Cadence Orcad X - opnions or better alternative?

[leo938]

Hello all,

I work with a small 6 man team producing IoT products. We do from start to finish, i.e. PCB & enclosure design, firmware, certification & assist with the manufacturing processes. The manager of the team has approached me about taking on a PCB design role. I've produced small boards before with Eagle & KiCAD but the manager has suggested investigating Cadence (probably OrCAD X https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/pcb-design-and-analysis/orcad.html) as a better solution.

I'd expect, at least initially, the boards would be limited to 4 layers, pretty straightforward design. No high speed digital electronics. As my experience grows we might take on more advanced boards.

Has anyone experience, good or bad with this package?

It seems like we'd also need a 3D design tool to create enclosures. Can anyone suggest a good package that would be compatible with OrCAD X?

Many thanks,

[langwadt]

compared to kicad what does it gain you other than another bill ?

[MarkF]

I can't help with OrCAD X.

For my personnel projects I use DipTrace and FreeCAD.
I have in the past created PCBs with DipTrace which has the capability to export a STEP file.
Then for my enclosure I import the STEP file into FreeCAD and draw the enclosure around it.
FreeCAD can also import photos which you can scale and then trace when making surfaces.

Although FreeCAD would work for making enclosures, in commercial projects you will probably use
one of the usual Fusion 360 or Solidworks products.  You can purchase a commercial license for
DipTrace but your company seems to have a direction they want to go in.


Here's an example case in FreeCAD for the throttle PCB I made for my model railroad:

 

[nctnico]

Hello all,

I work with a small 6 man team producing IoT products. We do from start to finish, i.e. PCB & enclosure design, firmware, certification & assist with the manufacturing processes. The manager of the team has approached me about taking on a PCB design role. I've produced small boards before with Eagle & KiCAD but the manager has suggested investigating Cadence (probably OrCAD X https://www.cadence.com/en_US/home/tools/pcb-design-and-analysis/orcad.html) as a better solution.

I'd expect, at least initially, the boards would be limited to 4 layers, pretty straightforward design. No high speed digital electronics. As my experience grows we might take on more advanced boards.

Has anyone experience, good or bad with this package?

IMHO going for Orcad Cadence is a good choice. It is not expensive and actually a step up compared to Altium. The PCB package is based on old code from the time computers where slow. As a result the software runs super fast. And it has all the bells & whistles you can wish for. There is a learning curve though and at first the software may not seem that flexible but that is there to prevent you from making mistakes / making a mess of a design. For example: Cadence doesn't allow to place random holes; you have to place (mechanical) components which are then manageable to make sure the holes in your board a consistent. Even an intern can't make a mess of things.

At the schematics side: make sure to get the CIS component to have a database driven component management system. This helps to prevent mistakes in part / footprint mismatches and wrong order numbers. Creating a correct BOM is a matter of 1 click.

The basic package is OK for simple boards. If you want to venture into doing controlled impedance boards, delay matching, etc then you'll need the professional version.

[thm_w]

compared to kicad what does it gain you other than another bill ?

OP is not the one paying the bills, so might not matter. From what I can see they'd get:
Live BOM
Multi user collaboration
CAD integration
Better SI aware routing
Signal integrity analysis

[AndyC_772]

I use Orcad PCB designer - currently on version 17.4 which is a few years old.

I do find certain things about it clumsy and slow, but that's not especially important. What is important is that it has every possible feature I might ever need to get my job done and make a living, and for the most part it's very stable and reliable. This wasn't always the case with older versions, but I can't recall the last time I lost any significant amount of work to a bug.

Performance is OK even on my 6 year old, basic HP laptop. On a modern PC I expect it to absolutely fly.

For a small company you probably don't need CIS - I don't have it - but it might not be a bad idea to start with it when you first begin building your library.

Get the professional version if, but only if, you need the extra features. I did upgrade to it for one job that, ironically, never made it to production. With the upgraded licence comes upgraded maintenance cost, which is why I stopped paying and am now stuck on 17.4. With hindsight, I wish I'd stuck with the Standard version and kept it up to date.

Re: mechanical design, I export STEP files to give to mechanical engineers. They use Solidworks, which makes PCB CAD software look cheap. Personally I use FreeCAD for the little bits of mechanical design that I do, but that's hobby stuff, not for making a living.

[leo938]

Thanks everyone for opinions.

One thing I always found very time consuming is component selection, sourcing & the footprints etc. It seems like a CIS system would indeed be a time-saver, especially if it was built into the design tool.

https://www.ema-eda.com/ema-resources/blog/what-is-orcad-x-capture-cis/

Regards,

[Uky]

OrCAD - A "slightly" steep learning curve but v e r y rewarding
and powerful. I have been using it since version 15. something
and all versions since.

Do think twice before dismissing the CIS-option.
(IMHO, the CIS option should be included in the basic packages...)

You will need a mechanical drafting package if you are going
to interact with mech engineers. This since in many cases, mech exports
that are to be used as inputs (like board outlines) are incomplete or
needs to be modified (Eg: OrCAD requires closed polylines for board outline
imports). Also a lot of empty data needs to be erased.

IMO a lite version of AutoCAD can handle this.
Take this into consideration when planning an investment.

Also take a training class. You will be impressed.

[leo938]

I just realised that both Altium & Orcad X are supplied for Windows only. I've read some old posts with success running Orcad X on Wine, any recent experience?

Thanks.

[nctnico]

I just realised that both Altium & Orcad X are supplied for Windows only. I've read some old posts with success running Orcad X on Wine, any recent experience?

