typical Allegro learning curve ?

Hello. Out of the box Cadence Allegro is the most un-productive piece of PCB software on the market today bar none. Many things simply make no sense. For example they call traces "Clines" in Allegro... Think some PHD in a locker came up with that and footprints are called Symbols even old Pads is not as bad with their decals :)

Library management does not exist in the PCB editor Period. This can be some pain for a seasond pro.

Of all the PCB Tools I have used Allegro on windows from a structure point of view is very similar to the old Pcad Dos product.

The biggest hurdle you will find is that you have to setup everything from scratch such as paths to Padstacks, Parts etc. It can take some time to get the structure down. Each padstack and footprint is it's own entity. They are stored as a few flat files not in a database but in a folder structure.   

Having someone that knows Allegro will be a huge plus to help you work through the settings.

The most similar tool set between Allegro and Pads would be Orcad Professional. But if you compare apples to apples at this price point then I think pads is the winner. Now if you step up to the Actual Allegro full package that will include a whole lot more capeability than the Orcad leval of the product.

Here is an example of what I mean. In Orcad Pro you can window some pins and route multiple traces at the same time. But you cant change the distances the traces are apart or taper them down to a smaller spacing without stopping and routing segments manually. That makes the multi route feature in Orcad Pro kind of useless. Not too sure how Pads handles this.

Now on the actual full Allegro Product you can do multi line routing/taper/spacing etc with relative ease. The Allegro tools for doing things like manual routing enabling Nets / Disabling nets etc are very very good. Other things like Ground Planes "They call these Shapes on allegro are excellent too" The open GL Display speed is lighting fast.. Fastest I have ever used...

All in all the stuff you need to use to route a board I would say is a class A act. The weakness is in the learning curve of the other things like how the set the tool up and also in library managment. Post processing is obtuse but managable. Be aware since Allegro is netlest driven it is not really possible to design a board without a netlist.

For me it is all about the routing and doing that so my view is Allegro cant be beat in that regard. But for the first few months it is going to drive you crazy even with training.. No Joke.. Get passed the hump of that and you will learn to really like the tool. 

Automating tasks such as changing grid sizes while routing can be handled with macros. Macro capeability in Allegro is excellent...very flexible.

Allegro comes with the specctra autorouter and a scaled down version of that comes with the orcad version of the package. The specctra autorouter is pretty good but it wont do as clean as a job as the routers in pads or mentor. It's useable but I dont see it as a selling point. For manual routing or interactive routing specctra is excellent.. Just dont press the go button to Autoroute :)

Given a choice between Pads, Altium, Mentor I would go with Allegro. Bottom line is it will be very much starting a new but I think it is worth it all in all.

On conversion Orcad Layout pro to Allegro from a translating footprints and padstacks is pretty painless. Not too sure how it would be for pads. Thats something to consider if you have alot of footprints that may need to be re-created

Over on the schematic part of the equation I think pads schematic is better than orcad capture.

Best of luck with your decision.

Scott

Hello. Out of the box Cadence Allegro is the most un-productive piece of PCB software on the market today bar none. Many things simply make no sense. For example they call traces "Clines" in Allegro... Think some PHD in a locker came up with that and footprints are called Symbols even old Pads is not as bad with their decals :)

Library management does not exist in the PCB editor Period. This can be some pain for a seasond pro.

Of all the PCB Tools I have used Allegro on windows from a structure point of view is very similar to the old Pcad Dos product.

The biggest hurdle you will find is that you have to setup everything from scratch such as paths to Padstacks, Parts etc. It can take some time to get the structure down. Each padstack and footprint is it's own entity. They are stored as a few flat files not in a database but in a folder structure.   

Having someone that knows Allegro will be a huge plus to help you work through the settings.

The most similar tool set between Allegro and Pads would be Orcad Professional. But if you compare apples to apples at this price point then I think pads is the winner. Now if you step up to the Actual Allegro full package that will include a whole lot more capeability than the Orcad leval of the product.

Here is an example of what I mean. In Orcad Pro you can window some pins and route multiple traces at the same time. But you cant change the distances the traces are apart or taper them down to a smaller spacing without stopping and routing segments manually. That makes the multi route feature in Orcad Pro kind of useless. Not too sure how Pads handles this.

Now on the actual full Allegro Product you can do multi line routing/taper/spacing etc with relative ease. The Allegro tools for doing things like manual routing enabling Nets / Disabling nets etc are very very good. Other things like Ground Planes "They call these Shapes on allegro are excellent too" The open GL Display speed is lighting fast.. Fastest I have ever used...

All in all the stuff you need to use to route a board I would say is a class A act. The weakness is in the learning curve of the other things like how the set the tool up and also in library managment. Post processing is obtuse but managable. Be aware since Allegro is netlest driven it is not really possible to design a board without a netlist.

For me it is all about the routing and doing that so my view is Allegro cant be beat in that regard. But for the first few months it is going to drive you crazy even with training.. No Joke.. Get passed the hump of that and you will learn to really like the tool. 

Automating tasks such as changing grid sizes while routing can be handled with macros. Macro capeability in Allegro is excellent...very flexible.

Allegro comes with the specctra autorouter and a scaled down version of that comes with the orcad version of the package. The specctra autorouter is pretty good but it wont do as clean as a job as the routers in pads or mentor. It's useable but I dont see it as a selling point. For manual routing or interactive routing specctra is excellent.. Just dont press the go button to Autoroute :)

Given a choice between Pads, Altium, Mentor I would go with Allegro. Bottom line is it will be very much starting a new but I think it is worth it all in all.

On conversion Orcad Layout pro to Allegro from a translating footprints and padstacks is pretty painless. Not too sure how it would be for pads. Thats something to consider if you have alot of footprints that may need to be re-created

Over on the schematic part of the equation I think pads schematic is better than orcad capture.

Best of luck with your decision.

Scott