Altium PCB software 3D features

Here is a neat flash presentation bragging about Altium PCB software’s 3D design capability (warning: sound effects). The thing that may let you kill an hour or two on a slow Monday morning is the fun little game they have. I got up to level 4.

From what my friends tell me it looks like Altium and PADS are all that will be left for mid-range PCB design with maybe Electronic Workbench still in the mix. Cadence is trying to push everyone into Allegro and away from Orcad. Die beloved program. So Altium does at least understand we need a good layout tool, and their schematic is about as nice as Orcad. Best of all you get signal integrity and SPICE in Altium where you have to pay extra for it in Orcad. The 3D stuff is actually kind of neat. I have one buddy making complete libraries for a bunch of chips that include the 3D package. It really helps if you are trying to put the board in the tight enclosure. Oh, the other great thing about Altium is that it opens .max files from Orcad layout, with just a little funkiness interpreting planes, and it also opens Orcad schematics just fine. Best of all you can convert all your Orcad libraries to Altium libraries and that seemed to work OK when I tested it. I hope to do a series evaluation Ocad, PADS, Electronic Workbench and Altium, with maybe a few others thrown in for good measure.