$349 Schematic Capture & PCB Layout S/W
AMS
For your information EZ-ROUTE software from AMS has a
new web site:
http://www.gate.net/~ams/ezroute.htm
The EZ-ROUTE integrated CAE software, offers the best
price/performance ratio in the industry. It includes
schematic capture, PCB Layout Editor, Auto Router,
Gerber import, Gerber output, and Gerber Viewer.
The following list details the description and the
prices.
Product Price Description
EZ-LOGIC Std $ 99 Schematic Capture
software
EZ-LOGIC Pro $ 129 Professional Schematic
Capture software
EZ-Board Pro $ 195 Professional PCB Layout
Software
EZ-View $ 50 Gerber Viewer
EZ-ROUTE Tutor Std. $ 149 For Students and
Educational Institutes
EZ-ROUTE Std $ 295 Schematic and PCB Layout
software
EZ-ROUTE Tutor Adv. $ 350 Professional CAE
Software For Schools
EZ-ROUTE Pro. $ 695 Schematic Capture, PCB
Layout & Auto Router
The package is available on DOS as well Windows
Platforms. JDR also carries these products.
AMS can be contacted for FREE Demo by calling any of
the following numbers or the demo can be downloaded
from the BBS. (Logon as AMS, Password DEMO). The Demo
software can also be downloaded from our website. If
you contact us through our Email, Please give us your
mailing address including your phone number.
Thank you for your interest.
800-972-3733
954-784-0900
954-784-0904 Fax
954-784-0056
Email a...@gate.net
Worldwide Web: http://www.gate.net/~ams/
Rufus
a...@gate.net (AMS) wrote:
>For your information EZ-ROUTE software from AMS has a
>new web site:
>
> http://www.gate.net/~ams/ezroute.htm
>
With some improvement this could be pretty good software. It's
a shame this company is not more customer friendly. If you purchase
their software don't waste your money on their update service.
I purchased a package from them in 1990 with a 1 year update
service and have yet to receive any updates.
Email: gal...@nbnet.nb.ca
b...@titude.com
On Tue, 25 Mar 1997 03:00:34 GMT, gal...@nbnet.nb.ca (Rufus)
wrote:
I purchased the full version of their schematic capture / PCB
software last fall. Had lots of problems getting it to work
under W95... they finally admitted that it had not been tuned for
W95... anyway, their support was terrible... I rarely could get
anybody other than a receptionist on the phone... when I did get
"tech support" they seemed to know nothing about the software.
After spending about an hour one afternoon on my phone bill
explaing the BASICS of Windows to a "tech rep"
(h o n e s t l y !!!!!!!!!) he told me that he was just a
trainee. I am not kidding... I would say, "when I try to install
under Windows... " and he would ask what I
meant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The documentation is a joke... there are even references in the
index to pages which don't exist. When I would try to find info
that I expected to find !! someplace !! and go to the help
screen, it would tell me help was not available on that topic...
or the help info was one sentence long on a major topic... it
was unreal. They expect customers to buy additional reference
manuals... pretty lame for even low end CAD software (although
many folks considering $700 software probably don't consider that
low end!)
I finally returned it believing their "no hassle" guarantee.
That was in November... I still have not seen a credit on my MC
statement.
The software is really not that great, even considering the
price... The parts editor is down-home, garage-shop, especially
compared with Orcad SDT which I have used for about six years...
parts have to be defined / modified in a text editor, and on
packages with more than about 14 pins, the editor wouldn't scroll
down any further!!! This happened over and over... I would
spend about an hour inputting the X,Y info for every end of every
pin, every label location, outline location... on and on... I
would get to about pin 11, 12... wherever it decided to burp...
and it would not accept any more data!!! I would try to pull
down the scroll bar to add the next line of text and it would
bounce down, and then drift back up!!! I have never seen that
one before!!! It insists on putting pin numbers on every part...
great for keeping those polarized resistors properly oriented.
The library parts have pins about a mile long.
The resistor / np cap / etc. pin numbers and pin lengths can be
edited but it and it takes about a half-hour to edit them...
really a drag for people doing analog... half of the drawing is
wasted on pins, and the drawings really look pro with all the
resistors having "1" and "2" on the ends... I thought I was
missing something until I noticed a drawing in the manual (which
is about a whopping 1/2 inch thick) which also showed resistor
pin numbers... so you can pull up the parts editor and start
subtracting 200 mils or so from every damned X,Y coordinate...
then delete the pin numbers... but the pins disappear and without
a bunch of messing and fiddling, you wind up with parts that look
connected on the schematic, but drive the design rule checker
nuts... you end up with a list of error messages saying that none
of the pins are connected... lots of fun! All of the fabulous
utility programs are 30k DOS routines, also text based... .....
And I wonder how many hours they had to pay a consultant to come
up with a demo that would route 100%... with the couple of simple
circuits I managed to input before it locked my Pentium about ten
times in a row and raped the registry (yeah... my fault that I
didn't have an up-to-the-minute backup) it wouldn't even schedule
a rat's nest 100% No joke!!! Fortunately there was a reference
in the manual for that one... saying that it hadn't scheduled
the rat's nest 100% . But I seldom could use it for more than
twenty minutes before my keyboard and mouse died... I usually
ended up doing a power-down reset. AMS said it probably was a
problem with the hardware copy protection which was not designed
for W95... I agreed... particularly with the operative word,
"problem". Despite my better judgement, I accepted their offer
to send an unprotected version, and they said that they would
even toss in the additonal manuals for free... when the package
arrived without the manuals I called an told them I was returning
the software. Nuff of that stuff! ..... needless to say, I was
underwhelmed.
I finally faced reality and bought Protel. AMS is kidding when
they say their program competes with the big guys.
For hobby / weekend-pro, the demo of Circuit Maker and Trax Maker
seems easy and intuitive to use, with a simple Spice package
included... similar to Elec. Workbench. I have read that Trax
Maker is licensed from Protel.
After they read this, I doubt that I will ever see any of my $700
back... but that's OK... I won't feel guilty posting my
opionions... make that honest observations, of their software.
rich <<pantechnicon>>
pan...@ix.netcom.com