Old-ish Graphic Apps (was: DEC PCB layout under Eagle)

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 03:54:26PM -0700, Chuck Guzis wrote: OrCAD DOS was the first schematic capture tool I used, back when it was current. I still have a 486 on the shelf that has it installed (but I originally used it on a 5170 PC c. 1989) I've gotten used to EagleCAD, but I did like the crispness of OrCAD for DOS over the Windows version (the difference being that the DOS version renders right to the framebuffer in some high-res mode compared to what we were using for Windows resolution at the time). ISTR using some extended EGA mode in DOS, since the number of colors (up to 16) wasn't critical. _If_ OrCAD for DOS can use VESA drivers, there are now some really nice resolutions on not-entirely-modern cards that we just didn't have back then. That, and now it's trivial to get a large-format monitor that was just dreams back then - I suppose any clunkiness with the UI would stand out running it on a semi-up-to-date platform, though. I haven't actually fired OrCAD up since I started playing with EagleCAD a number of years ago. If I had to do a commercial product, though, I _do_ still have all the old tools (OrCAD, PADS PCB, and some layout package for the Amiga I had to buy c. 1993 to produce the GG2 Bus+) so I wouldn't _have_ to upgrade from the hobbyist Cadsoft license, but in the end it would probably still be worth the expense if I thought I could make the license cost back in sales). -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-333-S Current South Pole Weather at 12-Aug-2008 at 23:00 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -78.7 F (-61.5 C) Windchill -118.8 F (-83.8 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 12.0 kts Grid 55 Barometer 675.9 mb (10783 ft) Ethan.Dicks at usap.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html