best pcb board design programme
I used EAGLE, OrCAD 9.2, Altium-6 and now start to learn Allegro. We use Mentor Graphics, too.
1. EAGLE is cheap, easy to learn, has very strong link between schematic and PCB (if you open BOTH, any changes in schematic will be reflected on PCB, and system does not allow you to change net-list from PCB). Part can have many footprint connected to symbol and you can swap them any time.
A lot of libraries and scripts are available. And you can write your own script, if you want.
Autorouter is not strong. No simulation, no RF support.
2. OrCAD 9.2 was terrible - both schematic and PCB layout was inconvenient to use and "help" to make mistakes (as make sporadic new connection or breaking existing circuit, or place two via in the same place). Yes, if you follow the roles... stll, it was nervous job...
3. Altium-6 is powerful, (but we could not afford simulator or FPGA layout), has some RF support.
Learning is not easy - my project leader (who was familiar with Protel-99, the root of Altium-6) called tecnhical support every second day.
4. Allegro/Cadence has everything - but, again, we could not afford FPGA or IC design (we use Mentor Graphics to design IC). We started one month ago - and we still cannot use it. Manual is useless - with my bad English, I was able to find only the sentences as " X is very powerful tool... Y does everything for you... ...only we have Z..." and no word where to find X,Y and Z and how to make them work.
So, if you need something urgent - forget Allegro.
5. The most power auto-router is "TopoR" (can import schematics from OrCAD). Unfortunately, its own schematic capture is not ready yet - but I keep my eye on them, they promise to finish system this summer.
6. If somebody is familiar with "Tina" system? -
- I think it is interesting.
Lev.