Cheap Cad program which can import Protel files

Does anyone know of a free or cheap (<$1000) cad program capable of
doing imports of protel99SE schematics and PCBs?
A few months ago I tried some that made this claim but could not get
them to work. It would not need to be a perfect importing process,
some manual work is OK but I would like to spend less time on it that
manually re-drawing the drawings I have.

 

Pulsonix will import Protel files: http://www.pulsonix.com

It's more than $1000, though.

Leon

 

Use protel99se to export the pcb layout to gerber then edit in Cam350 or
Viewmate.

for the schematic you're out of luck, though...





Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.

 

If you are willing to use the Protel 99 package to export,
you could save to file in Autotrax format and edit it with
that package. Be careful, there are a number of "gotchas"
between Protel versions - best to stay away from conversions
if the boards are multilayer rather than just double sided.

Altium/Protel graciously provide Autotrax for free on their
website. Unfortunately, the schematic editor which matched
Autotrax is not available on their website.

You can get a number of drivers, utilities and fixes to try
and wrest Autotrax into the 21st century (eg The previous
video resolution was 640 x 480 - we've made larger now) from:
http://www.airborn.com.au/layout/easytrax.html

I wouldn't normally suggest this to someone who has not used
Autotrax before... but it is free, and all the stuff that
we have done to improve it is open source, with links to it
all at the URL above. There is even a tutorial and list of
known bugs.

-Steve, www.airborn.com.au

 

but Protel is already a cheap cad package..

Simon

 

http://www.protel.com/resources/downloads/

Remove "HeadFromButt", before replying by email.

 

at $9000 ?

 

Aw c'mon! Think of the bug-rich environment you're getting

 

well it all depends on your perspective.. I was once quoted $50k for the
software and $60k for the workstation to run it on.... so $9000 is far
cheaper.. besides.. Protel is cheaper in New Zealand.. only $4000 .. we have
a better sales rep