There are two areas where upgrading would be a no-brainer for me. -If you are doing any multi-channel design work. -If you are doing any FPGA work.
I have mixed feelings about the autorouter. The ability to define rules to drive it has been expanded and improved. But I don't think the route engine itself is quite "there" yet. (SP2 maybe?? :P) How well the autorouter works seems to vary some from board to board. On one board, my results were better than the 99SE router. With another board the results were not as good. I crash less often than I used to in 99SE. Noticeably fewer AV's. I wouldn't go back to 99SE. The future will be on the DXP platform. Is it perfect? Probably not. But we're only at SP1. Some growing pains are only natural. I expect DXP will just continue to improve over the next few service packs. I'd at least get the demo, have a look for yourself, try it out, see how well it works (or not..) with a few of your own designs. ---Phil SS> Hi all, SS> It's time for me to request equipment & software for next SS> years budget and I still don't have a warm & fuzzy feeling about SS> Protel 2004. Has SP1 improved the Situs autorouter? Are the SS> other improvements worth the $3500 USD? I have seen a few of you SS> say that once you had upgraded you would never go back. Is it SS> really that much better or are the systems so incompatible that SS> once 2004 is learned it would be tough to go back and do it the SS> 99SE way, much less admit that the money was poorly spent? We SS> only design about 10 boards a year and I am having a real problem SS> justifying the cost of upgrading from 99SE SP6 to myself much less SS> my boss. SS> My regards, SS> Steve Smith, C.I.D. SS> Product Engineer SS> Staco Energy Products Co. SS> 301 Gaddis Boulevard. SS> Dayton, OH 45403 SS> Telephone: (937) 253-1191 Ext. 158 SS> Fax: (937) 253-1723 SS> E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SS> Web Site: www.stacoenergy.com SS> & www.stacopower.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
