P-CAD

[t...@maroon.tc.umn.edu]

I have some circuit diagrams stored floppy discs. They were
drawn with a software package called something like "P-CAD".
Does anyone know what this software is, is it still available
today and if the file format is compatible with any circuit
diagram drawing software used today? Thanks in advance.
TW

[//dan_schoo,_fermilab]

P-CAD is a printed circuit design software package. It is still
available from Cadam, an IBM owned company. As far as I know
the schematic diagrams can be read only by the PC-CAPS schematic
capsure module. The whole package is quite expensive and not
for the small time user. I use it here at work mostly for
historical reasons. It's a decent enough program but, in my
opinion, it has some really stupid hoops it makes you jump
through and lacks elementary features for such a mature
product. But of course version 7.0 (8.0, 9.0...)will fix all that!

V
(o o)
( V )
.......m.m...........Dan's Cockatoo Ranch
vvv

Daniel Schoo
Electronics Design Engineer
Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois, USA

[Mark Forbes]

PCAD is a high-ish end design package for board layout. It may well have
schematic capabilities too, but I looked at it for board layout purposes.
It's a little daunting to get up to speed with, but supposedly very powerful.
It also costs major bucks. And needs to run on fairly high-end hardware.

You need to find someone in your area who has a copy, and get them to
print it out or translate it to a format you can use. Your local PCAD
user group can probably help out....call Personal Cad Systems (408-something)
and ask them for a reference.

As a completely trivial side note: the guys who started P-CAD (and got
stinking rich in the process) started out by sub-leasing the front half
of the building where I worked in my first startup. It was the old school
district building on Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos. They later moved to
a huge custom-built headquarters, and my company went belly-up.

Ahhh, startups. Such a stimulating environment. :-)

Mark G. Forbes | for...@kira.csos.orst.edu | Hardware Engineer
Videx, Inc. | 503-758-0521x144 work phone | 754-3104 home
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be blamed on the engineer."