means you can't run it. some tools you even pay by the run hour or number of processor cores running it.Cadence and Mentor ( they borged PADS) thought their way into the schrinkwarp market would be easy. simply borg these companies, make some extentions to their existing tools to glue it together. they miscalculated grossly... the audience is totally different, and also the way the audience works is totally different. very quickly the support for the schrinkwrap tools became a burden that was draining profits.. that's why cadence killed off the layout in favor of their higher end in-house tool.Ultiboard was one of the companies that held out the longest. Eagle is a relative newcomer. There was a german company that held out for a long time as well. EdWin. that was it.but they all fell by the wayside. some are still around but make those 'pcb maker' tied-in tools. many a pcb maker now gives you free cad software that, of course, can only generate output they can read. that's where things like Tango and a lot of others ended up.The open-sauce stands nowhere. their performance is even weaker than eagle. Hopefully with the effort injection from CERN that will change.and then there is the whole borging going on by the likes of digikey and element14 and mouser ( all three now have their tools)And then there are the web-based design tools, which are still in their infancy ... diaper stage... The kind of diaper that hasn't been changed in a while and leg openings are starting to fray and show brown spots...

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2013, 10:59:47 pm
content: No thanks for reminding me about Ultiboard & Ulticrap. Shudder. Edwin was also some dopey attempt at a CAD package. But I shouldn't complain. The first software I made money with was a PCB design tool for MSX2 home computers.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 19, 2013, 11:02:23 pm
content: Ultibrol...

author: jeroen74
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2013, 03:55:21 pm
content: Anyone remember SmartART? I guess one of the first DOS based PCB programs. With a command line and it used wind-direction orientation. (e.g. west to go left, north to go up).

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2013, 04:15:48 pm
content: Quote from: jeroen74 on April 20, 2013, 03:55:21 pmSmartWork , not smartart. later became HiWire. Made by winTek. ran under dosyep.dip 40 600 egave you a 40 pin dip 600 mils rowpitch drawn from bottome left to bottom right ( pin 1 was bottom left corner. so the body was extended eastward ( north being top of the screen )f1 place padf2 remove padf3 place trackf4 remove trackf5 toggle wide/ narrowSmartwork was the ONLY program that would automatically shave Ic pads so it could place a track between them. !i made lots of boards with that thing... 320x200 resoltion on CGA... later they had an EGA version (640x400)those were the days.. (grampa mode)

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2013, 04:20:04 pm
content: just found this one. from New-zealand. looks like a Protel for windows clone...http://www.hutson.co.nz/rimupcb.htmand dirt cheap ! maybe worth playing with

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 20, 2013, 09:29:12 pm
content: I wouldn't bother. Read the Q&A:http://www.hutson.co.nz/rimupctn.htmThe smallest grid is 0.1mm. That is way to big for modern PCBs.

author: cwz
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 28, 2013, 03:39:53 pm
content: As was mentioned already on here, OrCAD doesn't really exist as OrCAD any longer. It's been absorbed into Cadence SPB. OrCAD Capture is still around, and with 16.6, Cadence has finally done a pretty decent facelift on it.In terms of stacking it up to other tools, it compares against some, but for others, it's a bit more apples & oranges. In the US at least, it's fairly the industry standard. When you find schematics or part libraries distributed from vendors, they are most often in OrCAD format. The layout editor, Allegro, is also somewhat the defacto standard for higher end designs. People complain a lot that Allegro has a steep learning curve, which is probably a fair statement. These products compete with the offerings from Mentor (PADS, BoardStation, Expedition). They are expensive, but for the markets that they're intended for, the price isn't really a huge issue.Altium seems like a nice tool, but I haven't run into it a ton. Protel 99SE had a reputation for being nice looking but very buggy. Having never really used it, I can't confirm or deny that.Eagle seems to be more a tool aimed at hobbyist level designs.

