One other thing to consider, is that Cadence, the owner of the current, and, undoubtedly the old, OrCAD, bought OrCAD in order to take those old but very powerful tools off the market because they were essentially better than theirs, costing nominally 50x as much. It was a simple business decision, and, while the DOS-based OrCAD tools were a threat, the much less capable and much less powerful Windows-based tools provide a modest income stream from customers who otherwise would not buy their products at all.

Some of us, myself included, are owners of licensed copies of the old DOS-based software. EMA, the Cadence subsidiary that now sells and supports the Windows-based OrCAD, completely ignores the DOS-based tools. I think that's because they can't understand how something written 15-20 years ago intended to run on many generations-old hardware can make their multi-million dollars-worth company's product look so poor.

I can draw a schematic in half an hour with the old OrCAD that would take me, or probably anyone more versed in the Windows products, half a day. I always though the purpose of such software tools was to increase productivity. The Windows implementation has definitely moved in the wrong direction, IMHO.

RE