Altium designer 18 vs Cadence Allegro 17.2

[robertferanec]

I would not buy through that page. When I was buying my OrCAD Professional, I have got contact to a sales guy from friend of mine and I bought my OrCAD Professional USB dongle for less than 2k couple of years ago.

The prices which I mentioned in my post above were told to me directly by Cadence a few weeks ago when I asked about general prices. These are the exact words "OrCAD professional is $2K for a standalone license or $5K for a floating user license, maintenance and support is $1.8K per year.". So it should be somehow possible to buy it.

I do not want to sound like promoting OrCAD. I just know, that they almost always have a special offer for Orcad PCB Designer Standard because I was looking into that some time ago. I know they had this $443 offer. When I tried to google today for "orcad standard", this is the first link what I have got (price $299USD):
https://www2.orcad.com/Extranet/96712/forms.aspx?msgid=602ab9ce-de26-41d7-8bda-91c1be958206&LinkID=CH00096712eR00000073AD

[nctnico]

It seems to me that you get a reduced price for the first year and then pay the normal subscription price.

[hammy]

Same here in EU. The price you get from Cadence/FlowCAD is way less than the numbers LTimko found online.
The subscription price stays the same, I renewed some days ago.

[LTimko]

I'am very surprised and I'm wondering why can't they promote their low prices better? It can be a huge difference.
We bought an OrCAD Professional around 9000€ (base price) in 2014. Last year we bought Altium17 for 7000€. If we had known this earlier we would have bought OrCAD licenses instead...

Anyway, FlowCAD also mentions 2500€ for the Standard version in their homepage: http://www.flowcad.de/OrCAD_PCB_Designer_Standard.htm

[hammy]

I'am very surprised and I'm wondering why can't they promote their low prices better? It can be a huge difference.
We bought an OrCAD Professional around 9000€ (base price) in 2014. Last year we bought Altium17 for 7000€.

Well, this was four years ago. At this time v16 was on sale. The prices we mentioned here are from the v17.2 timeframe (2 years).
The other key part is maybe the size of your company and the discount you get?

For 9k you asked for several options, right? PSice? CIS + CIP? PCB High-Speed Option? Advanced Analysis?

Real world example:
In mid 2017: AD17, one license, 1 year subscription = 5600€ (without tax!)
Early 2017: OrCAD Professional v17.2, 1.5 years subscription, CIS = 3250€ (without tax!)

Both quotes for a newly founded company. Both companies have a discount for startups.

The support from FlowCAD upfront was excellent. The needs for my designs were analyzed and the matching package and options were defined and I got a test license for some weeks to test this package.

Altium on the other hand was just a sink or swim. One short call, five minutes to get an impression of my financial capabilities and two days after that an offer via email with the already mentioned price.

Even if the price of both packages would be the same, I would have choosen Cadence! Excellent support and service for me, still to this day.

[LTimko]

For 9k you asked for several options, right? PSice? CIS + CIP? PCB High-Speed Option? Advanced Analysis?

I just looked right now and it was OrCAD Professional 16.6 for €8750 (dongled network license + 1 year support). We bought only one plus option: CIS module for €3500. All prices were without tax and from a FlowCAD reseller.

[nctnico]

For 9k you asked for several options, right? PSice? CIS + CIP? PCB High-Speed Option? Advanced Analysis?

I just looked right now and it was OrCAD Professional 16.6 for €8750 (dongled network license + 1 year support). We bought only one plus option: CIS module for €3500. All prices were without tax and from a FlowCAD reseller.

OrCad professional has a more advanced PCB design package. The regular version is cheaper (even with CIS). Perhaps you also bought the CIP option without knowing it. Unfortunately Orcad pricing isn't very clear and software sellers try to make you spend more if they can.

[LTimko]

Unfortunately Orcad pricing isn't very clear and software sellers try to make you spend more if they can.

That's the point!

[daista]

Hi,

So far I have found the following information in this post:
Altium17 for 7000€
Altium17 for 5600€ (without tax)

Does anyone have a more updated info on Altium18? I am looking for the price for a single floating licence for one year.
BTW, it seems that Altium does not offer permanent licenses anymore, am I correct?

[Deridex]

Hi,

So far I have found the following information in this post:
Altium17 for 7000€
Altium17 for 5600€ (without tax)

Does anyone have a more updated info on Altium18? I am looking for the price for a single floating licence for one year.
BTW, it seems that Altium does not offer permanent licenses anymore, am I correct?

As far i know, altium still offers permanent licenses. I think just the updates are bound to the subscription.

[nctnico]

Yes, Altium sell perpetual licenses as well.

[rfinley]

(Slow Cadence)  Cadence uses a software library for their menu structure for Orcad CIS that is third-party.   

My co-workers on Windows10 machines and VMs were significantly impacted by the Fall Creator update change made in Windows 10 by Microsoft. 

As the admin/designer, I was on windows7 at the time, so I didn't notice.  But, it was my job to deploy the update as soon as Cadence released it.

https://community.cadence.com/cadence_technology_forums/f/pcb-design/38113/orcad-capture---slow-graphics-response-on-windows-10

[rfinley]

YouTube videos for Altium seem to feature unrealistic net groups having no crossovers needing vias and obvious time compression during mouse moves.  Using an FPGA as your netlist demo?   I think we stopped letting the mechanical engineers and the CFO choose the pcb tools a long time ago.

So, Halloween is happening, snow is coming, and here’s what’s at stake. 

CES show in January, expensive-to-change trip to Europe and my gym appointments.

Orcad, currently offered free for the cost of maintenance, has the same fundamental real-time interactive routing functionality as the full license.  Cadence isn’t worried about disappointing those who paid $10K for their software, they are worried about disappointing those who pay up to $120k for the full license that Apple, Google, Cray and IBM expect..

If you have dreams of working for a company that buys millions of parts annually for a compute device, its hard not to notice it’s often Cadence experience in the job description.