Does OrCAD 17.4 Still Support Back Annotate from PADS Layout?

I have now been told that this function has been intentionally removed from 17.4 and the only solution is to use 17.2 for doing your back annotation from PADS. What were they thinking!!!

Opinion: Looks like the software weenies now rule at Cadence, they have become out of touch with the users.  Maybe they should talk with customers before moving forward with their Altimun look a like tool.

Opinion: Looks like the software weenies now rule at Cadence, they have become out of touch with the users.  Maybe they should talk with customers before moving forward with their Altimun look a like tool.

They have removed functionality in the past to force users to only use Cadence tools, in this case forcing PADS layout users to use Allegro...

A few years ago they removed specific extract functionality to disable the Ansys/Ansoft interface to force users to the Sigrity tools, so Ansys wrote their own IPC- 2581 & ODB++ INTERFACE to read CAD data...

"forcing P*DS layout users to use Allegro"   You say this like it's a bad thing...

Even better ANSYS, ADT will import an allegro file directly for all of the ANSYS simulation tools, from HFSS to Icepak....    From an Ansys user.

IMHO: The best solutions are the open source/compatible solutions.  This allows users to use what they have and not be forced to change tools because of compatibly, but rather users will change for other reasons: over all cost - this beyond the cost of the tool, but includes intangible cost's, like the speed of the design cycle, ease of use, flexibility...  and of course support.