protel Demo?????

[Spock]

Hello Everyone

Do Protel still have demo versions of their probucts?
I had a look on their web site and could not find any.
I'm at college and am learning PCB design and we use
protel but it is a very old version 2.8
Thank you.




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[Anton Erasmus]

On Sun, 28 May 2006 12:57:53 +0930, "Spock"
<starbase01@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

Hello Everyone

Do Protel still have demo versions of their probucts?
I had a look on their web site and could not find any.
I'm at college and am learning PCB design and we use
protel but it is a very old version 2.8
Thank you.

They provide a demo on CD. The last downloadable demo AFAIK
was the Protel99SE demo.

Regards
Anton Erasmus

 

[Pooh Bear]

Anton Erasmus wrote:

On Sun, 28 May 2006 12:57:53 +0930, "Spock"
starbase01@optusnet.com.au> wrote:

Hello Everyone

Do Protel still have demo versions of their probucts?
I had a look on their web site and could not find any.
I'm at college and am learning PCB design and we use
protel but it is a very old version 2.8
Thank you.

They provide a demo on CD. The last downloadable demo AFAIK
was the Protel99SE demo.

I think that's the one I saw. Utterly shockingly bad piece of software. Not even
the tiniest attempt to make it a Windows program which suggests to me you're
better off sticking with the DOS version.

Graham

 

[Frank]

Op Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:18:39 +0100 schreef Pooh Bear:

I think that's the one I saw. Utterly shockingly bad piece of software. Not even
the tiniest attempt to make it a Windows program which suggests to me you're
better off sticking with the DOS version.

Graham

From other comments in this newsgroup I had the impression that Protel 99
SE Service Pack 6 was pretty good.

Frank

 

[Pooh Bear]

Frank wrote:

Op Mon, 12 Jun 2006 23:18:39 +0100 schreef Pooh Bear:


I think that's the one I saw. Utterly shockingly bad piece of software. Not even
the tiniest attempt to make it a Windows program which suggests to me you're
better off sticking with the DOS version.

From other comments in this newsgroup I had the impression that Protel 99
SE Service Pack 6 was pretty good.

If you're happy with the mouse doing nothing other than moving a pointer around you
might also be happy with Eagle which is free.

We had a sub-contractor do a board re-layout for us using Protel and I used the demo
copy to look at it. I couldn't make any sense of it ) Protel nott he board that is ),
whereas something like Pads/powerpcb seemd intuitive instantly and I could use that to
transfer info back to another subbie very easily.

Graham

 

[JeffM]

If you're happy with the mouse doing nothing other than
moving a pointer around[,]
you might also be happy with Eagle which is free.
Graham (Pooh Bear)

No. It's EAGLE *Lite* (the limited *demo* version)
that is available free for *non-commercial* use.
The pricing for payware EAGLE, however, is very reasonable.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.engineering.electrical/msg/01ddbd021683a11e?q=prices+160mm-*-*+80mm-*-*+zz-zz+eagle+*-layer+$50+*-layers+gEDA
news:1104274363.133647.258370@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com

OTOH, Kicad and gEDA, being GPL'd, *ARE* free (gratis and libre).

 

[Brad Velander]

One definitely has to take Pooh Bear's comments with a grain of salt.

Here is the salt. A true Windows based program (P99SE) is a piece of
crap simply because he couldn't figure it out after a brief attempt.
'Probably' without reading the manuals or trying the tutorials because he
didn't have time for such things. However a 1990s DOS engine running under a
phoney weak Windows GUI is an intuitive Windows program (PADs)? I would
have to think that Pooh Bear was mostly messed up by his familiarity with
PADs, their clunky interface and convoluted manner of doing things. Happens
to everyone that is used to one CAD program and attempts quickly switching
to another. Been there, done that several times myself. There simply isn't a
standard for CAD program interface/operations so one has to relearn the
basics each time one changes programs.

I use both programs (PADs since 1991 (initially DOS only, then under
Windows GUI) and P99SE since 2000) and will take Protel's interface over
PADs any day, they are very different at their core. However, 15 years of
development will do that as opposed to simply repeatedly rebranding the
product for the past nearly 10 years and never writing it as a true Windows
program to start with.

As for the other question, yes, P99SE with SP6 is quite stable and very
usable. There are a lot of professional Protel users that still refuse to
upgrade away from P99SE w/ SP6 even 4 years after significant upgrades and
new features were made available. Some that have upgraded readily jump back
to P99SE because they still prefer working in it, when they don't need the
new features/capabilities.

--
Sincerely,
Brad Velander.

"Pooh Bear" <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:448E7B81.90E74C42@hotmail.com...

If you're happy with the mouse doing nothing other than moving a pointer
around you
might also be happy with Eagle which is free.

We had a sub-contractor do a board re-layout for us using Protel and I
used the demo
copy to look at it. I couldn't make any sense of it ) Protel nott he board
that is ),
whereas something like Pads/powerpcb seemd intuitive instantly and I could
use that to
transfer info back to another subbie very easily.

Graham