Basic PCB Workflow in OrCad 17.4

Hi

It can take time to get up to speed with Capture & Allegro. There is not really a silver bullet to getting up to speed. There are as others have pointed out some very good resources and videos on youtube that show you things and in general the cadence documentation is pretty good. Cadence or your local var could possibly offer you a training class. A class may be beneficial in particular if your brand new to the system. It can be a huge benefit having someone show you how to do things other than plodding through videos etc.

What major tasks are you trying to understand ?.

All the best.

Hi

It can take time to get up to speed with Capture & Allegro. There is not really a silver bullet to getting up to speed. There are as others have pointed out some very good resources and videos on youtube that show you things and in general the cadence documentation is pretty good. Cadence or your local var could possibly offer you a training class. A class may be beneficial in particular if your brand new to the system. It can be a huge benefit having someone show you how to do things other than plodding through videos etc.

What major tasks are you trying to understand ?.

All the best.

Thanks for the brainstorm! Yes, I may get to that point.

I do wish that if documentation is out of date and disorganized to the point that a $2000 class is the only sensible way to get started, manufacturers would include it in the cost of a seat. Something to include in my questions when next I am shopping for software, I guess.

Have you taken 17.4 for a test drive yet ?

What major tasks are you trying to understand ?

All the best..

I use SIP, Allegro 16.6 and 17.2/17.4  so I set the results filter manually each time I search.  If you don't, you will get results you can't use.

Be wary if training is free:  tool has a dozen buttons to push and takes two hours to learn(PADS).  Things are not brighter on the Altium or the Mentor Graphics side of the fence.  Altium Essentials is a $2,000 course they bundle to try to steal users from other cad tools.

When I bought a license, didn't want to spend money on training, Bought a bigger personal license instead.  Figured I'd just beat my head against it until it worked (Allegro placement DFA and Flow Planning proved to be my super power as the lone Cadence user here.)  

Allegro Introduction is a 3-day instructor-led course.  Allegro Intermediate: 2 day course.  Allegro Advanced is a 1-day course, Allegro High-Speed option is a 2 day course.  Then there's Librarian, basically two pages of all of the courses Cadence developed for their software.  

This software powers some of the most valuable tech companies on the planet.   If you want to prolong your career, IMHO, stick with it and ask questions. 

We made the right software choice.

Yes, did a simple flat schematic to experiment, now deep into a hierarchical design. As I mentioned in my original post, the transition from sch to pcb is my current task, but as I also mentioned, I'm looking for an overview of the workflow that is up to date with 17.4.  So far I have cobbled together a combination of using the least outdated docs I can find, various OEM and third-party videos (which often waste time with explanations of basic OS functions like how to copy and paste or roll your mouse wheel), forum posts, and trial and error.  Each time, I eventually accomplish what I need. But I now see that this is going to keep happening at every major milestone, so I was hoping to find a quick start guide that brings together the latest info into one place. If no one else has found one either, then I'm a little reassured that the problem isn't simply me looking in the wrong place.

Hahah. I agree that the instructional design and user interface design is poor throughout the industry. The cobbler's children go barefoot I guess. Thanks for the insight and comparisons.