To make a library part you create the schematic symbol first. I have a lot of AVR parts in my libraries that I created. Someone mentioned that it could only create PIC parts but that is not true. I haven't found any part that cannot be created.
The parts creation process is really simple, especially if you use the wizard. If the included libraries do not have the parts you will have to create them. The schematic has to have all the correct parts (meaning packages) in it. You can make a board without a schematic but only do this for the most simple boards. To make a board you create the schematic first. But the autorouter probably saved 100 hours of putting the traces in by hand (assuming I could have pulled that off). In the case of the 5X5 board above, I spent approximately 24 hours cleaning it up. So plan on fixing the majority of the traces yourself. The design that the autorouter produces is not pretty and is in no way suitable for manufacturing. I use it only to get the traces in place. It routed the board in less than 2 minutes.
I downloaded the trial version of the Pro Router and installed it. After over 12 hours of running and not completing I shut it down.
The board was a 5X5 inch, 4-layer board with over 300 components. I actually purchased Pro Router when I was trying to design a complex board about 2 years ago.
The free one that comes with the program isn't very good. Basically what I am doing is giving the router the best chance at completing the connections.Īs for the autorouter, I purchased the Pro Router. My design experience goes back to the black tape and Bishop pad days. I place the components on the board based on the connections between them and on over 30 years of board design experience. I use the autorouter most of them time if the board has more than about 20 components on it. The user forum is fairly active and you can find good tips there. I have encountered a few minor problems but Tech Support has always been quick to respond (M-F) with the solutions. They were all 2-layer and 4-layer boards with the exception of 2 single layer boards. I have purchased 2 upgrades to get the features that were added with the upgrades.ĭuring the 3 years I have designed approximately 50 boards. I have been using it for a little over 3 years. He was asking if anyone else had used Easy-PC. This reply is for steve17 in response to a post he made on July 28. This was the last release made by Altium, who retired the product in favor of Altium Designer.I haven't looked at this post in about 6 months. The last version of P-CAD was P-CAD 2006 with Service Pack 2, released in 2006. The P-CAD product included schematic capture, component library management, PCB layout and routing, parametric constraint solver and auto-routing capability.
A few years later, the P-CAD group was divested by selling to ACCEL Technologies, an EDA software corporation from San Diego, California, which was acquired by Protel International Pty Ltd (now Altium) in 2000. At the time of acquisition, P-CAD had an installed base of over 100,000 end users, a record at that time. In 1989, P-CAD was acquired by Cadam, which was a subsidiary of Lockheed, but was in the process of being sold to IBM. Its single biggest customer was Texas Instruments.
P-CAD's flagship products included schematic capture, logic simulation and PCB layout. At that time, Cadence was just being formed with the merger of ECAD and SGA, and Synopsys was being founded as a new start up. At that time, P-CAD was the most prolific EDA company as measured by its user base, easily surpassing established CAD companies such as Autotrol, Calma, Intergraph, Daisy, Mentor, Cadnetix, CAE Systems, ECAD, SDA Systems, etc. P-CAD went on to become the company with the biggest installed base of users of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), with over 10,000 users by 1988. The company originally raised United States dollar 500,000 from CrossPoint Venture Partners, and US$3,000,000 in a second round from New Enterprise Associates and Robertson, Coleman and Stephens. The vision of the company was to disrupt the existing hegemony of $250,000 CAD systems based on mainframe computers and custom workstations, and make electronic CAD available to the masses at a cost under $10,000. P-CAD was a play on personal computers, which were just becoming popular, following the launch of the IBM PC. Also, part of the founding team were Gregory Houston, VP Marketing, a former Calma executive, and Chi-Song Horng, Director of software engineering (later promoted as a Vice President), a former AMI software engineering manager. (AMI), a custom semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California. Both were former executives of American Microsystems, Inc. Personal CAD Systems was founded in 1982 by Richard Nedbal and Roy Prasad.