Re: Protel 2004

I think you just described Protel 2004 :-)
But they do seem to have got alot of bugs out.. the new features are nice
too.. like padstack editor which allows different sizes on different
internal layers. Also the ERC seems to be working now.. not that you would
have noticed that some schematic ERC's aren't getting flagged even tho, if
you look at them, you will realise they are turned on. They are all
non-critical ERC warnings that affect the schematic *** but not the
overall design.

>From my own point of view.. if 99SE is good for what you do.. there is very
little reason to upgrade unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket
which you just have to spend. I haven't seen a 'wow' feature that is a must
have ... for example.. 99SE could pour 4 polygons in the time Protel 3.0
could pour one. Since most of the new features in Protel I've had to work
around for years... there seems little point in doing it any other way right
now.

There is a footnote that some parts of Protel 2004 benefit from dual
processors... but its only some.. and probably small some of a function you
don't use often (e.g. FPGAs)

Simon


"Fred" <fps@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1126191596_21411@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Michael Bohlender wrote:
>
> > Hi Fred,
> >
> > Fred <fps@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
> > news:1126113470_15923@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
> >
> >
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I'm using Protel99SE and have been apprroached by Altium with an
> >>upgrade path to Protel 2004. HAs anyone got 2004 that could give
> >>a heads up on how it compares to 99SE?
> >>
> >
> >
> > Hm, seems to be the same around the world ... we had this first some
> > months ago, and since then, every three-four weeks ... ;-)
> >
> > For the comparison have a look at their webpage (www.protel.com) and
> > look for some documents which list a number of features of DXP2004
> > which are not available in 99SE. They show this as a kind of "field
> > test" with their own engineers.
> > I received the printed version of this but at the moment can't
> > remember the document's title.
> >
> > For a "hands-on" comparison just tell them to send you the demo CD
> > install it and work with it! But MAKE A BACKUP of all your 99SE
> > design files because AFAIK the file format has changed completely!
> >
> > Regards
> > Michael
> Hi Michael,
>
> Thanks for the response and I certainly will do these things before
> upgrading. I guess what I'm looking for is current users of 2004
> reaction to the change from 99SE.
>
> I remember when Protel 98 first came out. It was so full of bugs that
> the user base was driven nuts. The program would lock up capriously and
> a lot of work could be (and was)lost. It was very frustrating. As if
> this wasn't enough, when 99 came out, it was a similar situation. The
> user interface was also quite different and was alot of work to learn.
> This coupled with the 99 bugs was a platefull. 99SE has been a good
> stable performer but it was quite a while before it was available.
>
> What I'm saying is I don't trust Altium to deliver a satisfactory
> product until some time after it's initial introduction; I'm gun-shy.
> I'm looking for how previous users of 99SE felt about learning yet
> another user-interface, how long it took to learn, how stable it is and
> was it worth the effort.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Fred
>
>
>
>
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