Orcad 17.4-2019

[Eternauta]

Is on the way the new version Orcad 17.4-2019.
This release seems to have many change. One of the main is the look and feel of the schematic Capture, now with a dark theme, tabbed windows and support for multiple screen (very useful).
More info on www.orcad.com/products/sneak-peek
Curiosly the new version could be downloaded since october but until now Cadence didn't realease the new licenses and has keept a very low advertising profile. Seems really Orcad is not  a core business for Cadence.

[nctnico]

I have already downloaded it a couple of weeks ago but didn't install it yet. I'll probably wait until the first service pack is released.

Edit: I've watched the videos and it seems that large parts of the GUI have been re-done. I think I'll clone my Orcad VM first and have both versions available in parallel.

[Gribo]

Got it forced on me due to license server incompatibilities with 17.2. Will see how it works compared to the previous version.

[CadenceAE]

thanks for taking a look at 17.4   OrCAD is very important to Cadence.  That's one of the reasons for the numerous new features added to OrCAD in 17.4.   Their are many variables in online marketing which dictate the timing of product announcements.   

[Gribo]

At first use, capture seemed to be a bit slow when editing an existing design. After some edits, everything came back to normal speed. This is probably due to some online DRC being active. I like the dark theme, it is easier on the eyes. Multi monitor support is also quite nice.

[AndyC_772]

I'm currently using 16.6 which, just like my calculator, hammer and other tools of my trade, continues to do the job I bought it for perfectly well.

Can anyone please suggest any reasons why I might want to spend money to upgrade to 17.4?

[nctnico]

What is so special about multi monitor support? Or can you take a window out of the main screen and drag it to anywhere on the desktop? The latter would be useful indeed.

@AndyC_772: if your setup works fine then I wouldn't change it. I'm currently using 17.2 (and are entitled to upgrade to 17.4) and I can't say I like all the changes to Capture. The symbol editor for example works differently and seems to be a javascript/browser based application which is rather slow (it can't keep up with me typing pin names for example). I had to upgrade from an older version because I needed the high speed design features for a project.

[AndyC_772]

I'm contemplating a new laptop, or at least a complete wipe/reinstall, when Windows 7 goes EoL next year. If 16.6 won't run on W10 then that would constitute a reason to upgrade.

Otherwise I'm inclined to agree that the "if it's not broken..." approach is probably the right one.

[Eternauta]

You can take a window out of the main screen and drag it to anywhere on the desktop (on both monitor, I have two). Also the pages TAB could be reordered.
In the project manager now you could see also the layout file.  There is a new window in the Capture toolbar called PCB for the sync with PCB Designer. Highlight/Dehighlight beetween part and footprint is automatic.
It's also included a version of Pspice in every licence but I don't undestand if a node or part limitation.

[AndyC_772]

Thanks. It doesn't sound like there's anything I can't live without, but I appreciate the info nonetheless.

[Gribo]

OrCad is getting closer to Altium, in terms of usability. Lets hope they improve their property editor.

[mstevens]

As a log time owner of Altium Designer, this is a funny statement, Orcad WAS the leader. 

OrCad is getting closer to Altium, in terms of usability. Lets hope they improve their property editor.

[nctnico]

As a log time owner of Altium Designer, this is a funny statement, Orcad WAS the leader. 

OrCad is getting closer to Altium, in terms of usability. Lets hope they improve their property editor.

In the higher end market Orcad still is the leader. Recently I made some designs based on schematics/PCB designs (evaluation boards) from NXP and NVidia and both where in Orcad / Allegro format. The same goes for TI if you look at their ARM Sitara development kits.

[Gribo]

I use both, almost daily. It is easier for me to get a design from start to finish with Altium designer than with Orcad. I admit that my parts database is not as well integrated with Orcad as it is with AD, Still, in terms of user interface and workflow, AD is better.

[nctnico]

I'm still wondering if it is worth extending the service contract (which costs a fair chunk of money) to get more updates for version 17.4. Looking at how radical the changes are there are likely some bugs lingering.

[Mattjd]

The mixed analog/digital simulation capabilities of Orcad with Simulink is what I think is the true winning factor. Being able to design a model of a plant/controller in simulink and instantiate spice models directly using Orcad is insane. Add to that code gen capabilities for fpga,TI C2000, stm32, etc. in simulink, you can get some very high fidelity models that you can get pushed out to a target platform extremely fast.

[PKTKS]

The mixed analog/digital simulation capabilities of Orcad with Simulink is what I think is the true winning factor. ((.))

TRUE - As a matter of fact their tool chain is and was
the bleeding edge since mid 80's

What some folks like in Altium is taken for granted
and mostly a very *VERY* recent "fancy"  U.I.  mostly
revisited from that tragedy legacy Protel-99 (MS Access based..)

Since  Autotrax.. PROTEL improved thankfully via Accel incorporation
which brought *TRAX tools to another level.. (PROTEL level)

OrCAD on the other hand incorporated FPGA features in late 80's
putting their interface on a standard everybody at that time
had a real hard time to follow... new FPGA paradigms

NOSTALGIA of my 80's .. my photo album collection...
1) Draft 1988 a break paradigm on PC-XT platforms
2) SDT-III  probably the most enhanced product at time
3) However COMPANION PCB was a total DISASTER..
4) Nevertheless their SPICE (PSPICE) was the absolute leading (aside mainframes)
5) The early Autotrax brought PCB functionality missing in OrCAD SDT-III

Together the PC-XT was an EDA functional environ

The bleeding thing was the new FPGA paradigm in the OrCAD ESP 4.x
Nobody not even close to that at 1990's

Regards
Paul