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 30, 2013, 06:23:16 pm
content: Quote from: mojo-chan on May 30, 2013, 12:15:16 pmOne level of undo? What version are you using? I use OrCad capture 16.5 at work it has at least 10 levels.Neil

author: Mengano
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 14, 2013, 06:43:31 am
content: Giving OrCad a test drive and it's pretty powerful and "not that bad" as far as learning curve.One thing interesting is a 1 year Time Based License of OrCad Professional costs about the same as the annual license maintenance fee of Altium except you don't have to buy the program like you do Altum. Never thought I'd see the day, but Cadence now has a competing program that is less expensive than Altium.Still taking the program through its paces but have to admit it's impressive so far. The autorouter blows away the one from Altium and the program seems very stable. The 3D STEP model capabilities have DRC checks available while Altium doesn't. Have another couple weeks to evaluate and will report more pros and cons later

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2016, 03:59:52 am
content: Necroposting, but for a good and historical cause...How things have changed since them? I'm now forced to use Cadence and I find it very powerful, but now I laugh about myself when I complained about- How messy was Eagle:* It has TONS of annoying quirks in the UI part.* I somewhat liked the cli concept despite being quite underdeveloped to my taste (I would love to be like zsh). I'm a mix of an *NIX cli + streamlined GUI fan and I find both emacs & vi(m) too weird.* It has a really crappy autorouter to the point one made in the spare time of a retired Zuken developer was a lot better. No offense, I'm quite sure he's quite good at it, but he's only one person compared to a development team, but maybe 10000 Lemmings are less than 4 geniouses.- How weird and "transitioning phase" KiCad is:* Please kill Legacy canvas insanity ASAP and make GAL usable with at least all the features of the former one. I'm sure many of their devs agree with that, but I understand KiCad needs a big overhaul in order to become a robust project so groundwork needs to be done before.** They are slowly improving and making menus more sane, that's nice.** It remembers me a bit like a weird OrCAD, but more messy to use in certain aspects.I don't used so much other EDA packages, no idea about the differences in GUI and UX.* They are getting internationalization, that's great and a killer app compared to mainstream software!** I think their next goal should be to i18n their site and make a lot more stronger community, instead having a bunch of segregated and uncommunicated communities.*** KiCad.jp looks promising and deserves more nexus points by some good bilingual people. The others seems relatively non-existent from my point of view, or at least not enough organized to be visible. It's true many tech people are getting very used to English, that makes them less interested in their local community and become international* There's the good news: They are starting to get a bit more sane. They are making a stronger and slowly more organized team and the result is surprising, volunteers are appearing from nowhere!** I think the current oligopoly and the support from CERN is a great opportunity.** I think they should get 1000x more resources, but I understand that's difficult.** They should concentrate at education and small companies/freelancers/hobbyists, but big smart nerds like CERN are a great opportunity to provide many good features too.** I think interoperability ought to be a priority that needs to be really organized and scientifically measured!*** Electronics is an extremely very hostile and vendor lock-in oligopoly world, they'll make it very difficult to a newcomer and specially one that might hurt their profits of their extremely overpriced and inefficient software (they are very featured, but ridiculously bloated and lots of nonsense, I laughed when found Firefox inside Allegro!).**** That happened with Microsoft Office vs OpenOffice. SUN and Oracle just wanted it as a way of branding, but now LibreOffice is getting momentum (now it sucks less, despite it requires more love in the math part and stop taking hard drugs to copy newer Microsoft Office versions), The Document Liberation Project concept ought to be transitioned to EDA/CAD/CAM world too.Here'san Altium vs Cadence opinion from 2012, but very detailled. I don't know if thingschanged since then.What about Fritzing and Circuit Wizard? They are nice too!

author: jeroen74
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2016, 12:11:24 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on April 20, 2013, 04:15:48 pmYou can download SmartWork from vetusware.com and run it in DOSBox.

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 08, 2016, 01:47:48 am
content: EDACafe: PCB Tools, Part 1: Zuken, Mentor, Cadence, AltiumInteresting article with opinions from some of the EDA moguls. I miss Keysight (they are an enterprise-only EDA software, right?) and maybe some other so this can be called "EDA Mafia Opines"

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2016, 06:50:59 am
content: Any brave soul would like to compare EDA tools in this 2016?

