Orcad compared to others?

[MadModder]

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.

[Write_to_Smokegenerator]

I had the pleasure to do a PCB with OrCad, years ago, unfornatly I don't have the money for the altium Designer  so 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

[elmohandis]

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

[free_electron]

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 rea
Ly 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.

[ml-eng]

I suggest Pulsonix, the user interface I much better than the Altium interface. Unfortunatly it is quite expensive.

[MentorGraphicsPCB]

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 Blog
http://www.mentor.com/products/pcb-system-design/blog/post/introducing-hyperlynx-9-0-fastest-time-to-accurate-results-64562b8b-716c-48dd-a511-7acae8d430f0?cmpid=7833

HyperLynx PCB Analysis YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/MentorGraphicsPCB

[jeroen74]

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.

[Gall]

Orcad is heavyweight and inconvenient even for simple tasks (especially for simple tasks). I don't use it anymore.

[AndyC_772]

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).

[Neilm]

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).

Sounds like the CIS package with some options. Things like the PSpice simulator are a lot extra

Neil

[AndyC_772]

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.

[VanitarNordic]

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.

[EngPhoeNIX]

Altium is the BEST

[peter.mitchell]

I recently did my first (and last[ish]) board with orcad, i really am not impressed. It is almost as annoying as kicad

[nctnico]

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.