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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Board Master, anyone?
Message-ID: <31730@cup.portal.com>
Date: 14 Jul 90 23:54:20 GMT
References: <4914@uafhp.uark.edu> <826.269edadd@desire.wright.edu>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 44

arc@desire.wright.edu in <826.269edadd@desire.wright.edu> writes regarding
"Board Master":

	I have used that once before.  I think it does support plotters...
	AND OF COURSE printers, AREXX, and has darn good PCB layering.  Pretty
	professional.  I think you need about 1.5 meg. to run it.  I ran it on
	a 3 meg machine, wouldn't run in my 1 meg (FATTER AGNUS!) 500...  Oh
	well!  I think it's worth it.  I would buy it if I needed to do PCB
	work...

Well, just don't expect to lay down footprints for items such as DB-25 RS-232
connectors and anything else whose pin spacing is not a multiple of .025".

For reference, pin spacing on DB-25 connectors is .108" to .109" (depending
whose spec sheets you read).

"Board Master" is the successor to "PCLO", and has the same author who, back
then, was named C. "Ben" Blish and lived in Florida.  PCLO used to cost $1,000.
One of my companies was "burned" buying PCLO; it's not a useable product for
any "real" PC board layout (and I had every version from the first beta test
to the final production distribution).  Sometime over the past several years
(since 1986) Blish changed his name, his company's name (used to be named
SoftCircuits, Inc.; it's now Black Belt Systems) and moved to, I believe, the
Dakotas where Black Belt Systems is presently located.  A lawyer checked this
out on behalf of the company (and, no, it was determined not to pursue any
legal action).

What really galled me was that Blish said both of "bend the pins of your
connectors to fit the board's holes" (sheesh) and "use layout tape to route
where the program cannot." (double sheesh, why use a computer at all?) BTW,
neither PCLO nor "Board Master" does any semblance of "auto routing." And,
BTW, I have tape recordings of my telephone conversations with him, so he's
not gonna weasel out of THIS.

Check it out BEFORE you buy. If all you're doing are simple "home-type" layouts
it may satisfy your needs.  But don't expect to lay out a motherboard for
something like a small computer.

If you want to do "more or less" professional layouts, get the PRO-NET and
PRO-BOARD products for the Amiga.  PRO-NET does schematic capture, etc. and
PRO-BOARD does the layouts.  PRO-NET/-BOARD is a useable product, but still
not as sophisticated as some of the products I've seen on "IBM-PC" machines.

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]