Altium Designer vs. Orcad PCB Designer Professional
Update 2018-10-22
A lot has changed after I initially created this post. Therefore I am updating this article so you have more accurate information. – Robert
A lot has changed after I initially created this post. Therefore I am updating this article so you have more accurate information. – Robert
Many people ask if they should go for Altium or OrCAD. My answer is … it depends.
1) My personal opinion
Personally I love Altium Designer more than OrCAD from Cadence. Altium is a complete package – you have everything in one place from schematic, libraries, pcb, output documents. It is also very intuitive and user friendly. Altium is the software what I have and use in my company (I also have OrCAD Professional, but I have not had the right project for it yet). HOWEVER, if I had a bigger team e.g. 3 and more HW engineers, I would seriously consider to go for OrCAD, see the next point.
Personally I love Altium Designer more than OrCAD from Cadence. Altium is a complete package – you have everything in one place from schematic, libraries, pcb, output documents. It is also very intuitive and user friendly. Altium is the software what I have and use in my company (I also have OrCAD Professional, but I have not had the right project for it yet). HOWEVER, if I had a bigger team e.g. 3 and more HW engineers, I would seriously consider to go for OrCAD, see the next point.
2) Price point of view
Altium Designer is getting more and more expensive (I think it is around 10 000 USD or even more, correct me if I am wrong) and OrCAD can be interesting from price point of view. Based on the information I have, OrCAD Professional starts at $2K (for a standalone license) and includes advanced features. The OrCAD Professional has everything what you need for designing any board (you can use OrCAD Professional to design complex and advanced boards).
So, if your budget is limited, the 2k OrCAD Professional is perfect choice. Or, if your team is bigger, OrCAD can make sense. You only buy a few expensive licenses and a lot of work can be done with cheap $443 license (I think that is current price for OrCAD Standard). Disadvantage of OrCAD is, that you may need some time to get used to it and they still need to improve some stuff. But I know they are working on it …
Still, if you have for example 3 engineers, that would be like 6k vs 30k for buying the software … big difference, and I would go for Cadence, even it is not as nice and easy to use as Altium (Altium has some cheaper options like CircuitStudio, but I would not go that way).
Altium Designer is getting more and more expensive (I think it is around 10 000 USD or even more, correct me if I am wrong) and OrCAD can be interesting from price point of view. Based on the information I have, OrCAD Professional starts at $2K (for a standalone license) and includes advanced features. The OrCAD Professional has everything what you need for designing any board (you can use OrCAD Professional to design complex and advanced boards).
So, if your budget is limited, the 2k OrCAD Professional is perfect choice. Or, if your team is bigger, OrCAD can make sense. You only buy a few expensive licenses and a lot of work can be done with cheap $443 license (I think that is current price for OrCAD Standard). Disadvantage of OrCAD is, that you may need some time to get used to it and they still need to improve some stuff. But I know they are working on it …
Still, if you have for example 3 engineers, that would be like 6k vs 30k for buying the software … big difference, and I would go for Cadence, even it is not as nice and easy to use as Altium (Altium has some cheaper options like CircuitStudio, but I would not go that way).
3) Big board design & Simulations
If your designs are based on big boards (e.g. server boards) or if you require simulations, definitely go for Cadence. This will cost you more money, but everything works together e.g. you can add info into schematic or into PCB and this info can be transferred and used in simulation. Cadence simulations are really good, Altium is not good in simulation. Also, a lot of big boards have reference designs in Cadence, this can save you a lot of time and money.
If your designs are based on big boards (e.g. server boards) or if you require simulations, definitely go for Cadence. This will cost you more money, but everything works together e.g. you can add info into schematic or into PCB and this info can be transferred and used in simulation. Cadence simulations are really good, Altium is not good in simulation. Also, a lot of big boards have reference designs in Cadence, this can save you a lot of time and money.
4) Your boards are used in mechanical complex design
In this case, consider Altium. I talked to some engineers who use Altium, because it helps them to work closely with mechanical guys.
In this case, consider Altium. I talked to some engineers who use Altium, because it helps them to work closely with mechanical guys.
5) Learning for future
If you are planning to be a hardware design engineer, learn both softwares
If you are planning to be a hardware design engineer, learn both softwares
Conclusion
I am not sure if these points will help you, or they will confuse you even more.
PS: Non of these companies is paying me, nor Altium nor Cadence, but I do have some free licenses from them.
I am not sure if these points will help you, or they will confuse you even more.
PS: Non of these companies is paying me, nor Altium nor Cadence, but I do have some free licenses from them.