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 09:22:24 pm
content: Bump!(None is brave enough for this madness, I understand it!)

author: Gribo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2016, 07:31:57 pm
content: I'll bite:Orcad 16 Capture (Not allegro) - Interface retains the OrCad feel, with some of its quirks and strange behavior. I didn't manage to use OrCad layout much.It didn't crash on my medium size design of ~300 components and DB based library during my 1 month evaluation period.Library creation and component update is still less intuitive than in Altium designer's.DB connection is a bit arcane, but the documentation is good enough to get you started.Going back to two separate modules from Altium's unified workflow is a pain in the rear.Altium designer (15):Schematic and layout are very easy and intuitive. It crashed several times, due to corrupted workspace files.On the same design complexity, Altium layout is much, much more fluid and responsive.Library and DB connection are very easy, the online documentation is good enough to get you started with them.Design import from OrCad caused few issues, mainly with GND and power symbols.All tests where done on a core i5 4500, with 6GB RAM and on-board graphics.Sadly, I didn't test the latest PADS VX, my workplace was shut down and I lost my job.

author: PChi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2016, 06:54:04 pm
content: My view of PADS is that the documentation is poor. The library management complicated. The schematic editor poor and the layout to Gerber tool bad. I don't have any experience of laying out a PCB with it so perhaps that parts works OK.

author: Daxxin
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2016, 08:06:55 am
content: Quote from: free_electron on April 19, 2013, 10:45:32 pmHi , what about Vanguard ?? never heard befor , still for sale?

author: timofonic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 07, 2016, 12:43:43 am
content: Quote from: Daxxin on June 05, 2016, 08:06:55 amI would like to know about that. The name sounds intriguing, so Vanguard-ist

author: PCB.Wiz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2016, 05:13:27 am
content: Quote from: timofonic on February 10, 2016, 06:50:59 am2016 is shaping up for "interesting times" in EDA.The big players dabble in the lower cost end, but are rather like Intel trying to get back into Microcontrollers via IoT ...Sometimes, a 600lb gorilla just lacks finesseMentor released a crippled/nobbled version of PADS at Digikey, but it is Closed Binary and Subscription aka hostage sales model.You have to keeppaying them money to access your own data, and this idea has been panned on the Blogs.Meanwhile, OrCAD have moved to offer 'free' OrCAD, which means pay 1 years support, but at least with their approach, you can still use it in 2017. (SCH only?)The sales pitch is "Support is so good, you will want to keep paying"Maybe that is true, but at least a carrot is better than the stick Mentor plan to use ?I see now Digikey hedge their bets, with ever-more CAD offerings, that are not hostage-ware :http://www.digikey.com/en/resources/design-tools/quadceptLooks interesting, out of Japan ?http://www.digikey.com/en/resources/design-tools/pcbwebbut the real sea change in EDA, is around libraries.As the Component Suppliers get into EDA, they wanttheirparts inyourdesign, and they do that via libraries.RS have a nice looking ECAD Part Wizard that can search, and download SCH and PCB footprints in ASCII format.Of course, once you can download library symbols easily, that captive side of many EDA tools quietly goes away, and the big Closed-Data EDA players will wake up one morning, and wonder what happened.

author: chris_leyson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 22, 2016, 06:50:34 am
content: Orcad 16.6 schematic capture is almost identical to Orcad 10 in look and feel, Layout is a huge improvement over the old Orcad. Capture CIS for parts database is a bit of a pain, it takes a lot of work. For Orcad PCB the constrains manager can be a bit daunting and the 3D step mapping tools are more or less useless if you have to change step file origin or axes, I have to resort to using an external CAD program to get the orientation of some parts just right, connectors seem to be the worst offenders.I have a colleague who prefers Altium so there probably isn't much difference between Cadance and Altium.2016 pricing isn't bad, much the same as it was for Orcad 10 fifteen years ago.

author: ebclr
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 28, 2016, 10:16:20 pm
content: If you want to have a feel on AltiumTry circuitmaker.com for free , it's a downgrade online version of Altium, to be used on opensource hardware