Your points are valid but I think it is far exceeding the OP
needs/knowledge. Would you really think that he is going to do even a
quarter of all that?

Hi Brad,

"Brad Velander" <bveland@SpamThis.com> wrote in message
news:vl7tj.40353$Ly.26140@pd7urf1no...
Your points are valid but I think it is far exceeding the OP
needs/knowledge. Would you really think that he is going to do even a
quarter of all that?

I expect the O.P. actually would make great use of fast & easy gate/pin
swapping if available in the program he's using, and there's a decent
chance he'd set up at least a few rudimentary net classes ("Power" &
"Signal" are always favorites), but other than that, no, he won't likely
be using many of those high-end features. My post was more just to
provide some of the "bigger picture" for his own edification.

(My experience with gate/pin swapping is that pretty much everyone does it
if the layout program has the knowledge of the various legal swaps -- or
has a feature to try to optimize the rat's nest by automatically
performing these swaps, as Pulsonix and some other programs can -- whereas
if you have to manually tell the layout package "swap pin 2 and 3" or
"swap pins 1, 2, and 3 with 7, 6, and 5" a lot of people won't bother
since it's more effort than just making a slightly "messy" route instead.)

---Joel

As for pin/gate swapping, I never use the automatic features because they
don't intelligently apply any details about the routing, just simple
manhattan distance minimizations. Which are usually definitely not routing
optimized and no software can do that that I have seen.

On 12 Feb, 15:38, FrankW <fw...@norpak.ca> wrote:

The cheapest and best for the layout guy
would be a pencil and a piece of paper (napkin even) :-)

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:


Hi

I'm looking for a cheap (or free!) schematic capture package that can
output in PADS format. I'm not the layout guy but it will certainly
save him time compared with me drawing out the circuit in a normal CAD
package. Pin count around 1000 at present.

Dirk


Not at $60 and hour it wouldn't, since I would already have done the
work.
Can I have some sensible answers please.

Dirk

On 12 Feb, 15:59, DJ Delorie <d...@delorie.com> wrote:
Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru...@gmail.com> writes:

I'm looking for a cheap (or free!) schematic capture package that can
output in PADS format. I'm not the layout guy but it will certainly

Do you need a PADS schematic, or just a PADS netlist?

gschem has a PADS netlister if you just need a netlist, and gschem
(part of gEDA) is free (beer-wise and speech-wise). (and no, it won't
force you to distribute your schematics)

http://www.geda.seul.org/

Thanks
Not sure which one I need - I'll have to talk with the layout guy.
However, it's got to be Windows. That's all we have here. I've tried
using Linux in the past but its a real pain.

Well there ya goDirk.
Providing a schematic from a cheap capture package
does not help the layout Person. It only invites more
chances of errors.
Cheers

On 21 Feb, 13:24, FrankW <fw...@norpak.ca> wrote:

Well there ya goDirk.
Providing a schematic from a cheap capture package
does not help the layout Person. It only invites more
chances of errors.
Cheers

Thanks.
Normally when I've done h/w design I've had the layout guy onsite with
my drawings in his hands and me standing over him telling him what
bits are critical and what bits aren't, and checking while he goes
along. I'll just draw the schematics using a 2D CAD package and then
he can copy it manually into whatever he uses (Mentor IIRC).

Dirk

On 17 Mar, 17:27, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru...@gmail.com> wrote:

On 21 Feb, 13:24, FrankW <fw...@norpak.ca> wrote:


Well there ya goDirk.
Providing a schematic from a cheap capture package
does not help the layout Person. It only invites more
chances of errors.
Cheers

Thanks.
Normally when I've done h/w design I've had the layout guy onsite with
my drawings in his hands and me standing over him telling him what
bits are critical and what bits aren't, and checking while he goes
along. I'll just draw the schematics using a 2D CAD package and then
he can copy it manually into whatever he uses (Mentor IIRC).

Dirk


BTW, would providing a netlist be useful?

Dirk