You'll be way better off using a virtual machine. VMWare probably works best as Virtualbox has no support for 3D accelleration. For older Orcad versions, the PCB layout package can also run on Linux natively. It would be a shame if they dropped that. Ask your dealer what the possibilities are (running on Linux and/or Windows 7). Windows 7 is probably not supported but chances are Orcad will run just fine if you want to avoid using later Windows versions.

[Uky]

AFAIK Cadence PCB Editor is (or was) the part of the package that could run under Linux.
Capture could not.

But only "payed" versions like RedHat or SUSE. At my work, we tried installing the editor under Fedora which is/was
the free version of RedHat but it failed. It was back in the 17.2/17.4 time...

I do not know if there are any information on hpw to install OrCAD/Allegro (The full package) under "Wine"
or any other utility. Cadence.com has a user forum. Try asking there.

[nctnico]

I'm running the pcb editor from 17.2 on Debian 11 but it does need some older libraries from Debian 9 (IIRC). There is no need for a paid Linux release. It all depends on having the correct libraries which Allegro is linked against but somehow where not included in the installation files.

[leo938]

I managed to get OrcadX 25.1 running in Windows 11 in VirtualBox 7.2.4. I've only tried it on a Ryzen 9 16GB machine with about 10GB dedicated to the VM. Its a bit laggy., useable, but could be snappier...

[nctnico]

I managed to get OrcadX 25.1 running in Windows 11 in VirtualBox 7.2.4. I've only tried it on a Ryzen 9 16GB machine with about 10GB dedicated to the VM. Its a bit laggy., useable, but could be snappier...

Nice. Did you ask the dealer whether the PCB package can run on Linux natively?

If you are 'stuck' with Virtualbox, install the Mesa 3D library to have OpenGL emulation. You can get precompiled binaries from here: https://fdossena.com/?p=mesa/index.frag

[leo938]

It's a Windows only product. I might just go with dual boot

[leo938]

For anyone looking at this..

Unfortunately it's not possible to install OpenGL 4.3 on VirtualBox. This means that 3D rendering (i.e. for STEP models) is not possible on Orcad X with this setup. I'm going to try 'Windows to go' on an external SSD as my preferred solution (I switch between a laptop & desktop) falling back to dual boot if it doesn't.

[nctnico]

For anyone looking at this..

Unfortunately it's not possible to install OpenGL 4.3 on VirtualBox. This means that 3D rendering (i.e. for STEP models) is not possible on Orcad X with this setup. I'm going to try 'Windows to go' on an external SSD as my preferred solution (I switch between a laptop & desktop) falling back to dual boot if it doesn't.

If you want 3D rendering with hardware accelleration, you have to use VMWare. Despite claims, Virtualbox does not support useful hardware 3D accelleration. There should be a free version of VMWare available but it is somewhat hidden. The alternative is to install the Mesa software 3D which I linked to earlier on if you want to continue to use Virtualbox.

[passedpawn]

FYI for anyone jumping into Orcad X.  Don't use the Presto layout tool.  It has some nice features - I've been using it for 2 years.   The UI is pretty sweet.  But it's missing some really obvious features that drive me nuts.

If you are in the learning mode, learn Allegro. 

[amiq]

You'll never outgrow the Cadence tools.

For the mechanical side look at ZWCAD3D.

[Gribo]

Don't skip the CIS option, especially for a small team without a dedicated supply chain person.

[jheissjr]

How many licenses are you purchasing and will they be local, floating? What is the price a Orcad X Basic for 2026?

[LTimko]

What is the price a Orcad X Basic for 2026?

OrCAD X Standard - Time-based Single User License: €$1,531
OrCAD X Standard - Time-based Floating License: €$1,902
OrCAD X Standard - Perpetual Floating License: €$6,140
OrCAD X Professional - Time-based Single User License: €$2,413
OrCAD X Professional - Time-based Floating License: €$3,016
OrCAD X Professional - Perpetual Floating License: €$9,720

[leo938]

For whatever its worth, a followup on this...

We've decided to start new projects with KiCAD & if we need to re-spin boards for old projects (created using Cadence) we'll just purchase a short license.

I spent about 2 months trying out Cadence & found the whole experience quite frustrating & slow. With KiCAD it felt to me straightforward & more productive. Having to work on a Windows system was another issue. KiCAD seems, at least for a small team like ours, to have all of the required functionality. Also because the schematic & PCB files are just text files it's possible to leverage AI tools to inspect & review some issues. Certainly not a silver bullet but another set of 'eyes' never hurts.

I'm sure Cadence has some critical features for large teams but for ours the price didn't seem to justify the product.

[AndyC_772]

Sounds like a solid plan.

If you need to modify Cadence boards occasionally, I'd suggest giving the job to a design bureau who work with it all the time. It might well end up being cheaper and will certainly be less frustrating than having to work with a tool you're unfamiliar with.

I get on reasonably well with OrCAD now, but I've been using it every day for the last 10+ years. I wouldn't call it friendly. Hopefully the perpetual licence I have will see me through to a point in my career where I'm no longer routing PCBs myself.

[glenenglish]

I have moved to this discussion from a fork topic.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/cadence-orcad-x-how-do-you-structure-your-projects/msg6199793/#msg6199793

there has been a big release since I evaluated in March 2025.
about to do first major work effort in Cadence / Perpetual license

going with POX200 level, which I understand is STANDARD. I don't need to analysis tools etc. 
integration with a SI tool might be handy

I do OK without using dedicated SI tools, but that's because I generally am not tight on DDR routing space.
I have never not had a DDR4/LPDDR4 design ever not work, always worked over full range of everything without simulating anything.
but if  I start to push clearances , an integrated tool might provide better results. I think their SI tool is Sigrity Aurora , people speak well of it. says can be integrated with "Allegro X platform", which I continue to have trouble understanding all the differences betwen allegro and orcad X .