Latest on Capture & CIS [Archive]

cadpro2k

06-19-2003, 03:17 PM

Also, from the Cadence Users Group, the Top 5 list that got posted to Cadence:

Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 22:12:29 -0500
From: "Michael Catrambone" <Michael.Catrambone@utstar.com>
Reply-To: <icu-pcb-forum@topica.com>
To: "ICU PCB FORUM" <icu-pcb-forum@topica.com>
Subject: [PCB_FORUM] ICU PCB SIG OrCAD Capture and PSpice Tools Top-5 Voting Results.

The International Cadence Usergroup PCB SIG has completed the
tabulation of all the votes for OrCAD Capture and PSpice
Top-5 issue list.

Here is the voting results which have been sent to Cadence:

1. Title: Multiple Undo's
Description: OrCAD Capture currently has the ability
to execute only one level of UNDO. This is completely
unacceptable in a product that is touted as being a
professional CAD tool. All other competing CAD tools I
use (Mentor, ePD, PowerLogic, Visio) have multiple levels
of UNDO. For that matter even Microsoft Word has multiple
levels of UNDO! This is a necessary feature in a tool of
this sort due to the complexity of current designs and the
inherent "lets draw the circuit this way since we can
always go back" nature of modern schematic capture.
The current state of OrCAD Capture allows zero flexibility
in this regard and severely limits its usefulness as a
"professional" CAD tool. Our firm has stopped using the
program for new designs for this and other reasons.
Unless it is changed it will be relegated to only opening
legacy files.

2. Title: Part Symbol Generation
Description: The ability to generate a symbol from a
text file would speed designs and make them more accurate.
The file should be a .CSV file that can be output from Excel.
Entering in a 1000 pin device can take all day when you
include checking. Many IC vendors provide text files of
pinouts or these can be extracted from PDF datasheets.
The information in the file would include Name Number
Shape Type.

3. Title: Save Changes prompt appears when NO
change has been made
Description: OrCAD Capture currently displays a very
confusing and inaccurate prompt when exiting the program
having made NO changes. In OrCAD Capture merely opening
a .dsn file and then closing it will elicit a "Do you want
to save changes.." prompt from the program even if not a
single change was made! This can lead to real confusion
as to whether some value or component was actually changed.
Bear in mind that OrCAD can be open for hours just for
viewing purposes; when it is then closed hours later and
this prompt appears it causes unnecessary doubt when in
fact NO change was made to the file. In this situation
the application should simply just close down with no prompt
whatsoever since nothing was altered within the file.

4. Title: Printing Order Of Capture schematic pages
Description: It would be really good if Capture would
print ALL pages in the order of page No. rather than its
current alphabetical on page name.

5. Title: Add Constraint manager to the tool
Description: Capture would flow much nicer with Allegro
in high speed design if the Constraint manager tool was
built into it.

In efforts to raise the visibility of the ICU Top List generation
we were able to advertise on some of the Cadence's external web
sites as well as notifying some of Cadence customers directly.
These steps allowed us to more than triple user participation to
make this years list a great success. Special thanks to Cadence
in getting this happen.

Cadence's response to the Top-5 Issues will be shown as a
presentation at the 2003 International Cadence Usergroup
Conference and shortly there after the responses will be posted
at http://www.cadenceusers.org. Only the responses, and not the
entire presentation will be posted.

Thank you for your participation!

ICU PCB SIG

--------------------------------------------------

padmaster

06-20-2003, 02:56 AM

Originally posted by cadpro2k

1. Title: Multiple Undo's
Description: OrCAD Capture currently has the ability
to execute only one level of UNDO. This is completely
unacceptable in a product that is touted as being a
professional CAD tool. All other competing CAD tools I
use (Mentor, ePD, PowerLogic, Visio) have multiple levels
of UNDO. For that matter even Microsoft Word has multiple
levels of UNDO! This is a necessary feature in a tool of
this sort due to the complexity of current designs and the
inherent "lets draw the circuit this way since we can
always go back" nature of modern schematic capture.
The current state of OrCAD Capture allows zero flexibility
in this regard and severely limits its usefulness as a
"professional" CAD tool. Our firm has stopped using the
program for new designs for this and other reasons.
Unless it is changed it will be relegated to only opening
legacy files.
[/B]

This is also something Cadence needs to implement in Allegro......among many other features.

CADENCE, WAKE UP, YOU'RE WAY BEHIND IN BASIC FUNCTIONALITY.

This past Wednesday I received notice of release for PSD 15.0 for certain platforms. This release may 'make or break' my opinion of Cadence.