Wish List for PowerLogic

[randychase]

What do you want to see enhanced, fixed, or added to PowerLogic?

I want to see more continued migration to the same menu structure used on PowerPCB.

I would like to be able to DXF translate the schematic (not using HPGL or Gerber) so I have real text in autocad.

[Sorin Stefan]

I know Innoveda is not going to improve PowerLogic anymore, just keep it floating around untill they have ready the new product that will have ViewDraw's complexity and will be able to read and convert PowerLogic schematics ...

I wish the moment when that program will be ready to be closer than I think... but it's not... :(

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

I think PADS/Innoveda/Mentor is making a grave mistake by not keeping PowerLogic around as a low-cost alternative to Viewdraw/DXDesigner. Our company cannot justify the expense of upgrading to DXDesigner as we would only use features that are now available or could be easily implemented in PowerLogic. When they stop updating PowerLogic, we stop maintenance. Of course, PADS/Innoveda/Mentor can force our hand by making PowerPCB stop talking to PowerLogic but at that point we'll probably stop maintenance on PowerPCB as well. We just don't need the funcionality of a high-end capture program.

I hope someone at Mentor will at least consider keeping PowerLogic as a viable low-end capture package.

Ben

[Dick Belanger]

Innoveda has said in the past that we didn't plan any updates to PowerLogic. I don't think anyone should be assuming is still the case after the Mentor acquisition. Lots of things are being rethought now, and it wouldn't surprise me to see some effort put into PowerLogic enhancements.

Dick

[Lameris]

From what I've heard, Mentor is positioning the PADS products to compete against Cadence's ORCAD solution.

This is good and bad news:

The good news, costs will be kept down.

More good news, Powerlogic will continue to be supported.

Bad news, the product is going to be kept just better than ORCAD. Moderate to high end designs will have to transistion to an upper level product offering. For those of us wanting something better than the low end solution, we will probably have to transition.

More bad news, for those of us who use Viewdraw, PowerPCB will be a separate design group and the interface can always be expected to have issues.

[Colorado-PC-Dude]

From what I've heard, Mentor is positioning the PADS products to compete against Cadence's ORCAD solution.



PADS PowerPCB/BlazeRouter/PowerLogicTM

Mentor Graphics will continue the development and support of Innoveda's PADS product line, which is a widely adopted PCB layout solution in the ready-to-use market. These products include PowerPCB, BlazeRouterTM, and the new FIRE interactive editor. The PowerPCB 5.0 release is being shipped and supported as planned. However, Mentor Graphics will not be offering the PowerPCB solution on Unix platforms, which had been previously communicated by Innoveda.

We will be working to finalize an official Mentor Graphics SDD product roadmap over the next 60 days. In the interim, however, we believe it is important to communicate our enthusiastic support for the Innoveda products outlined above, as they will be an integral part of our roadmap and division strategy in the coming years.


I have to agree with Lameris, tho Mentor doesn't specifically mention what they will do with PowerLogic. That is good news for those of us who don't need all the functionality of DxDesigner. Hopefully they will continue to update it along with PowerPCB, not just maintain it.

Ben

[JimR-OCDS]

Well if they do any improvements to POWER LOGIC, one should be the ability to output a DFX file, which can be read into AutoCad.

Currently, I have to make a gerber file of the schematic and then read it into CAM350, then output a DFX file. The problem here is that the text is converted to lines, not text.

[mhossler]

My question, due to my own ignorance of your requirements, is why do you even need to export your schematic to autocad at all? Seems like an extra step in documentation and the control of same. Just a question.
Cordially,
Michael Hossler, C.I.D.+

[dario]

For documentation purposes, like later on importing to framemaker or whatever publishing software, I would output to a PS file and read it in directly with Adobe Illustrator and then save as a nice EPS file preview...

Or you can print to PDF and open in Illustrator as well...

Long time ago I used OrCAD->DXF->AutoCAD->EPS (o;