RE: [PROTEL EDA USERS]: Protel vs Pads ?

[Mark Geddes <mark.geddes@windriver.com>]

PADS has an email forum similar to the Protel one you're on right now.

http://support.pads.com/ListServer/ListServer.htm

I evaluated PADS a couple months ago & can tell you that I wasn't impressed.
You can do pretty much the same things on both Protel & PADS, but Protel has
a MUCH nicer user interface.

I liked Protel 98 but I'd never go back to it after using Protel 99SE. They
fixed a lot of bugs (and added some new ones!) since Protel 98. I feel the
code was much more "refined" in Protel 98. There are still a few little
irritating things I find popping up in Protel 99SE that worked perfectly in
Protel 98. They aren't major items, and a new user probably wouldn't even
notice them.

Here are a couple items that Protel has that I couldn't live without:

- Lots of colors & easy customization.
- Protel can display the net name & pin number on a pad.

PADS was very limited in the number of colors it could display & they can't
display pin numbers or names on pads. I personally wouldn't use PADS for
these 2 reasons alone. 

The only feature that I found much better in PADS was their dimensioning
tools, but the user interface sucked, and I have limited need to dimension
my boards anyway. I'm also sure PADS charged a premium for these
dimensioning tools.

I am a member (observer) of the PADS user forum and they seem to encounter
the same types of problems we do on the Protel forum. Most questions are
from people asking how to do something, how to work around a problem, or
concerned with PCB design in general. They have even been getting together a
"wish list" of improvements they'd like for PADS.

Unfortunately another division of the company I work for uses PADS. That is
why I've been trying to keep up with the PADS world. The other division has
been looking at Cadence because they feel PADS won't work for them in the
future. I'm not sure I agree with this assessment. They seem reluctant to
evaluate Protel, but from my point of view it's their loss. 

Protel99SE is best deal for the money, without sacrificing anything.

Mark Geddes

> > 
> > Anyone have or know of a website that has done research on the pros
> > and cons
> > of using Pads Vs Protel? How about the pros and cons of Protel98 vs
> > Protel99SE ..
> > Thanks
> > Michael Biggs
> > 
>