At 12:04 PM 11/16/01 -0500, Bagotronix Tech Support wrote: >When good folks like Abdul, bless his heart, >assert that Protel is a good value even at $8K, they should keep in mind >that some organizations do more than PCB layout for hire.
Certainly. I don't need simulation, PLD programming, etc. It used to be that you could buy Schematic and PCB and the other tools separately. In fact, that might still be true, but they are inordinately expensive that way, basically Protel 98 Schematic and PCB cost almost as much as the whole Protel 98 Suite, so only if only if one only needed one tool was it worthwhile buying it separately. > My company has >had to acquire not only CAD software, but expensive test equipment, parts >inventories, business software, employees, etc. The money I have to spend >on that other stuff is money I can't spend on Protel/Altium price increases. Existing users are not seeing much in the way of price increases. Maintenance if it goes to $2K per year, yes, that would be an increase, and that *is* the currently announced price. But it does not make complete sense, which is why many of us suspect that when the smoke clears, it will not be that much. $1K a year, I'd think Mr. Baggett could afford for a tool rapidly being improved. Obviously, if it were not being improved, even $1 would be too much! $2K per year, well, as I have noted many times, that, by industry standards, would correspond to a price for the package of about $12K. That's too much for Protel, I think. I was happier with Protel at $6K, the jump to $8K was too fast for me, but I still think that, at the price, it is the best tool available, so I have to consider it worthwhile. "Worthwhile" is a relative term assuming that one is going to choose *some* CAD tool. We used to have plenty of users writing on this list who were calling the Protel suite a piece of ****. Yet, somehow, they were voluntarily continuing to use it. They did not want to sell it, even though Protel allows resale. Obviously, they thought it was terrible, but they did not think anything else in the same price range was better. A professional uses the available tools, expecting that none of them are perfect; in fact, a good professional can use lousy tools to come up with good results, even though he will obviously prefer better ones. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abdulrahman Lomax Easthampton, Massachusetts USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
