y.hubert,
Thanks for your post. Let me try to address some of the issues you’ve brought up.
First, let me assure you, there is most definitely upgrade/migration paths to PADS Professional. Mentor PCB has full scalability from our entry level configurations to our new Standard and Standard Plus Suites, and to the new PADS Professional suite. And if your company’s technology and infrastructure needs grow, you can migrate to Xpedition Enterprise as well!
PADS Professional is one of the new Suites introduced in April. It is a full design environment for the multi-discipline hardware design engineer who does it all – design creation, simulation and analysis, and PCB layout – which is based on Xpedition technology.
With your comment that PADS is dying – absolutely not! I just returned from PCB West, where we hosted a reception for PADS users. There, Paul Musto, the PADS Product Line Director, and AJ Incorvaia, the Board Systems Division’s VP and General Manager spoke to the attendees about the re-vitalization that is
going on with PADS, including a strong product roadmap of core PCB enhancements. On the show floor, we were demoing PADS 3D which will be available with the PADS VX.1.2 release in November.
It sounds like you are having some technical issues moving from the net list to integrated projects. There are migration guides that should help. I also suggest you contact support and/or your reseller for more assistance.
To everyone: many of you have been longtime, loyal PADS customers. For you, we’ve put together a fantastic maintenance renewal promotion which allows you to migrate to the new PADS suites (which will be getting PADS 3D). Please contact your sales person for more details.
Jim