Hallo Irwin,

I have made experience with 'ORCAD' nearly at the same time! It was 16bit version and we had to wait 'some' minutes for obtaining groundplane around copper traces. Also, we had a manual containing much more than 300 pages!
I remember that we had problems with list of stops of photo plotter in combination with gerber file. But may be it had to do with our photo plotter.

I remember very well these endless lists of settings, and this stupid 'Design Rule Check' refusing my work, when an input was made deviating from settings. Then I always had to switch-off this module...

Today I'm using 'TARGET' for my professional work:

http://www.ibfriedrich.com

It's very very nice. A bit costly for an amateur in the unlimited version, but much less expensive than many others. Results are state of the art! By the way, it contains an autorouter...

Kai