Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!cancun.berkeley.edu!jmn
From: jmn@cancun.berkeley.edu (Jan Mark Noworolski)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Need a good PC board layout system for PCs
Message-ID: <25981@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 6 Jul 90 17:39:59 GMT
References: <9353@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: jmn@cancun.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Jan Mark Noworolski)
Organization: U.C. Berkeley -- ERL
Lines: 22

I have used Pads-PCB, and Smartwork.

Which type of system you decide to use depends on how big the circuits you
make are. For larger boards PCB-pads is probably best (although the user
interface is about as counter-intuitive as you can get). But getting the auto-
routing option is a must. When I used it we had the Superrouter (a rip-up
and retry router) which managed to route to 100% an analog crossover!

Smartwork is useful because it can autoroute from point to point. So you
can take a wire and give it starting and ending points and it will route it.
This cotrasts to Pads-pcb where you have to lead each wire by the nose to 
lay it down.

Another option would be ORCAD. I have used their Schematic Capture extensively,
and their user interface is INCREDIBLE! They now have a PCB layout program out
which hopefully is just as good. Anybody used it?

--
"We'd love to stay and chat but we have to go to the lobby and wait
	for the limo."
				Quotes from "Spinal Tap"
jmn@united.berkeley.edu, or jmn@power.berkeley.edu