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In my internship, I get to use Cadence (Allegro/OrCad) for PCB designing. I was seriously shocked how complicated it is (very specific on each components). At the same time, it feels like a very outdated software as well (even though the one I was using was updated in 2016). However, I have used Altium for my school projects before which is very easy to use and convenient, and the UI of the software is beautiful. Therefore, I wonder what EDA software people normally use in the industries.

Jacfger Fung
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  • Industry dependent but high end electronics (Apple etc.) expect Cadence. It has more powerful database and layout features at the expense of a difficult UI. That said this is an opinion answer - many EDA tool options exist. – EasyOhm Jun 11 '20 at 08:05
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    whatever one they have enough inertia with from the perspective of their products and libraries. never underestimate the effort involved in library management. Large companies? typically Cadence or Mentor simply because of the level of support they provide –  Jun 11 '20 at 08:05
  • This is going to be different from company to company, so the question will lead to opinion-based answers. – Lundin Jun 11 '20 at 08:35
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    I too think it's opinion based question, so it will likely be closed. But I want to point out that "the UI of the software is beautiful" is a terrible, terrible way of evaluating software. UI is just the top 5% of software, it is the core that matters. For example, LTspice looks horridly at first, but is really powerful (and the guys have even invested effort to make sure it runs well on Linux via wine). So don't be fooled by looks. You get used to it after a while. – anrieff Jun 11 '20 at 08:45
  • We have decades of legacy PCB layouts to maintain, Cadence for new projects but Mentor/PADS2000 for really old stuff. Unfortunately, EDA software always seems to be designed by people who don't actually do much PCB layout themselves, so the user interface is never great. What drives the choice of tools is the available feature set. – MarkU Jun 11 '20 at 08:45
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    As an intern, don't fall into the trap of being a "Cadence designer" or a "Kicad designer": tools are just tools, and tools periodically get replaced. Focus on being a problem-solver. If I were a CAD hiring manager I'd be more impressed with a candidate who hasn't just memorized where the menu items are, but who understands the fundamental problems (like design for manufacturability, BOM/SCH/PCB/LIB control, managing offboard connectors and cables, keepouts, RF/EMI/EMC, and so on). – MarkU Jun 11 '20 at 08:46
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    @EasyOhm Zuken is also popular, especially for high frequency stuff. – user110971 Jun 11 '20 at 09:00
  • Search job ads for PCB design, they nearly always specify which tools they would like familiarity with even though they will expect you to be able to transfer from one to another. – Martin Jun 11 '20 at 09:34

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I will probably be outside the norm, but KiCad, I work with automotive electronics for Bus and Truck

Cost of teaching was a factor, those expensive packages tend to have about a 1.5 month learning curve to really explore all you can do with it, and for that time and cost It was easier to learn how to accomplish similar results without quite as much polish with the tooling I was already familiar with, since then, other employees have been trained with KiCAD as well, as they did not have any strong preference.

e.g. what might take 5 Minutes setup + 2 minutes action in altium, may take 15 minutes to just hash out in KiCad, and over time that may add up,

When you get into things that are too complex for a single active designer to handle on their own, then your forced towards the more expensive packages, e.g. multi-room, so multiple people can layout the same thing at the same time.

Transistor
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Reroute
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