Though not seen around the industry much anymore, Rich, many longtime readers will recall, revolutionized CAD and CAM software as founder of P-CAD, which. It is compatible with PCAD 2000 to PCAD 2006 versions of schematics. Download P-CAD 2006 Viewer from our software library for free. This free program was originally produced by Altium Limited.
P-CAD was the brand name created by Personal CAD Systems, Inc., a company founded in 1982 in Los Gatos, California, by Richard Nedbal (CEO) and Roy Prasad (VP of Engineering). Both were former executives of American Microsystems, Inc. (AMI), a custom semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California. Also, part of the founding team were Gregory Houston, VP Marketing, a former Calma executive, and Chi-Song Horng, Director of software engineering (later promoted as a Vice President), a former AMI software engineering manager.
P-CAD was a play on personal computers, which were just becoming popular, following the launch of the IBM PC. The vision of the company was to disrupt the existing hegemony of $250,000 CAD systems based on mainframe computers and custom workstations, and make electronic CAD available to the masses at a cost under $10,000.
The startup originally raised US$500,000 from CrossPoint Venture Partners, and US$3,000,000 in a second round from New Enterprise Associates and Robertson, Coleman and Stephens. The board of directors included John Mumford (Crosspoint), Dick Kramlich (NEA) and Sy Kaufman (Robertson, et al.).
P-CAD went on to become the company with the biggest installed base of users of Electronic Design Automation (EDA), with over 10,000 users by 1988. At that time, P-CAD was the most prolific EDA company as measured by its user base, easily surpassing established CAD companies such as Autotrol, Calma, Intergraph, Daisy, Mentor, Cadnetix, CAE Systems, ECAD, SDA Systems, etc. At that time, Cadence was just being formed with the merger of ECAD and SGA, and Synopsys was being founded as a new start up.
P-CAD's flagship products included schematic capture, logic simulation and PCB layout. Its single biggest customer was Texas Instruments. Other customers included most of the top electronic companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan. P-CAD also signed up IBM as a distribution partner, especially for Japan. Some of the key later additions to the P-CAD team who were instrumental in building up the company include former IBM and Xerox executive Jim Dick, former Apollo Computer VP, Mike Lack, former Apollo Computer Western Regional Sales Manager, Arthur Clark, and EDA industry veteran Ellis Smith, who managed P-CAD's Asia business. Key engineering managers included Bob Dean, Bill Newhard, Howard Schutzman, Alvin Hung, Felix Ruslim, Ron Rinaldi and Mark Houde. Key marketing/sales managers included Kirk Shorte, Steve Mayer, Bruce Fihe, Kathy Eggiman, Elizabeth Dessuge, Ken Lowe, Susan Scal, Donna Licot, Shahriar Emami, and John Roth, who as Director of Sales, was instrumental in bringing the first $5 million of sales into the company.
In 1989, P-CAD was acquired by Cadam, which was a subsidiary of Lockheed,[1] but was in the process of being sold to IBM.[2] At the time of acquisition, P-CAD had an installed base of over 100,000 end users, a record at that time. In those days, such a large user base was unheard of in the EDA industry.
A few years later, the P-CAD group was divested by selling to ACCEL Technologies, an EDA software corporation from San Diego, California, which was acquired by Protel International Pty Ltd (now Altium) in 2000. The P-CAD product included schematic capture, component library management, PCB layout and routing, parametric constraint solver and auto-routing capability.
The last version of P-CAD was P-CAD 2006 with Service Pack 2, released in 2006. This was the last release made by Altium, who retired the product in favor of Altium Designer. This was the final outcome that was originally expected at the time of the merger of Protel with ACCEL — that the best features of both product lines would eventually be combined.[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^https://web.archive.org/web/20180415193540/https://www.computerwoche.de/a/lockheed-vereint-p-cad-und-cadam,1149259
- ^https://web.archive.org/web/20180415195158/http://www.cadhistory.net
- ^Protel Shareholder News, January 2000
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=P-CAD&oldid=878277930'
Everyone loves to get something for free, but if that something doesn't do what it's supposed to... it's still overpriced. On the other hand, if it's free and it's just what you're looking for, it's like finding money in the street. If you're looking for basic CAD software packages and do not need highly technical functionality, you likely will find all you need, and maybe more, in one of these four quality packages that you can download for free.
of 04
AutoCAD Student Version
What We Like
- Part of the Autodesk family of modeling applications.
- AutoCAD is an industry standard.
What We Don't Like
- Watermarking on the free software editions.
- Full-featured and more complex than other programs, not newcomer-friendly.
AutoCAD, the heavy hitter of the CAD industry, offers a free, fully functional version for download to students and faculty. The only limitation on the software is a watermark on any plots you generate, designating that the file was created with a non-professional version.
Not only does Autodesk offer its base AutoCAD package free, but it also offers free licenses for almost its entire suite of AEC vertical packages, such as Civil 3DAutoCAD Architecture, and AutoCAD Electrical.
If you're looking to learn CAD or just do some personal design work, this is absolutely the way to go.
of 04
Trimble SketchUp
What We Like
- Clear features grid comparing paid-versus-free features.
- Options for home hobbyists to industry professionals.
What We Don't Like
- Pricing model isn't great.
- Free feature is web-only with many important features hobbled.
SketchUp was originally developed by Google and was one of the greatest free CAD packages ever put on the market. In 2012, Google sold the product to Trimble. Trimble has enhanced it and developed it further and now offers a slew of related products. Its free version SketchUp Make has plenty of power, but if you need additional functionality, you can buy SketchUp Pro — and pay a hefty price tag.
The interface makes it easy to master the basics. Even if you've never done any CAD work or 3D modeling before, you can pull together some really nice presentations in minutes.
Of course, if you're looking to put out detailed designs with accurate sizing and tolerances, you'll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs of the program. The SketchUp website offers a really impressive array of video and self-paced training options to help you along the way.
of 04
FreeCAD
What We Like
- Well-supported open source platform.
- Ideal for engineering.
- Well-optimized for 3D work.
What We Don't Like
- Clunky to work with.
- 2D features aren't great.
FreeCAD is a serious Open Source offering that supports parametric 3D modeling, which means you can modify your design by going back into your model history and changing its parameters. The target market is mostly mechanical engineers and product design, but it's got a lot of functionality and power that anyone would find attractive.
Like many open-source products, it has a loyal base of developers and can compete with some of the commercial heavy hitters because of its ability to create real 3D solids, support for meshes, 2D drafting and lots of other features. Further, it's customizable and is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, and Fedora.
of 04
LibreCAD
What We Like
- Free and open-source.
- Excels at 2D work.
What We Don't Like
- Not as strong for 3D work.
- The website focuses on stuff that matters to app developers, not to CAD users.
Another Open Source offering, LibreCAD is a high-quality, 2D-CAD modeling platform. LibreCAD grew out of QCAD, and, like FreeCAD, has a large, loyal following of designers and customers.
It includes lots of powerful features that include snap-to-grid for drawing, layers, and measurements. Its user interface and concepts are similar to AutoCAD, so if you have experience with that tool, this should be easy to master.