Altium Designer. Everything else is a toy. Seriously.
That being said. With this one package you get:
- schematic entry
- mixed mode simulation
- pcd design
- mechanical design
- vhdl / verilog compilers. ANY Fpga. really, ANY. Altera, Xilinx, Lattice , Actel. they are all supported. you can even switch from one vendor to another mid design.
- a truckload of IP blocks like cpu's , i/o.
- all the compilers for those cpu's.
- hardware / software co simulation if you get their jtag probe. if your design has a cpu or FPGA it will show you in quasi realtime the 1 and 0's on the pins in your pcb layout or schematic view.
Want to have some references as to whom uses this software ? Know those two little thingies that rove mars ? bingo.
Ever heard of companies like SpaceX , Bang & olufsen , National Semiconductor, BSA , Boeing , BMW and many more ? bingo.
Since you are a poor student : Call altium. Provide proof you are a student. They will give you a full blown licence for 100$. Valid for two years i believe.
If you are not a student. Too bad, it'll cost you 4995$ + 1500$ maintenance a year to have a perpetual licence.
If you do not need the PCB but want everything else its 995$ for a perpetual licence.
The maintenance gives you free mayor updates. They release a full version every 6 months. It is NOT mandatory to buy maintenance.
And if you want to go crazy over FPGA design check out their NanoBoard 3000. you get the hardware board + the software ( minus the PCB module) for 395. That software versions is tied to the specific nanoboard you buy and stops working after 1 year.
If you want to play with it for 30 days : go download it from their site and request a demo key. Caution : the download file is large ... 1.7 Gigabyte install file.. IF you want the FPGA support qou will also need to download Xilinx ISE , Altera's quartus or the equivalent tools from Actel or Lattice ( these tools are all free. the only caveat is that each of these installers tags on another 1.5 gigabyte to your download)
For the good order : i am NOT affiliated with Altium. I just have been using it for a long time at work (started when it was a dos program with version 1.1. i still have the 720k floppy it came on. I have my own licence for home use and am a very happy camper with that software. I have used Pcad, Boardstation, Pads , OrCad stuff from Visula, played with Eagle , Isis, Kicad , gEDA, diptrace and some other stuff. Doesn't cut the cheese ...