New OrCAD Capture Delivers Greater Performance and Ease-of-use; Release 7.2 Adds More Editing Control and Flexibility Plus New Interface to Cadence Allegro for High-Speed Design.

BEAVERTON, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 1998--OrCAD(R) (NASDAQ:OCAD) today announced the next version of OrCAD Capture(R), the industry standard for schematic design in the electronics market. OrCAD is the leading supplier of Windows(R) EDA software and services to electronics companies worldwide.

The updated OrCAD Capture includes several new productivity enhancements for the tasks that engineers do most often. For example, orthogonal rubber-banding has been added, eliminating the need for most manual editing when moving parts and wires. Also, a new Auto Wire feature automatically creates wires between connected parts. The new Capture also includes improved printed circuit board (PCB) interfaces for common PCB packages, such as Cadence Allegro, PADS, and Zuken-Redac.

"Electronics design engineers continue to use schematic capture tools more often than any other design entry tool," said Jim Plymale, OrCAD's vice president of marketing. "We continue to see strong sales in schematic capture. With OrCAD Capture 7.2, we are delivering significant productivity increases to engineers and their companies."

OrCAD Capture 7.2: Greater Ease-of-Use

-- Easier Design Navigation: Automatic annotation of off-sheet signals -- with a list of all page numbers where a signal is referenced -- helps engineers navigate and debug designs more quickly and easily.

-- Faster Design Editing: New features such as orthogonal routing of wires and buses during the reorganization of parts and wires, and automatic stair-stepping of parallel wires eliminate much of the manual cleanup traditionally required during design editing.

-- Faster Design Connection: The new Auto Wire feature eliminates steps when inserting and connecting new parts. With this feature, users simply touch pins on one part to another part, and wires are automatically routed as the part is dragged to its desired location. This is especially useful when connecting parts with large numbers of pins, such as memory and connectors.

-- Updated PCB Interfaces: The new "To Layout" command runs all of the steps required to transfer a design from Capture to OrCAD Layout(R), eliminating steps and ensuring the integrity of the design. Interfaces to popular third-party PCB tools have also been updated and expanded, including a new forward- and back-engineering change order (ECO) interface to the Cadence Allegro PCB layout system. This supports the identification of design rules for high-speed layout on components or nets, and the importation of pin- and gate-swap adjustments made by Allegro. Updates and improvements to the PADS netlist output and an updated interface to Zuken-Redac CADSTAR have also been included. This lets users transmit even more design information from Capture to the latest versions of these PCB-layout tools.

-- User-Customizable Netlists: A new application programmers' interface (API) supports easy creation of customized netlists and reports with Microsoft Visual Basic.

Availability and Pricing

Release 7.2 of OrCAD Capture is now shipping worldwide. In North America, OrCAD Capture is $1,295 (U.S.), and an annual Extended Support Option is $295 (U.S.). Attractively priced upgrades are available for OrCAD Capture customers. Customers whose OrCAD Capture product is covered by a new product warranty or an OrCAD Extended Support Option will receive the 7.2 upgrade at no charge.

, contact the authorized OrCAD technical reselloftware and services to electronics companies wrcuits, and PCBs. OrCAD serves many segments of the worldwide electronics industry, including aerospace, telecommunications, industrial control, military, medical equipment, and consumer products.

The company has headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon and Yokohama, Japan, and a software development center in Irvine, California. In Europe, Asia, and the rest of the world, OrCAD is represented by a network of technical resellers. For more information, visit www.orcad.com. -0-

Note: OrCAD is a registered trademark and all OrCAD product names are either registered trademarks or trademarks of OrCAD, Inc. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

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