Features of Cadence 17.4 Allegro

This version will be useful after a hundred hotfixes. Some software bugs will appear and others will disappear, but the closer to the hundredth hotfix, the better.

You must pay, pay and pay maintenance and wait until next year or longer. This is Cadence software.

For example, I will show you one of the bugs (SPB 16.6 hofix 37) that have not been fixed to this day. -> www.dropbox.com/.../SW8F2G_ZAS.mp4

Are you sure you want to go to the next version of this software and pay them for bug fixes in 17.4?

If you want to be disappointed over maintenance payments, switch to P*DS.  Their bug that blocks half of our designs from exporting ODB data without export/import ASCII cleanup is finally fixed in 2.6, a release we can't run without upgrading licensing for all apps in the company to 64bit Flexera (IT doesn't want to do it.)

No competitor is going to catch up to Allegro interactive layout features plus app stability before I retire. 

Well, I'm back to searching through all of the new 17.4 Metro-style icon glyphs for the add-void-to-shape button. 

If you want to be disappointed over maintenance payments, switch to P*DS.  Their bug that blocks half of our designs from exporting ODB data without export/import ASCII cleanup is finally fixed in 2.6, a release we can't run without upgrading licensing for all apps in the company to 64bit Flexera (IT doesn't want to do it.)

No competitor is going to catch up to Allegro interactive layout features plus app stability before I retire. 

Well, I'm back to searching through all of the new 17.4 Metro-style icon glyphs for the add-void-to-shape button. 

I am just as disappointed with Cadence as I was with pads maintenance. The software engineers break items and refuse to fix them as they think they are the experts in how the software should work. When bugs are found and submitted most do not get fixed and there is no way to find out anything once it goes to the inactive status. I agree Allegro is a much better package than Pads but you also pay for it. 

There are some items that work much better in pads. The spreadsheet in pads router that shows the actual trace length on the fly works so much easier and better on matched lengths than the implementation in Allegro. 

For me they need to do more alpha and beta testing so when they release a new product it is not so full of bugs. 

@RFinley

 I think you haven't seen stable software. That was before Cadence bought OrCAD software. Capture CIS and Layaout plus have never crashed.

Current Cadence software will not be stable even after you retire.

In the new version 17.4 metro style or dark theme is just bells and whistles. Try to print the schematic when you have the dark theme turned on.

It is not possible to set other colors (nets, pins...) when printing schematic in dark theme.  This is the all magic of this software version. Now Cadence will correct its software bugs for the next year or two and you will pay for it. Or maybe you accept that you bought a car and you will pay for the hidden defects of the manufacturer yourself.

@drobny  I started with SciCards running on a (designed by Scicards) SCX.  Two designers share a 68020 and an 8 inch hard drive. 

I am not a professional software developer but I am lazy and not afraid of Visual Studio.  So, I think I know a little bit about their challenges.

I found the PDF export mistake with 17.4.  You're right.  But, I can still edit a 17.4 CIS DSN file with 16.6.   Stick with 17.2, I guess.

Here is my problem.  Despite review meetings, layout is the visualization of the schematic. EEs know its harder/impossible to fix on the bench, so all the forgotten circuit blocks and passives show up on the "OK.  Final MINOR cleanup fixes, -K Thanks Bye" netlist update and a carefully tuned routing gets destroyed and 24 hours to fix.  Mechanical needs more convection inside the box plus more mounting holes so the board has to shrink.   Lather, rinse, repeat. 

17.4 is a necessary change.  There is a 17.2 backwards compatibility database feature.  Use that.