Anybody still using Protel PCB 2.8?

[DerekG]

Interesting. I wasn't really satisfied with the older version of diptrace, but the new version seems to work pretty good actually.
Hopefully the makers are reading along, because I am missing ....... like keyboard shortcuts

DipTrace 3.0 introduced user configurable keyboard shortcuts. I have configured many of the keyboard shortcuts to replicate those of Altium Designer.

as well as the ability to change a whole range of values/footprints (which is a must have with big boards).

There are lots of options here too in DipTrace. You can update the library component & choose to then update all footprints to match the new library component, or you can change just the pads on a specific component on the board in just a couple of clicks ............ or highlight say half a dozen components (they may be the same or all different) & choose to update all or just some of the pad dimensions or just the hole size or both.

A very nice feature that even AD does not currently offer is the ability to change from metric to imperial (or vice versa) with just a single keyboard shortcut of your choice ........... even when you have multiple pop up windows open (ie you have the pad's parameters dialog box open & want to cycle through from imperial to metric).

How good is the PADS import feature with older PADS boards? If that works smoothless it's really a win for us. Because a lot of designs are still in the old PADS format.

I import & export to/from Altium via the PCAD filter with good success (the only thing that screws up a bit is the silk screen overlay).

I do not use PADS so I can't advise .......... however you can download a fully functional DipTrace ver 3.2 & try it for 30 days for free ..... so why not give it a try yourself.

[peter-h]

Where can one find 99SE SP6?

[capt bullshot]

Don't know if Altium still sells it, I'd guess no for obvious reasons. A simple backup of the installation CD files won't be very useful because you'd need the license key. AFAIR, the older version Protel keys don't work on 99SE.
Searching the net for "Protel 99SE full" brings up various warez and serialz sites, usually nasty, dangerous and useless, but there might come up somewhere a useable and non-infected version, but that's your own risk.

That's quite interesting: Everybodys favourite darling search the net engine brings up a short notice with a link to a "technical unit for luminous flux" database listing a lot of URLs pointing to sites that claim to offer "free" versions of whatever software. It's up to the reader to decide wheter using this information is compliant to local legislation.

[adx]

I still fire up 2.8 every so often. It was the last (best) Windows version before the silly client / server stuff was brought in (DXP, Altium etc). 98 was the first useful version of that client / server naffness that worked ok IMO. I paid for the naffness, but was effectively stuck on 2.8 for years until they sorted themselves out.

I was originally irritated by 99 and its DDB naffness (but that has its handy sides). But same problem, I upgraded to whatever the 2006 version was but despite being on that bandwagon I effectively didn't use Altium until about 2013. It's like flushing money down the toilet, the flip side is 99SE worked and was very popular and I got work. I use 99SE all the time - about half my clients still use it, though that number is dropping, and it's rarely used for the big boards these days, so in reality it has fallen behind (mostly used for pumping out small revision updates). 99SE does import 2.8 very well, but I think Altium imports 2.8 fine as well.

I'm kind of stuck on AD13 now, due to our last government bringing in rules which restrict companies where an owner has a relative with a disability from making capex purchases, and significantly more evil stuff like that (but that's the way the whole world seems to be going). At least it's a fairly good version too.

[peter-h]

99SE does run under win7-64.

It also imports PCB 2.8 .pcb files fine but with some issues e.g. any pad reliefs to an internal plane are lost. On a quick test, the learning curve appears to be substantial

[Circlotron]

99SE does run under win7-64.

There is an issue with it not recognising schematic library files though.

[peter-h]

That's interesting.

Can you indicate the specific issues?

One reason for moving to 99SE would be to avoid having to run a VM as I currently do, for PCB 2.8 and SDT/386. Replacing PCB 2.8 with 99SE does only half the job.

One has to import schematics and one has to import component libraries. All that has to work, and of course 99SE was not written by Orcad and AFAIK the SDT file format was never documented (although plenty of outfits reverse engineered it).

And even Orcad's windows versions didn't import schematics correctly, ending up with loads of labels moved around.

[Circlotron]

Several years since I battled with is but from memory the program complained that library files where corrupt when they were not.

https://www.google.com.au/search?ei=nlrHWq3BCsnb8QX4vY_ABA&q=protel+99se+windows+7+library+problem&oq=protel+99se+windows+7+library&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0i22i30k1.15974.18426.0.20298.9.2.1.6.7.0.226.424.0j1j1.2.0....0...1c..64.psy-ab..0.9.476...33i21k1j33i160k1.0.cVSKa38VgAU

[peter-h]

I did fix the issue with the Help function not working under win7. I have not found a way to fix the "cannot run macro" error however. Not major issues however.

The fix for library loading is interesting. 99SE corrupts the filename before it opens the file

[DerekG]

I presume you can still run Windows XP under Win 7 to get on top of any problems like these.

[peter-h]

Yes, in a VM, but in a VM I can run PCB 2.8 and SDT/386 and they both work

The one thing which 99SE seems to do a lot better is autorouting. The 2.8 routing feature is useless.

99SE has various improvements e.g. panning works as it should.