What sofware is most used in the professional field?

[lagoausente]

Leaving apart the DIY uses, and I would want to know what sofware should must learn a electronics student, for shems, pcb layout.., etc, and what are the most used by the professionals, and/or demanded in the labour market?

 

[12afael]

I think protel is what more people is using to make pcbs.
but for simulation I think there is not a standard , a lot of people use spice(pspice, ltspice, etc) but it depend on what area of electronic are you working at, if you are in microcontrolers it depend on what brands are you using; proteus is a great software for microcontrolers applications.

saludos
Rafael

 

[Ptownkid]

Protel is the one i hear of the most as well.

 

[JohnRoberts]

email, web bowsers, word proc, spread sheet, etc...

JR

 

[Ptownkid]

har har, nice one!

 

[Consul]

Spreadsheets are actually extremely useful for doing complex math.

 

[NewYorkDave]

C'mon, be a man!

:wink:

 

[bcarso]

[quote author="NewYorkDave"]C'mon, be a man!

:wink:[/quote]

As Brad Plunkett says, "I have 12 inches, but I don't use it as a [slide] rule."

 

[Rochey]

hehhe.. powerpoint.

/// welcome to marketing.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I was only partially tongue in cheek... working engineers do a lot more than pure engineering. Communication skills are important. You need to show the ability to work in "a" engineering software system. The assumption by most employers is that you can learn a different system after mastering one.

JR

 

[Jim Zuehsow]

Over the years, ( in the ancient past )I have used a number of programs, beginning with OrCad, then moving to Protel. They were both steep learning curves, kind of clunky, but did the job.
Electronic workbench is what I use now, since National Instrument took the company over. They have taken a program that used to be somewhat amateurish, and turned it into a suite of programs that are well integrated together. A big plus is being able to couple LabView results into the design aspects. Unfortunately, the cost has also gone up, but you get what you pay for; Eagle however, is still a very capable program if you don't need a lot of bells & whistles.
The true high end is still the stuff from Cadance and several others, which generally start at about 5 grand for the program.

 

[PRR]

> email, web bowsers, word proc, spread sheet, etc...

Indeed.

Payroll thinks I am a network administrator. True, but I have network tools open maybe 10% of the time. I ALWAYS have email (99%), browser (97%), and text-edit (90%) tools open and sweaty.

There are only a few jobs which keep you chained to the drafting board or yanking the calculator handle all day long. Most of your work is asking/telling other people what to do, and confirming that, and covering your butt, and some info-gathering (The Web). It may be handy to crack equations in a speadsheet; if you have to bill for your work (good thing I don't), then the spreadsheet is key to adding up your dollars and cents.

Good use of English (or Spanish as the case may be) is often as important as your technical chops. I have colleagues who write AWFUL memos. It does affect their career path.

 

[lagoausente]

email, web bowsers, word proc, spread sheet, etc...

There are only a few jobs which keep you chained to the drafting board or yanking the calculator handle all day long. Most of your work is asking/telling other people what to do, and confirming that, and covering your butt, and some info-gathering (The Web). It may be handy to crack equations in a speadsheet; if you have to bill for your work (good thing I don't), then the spreadsheet is key to adding up your dollars and cents.

Interesting, really. Sometime ago, I built a little studio and spent sometime recording guys, and went to a sound eng school. I did it because I liked it, but time thas told me that for having a decent job, would better have spent time on other education field.
I studied electronics on medium school (before the recording times) , where I learned the basics, not much more than that.
Now, I started againg to reading electronic books, but have the feeling of not knowing if I´m wasting my time again.
The spreadscheet you mentioned ,make think about all that other professions like business studies that are anywhere around.
Electronics are complicated, and an infinite field of knowledge. What I wonder is if the real world compensates such effort. I sometimes have the feeling that other guys like business ones make the most effort getting the degree, and after that they seem work on that, without no such continuous studing as in electronics seems to be. What do you think?

 

[JohnRoberts]

Knowledge is just a tool. What matters is what you do with the tools you acquire. My point was that working as an engineer requires facility in more than just pure engineering tools. And you can learn to use company specific tools, if you have the general understanding of how they work.

JR

 

[lagoausente]

[quote author="JohnRoberts"]Knowledge is just a tool. What matters is what you do with the tools you acquire. My point was that working as an engineer requires facility in more than just pure engineering tools. And you can learn to use company specific tools, if you have the general understanding of how they work.

JR[/quote]

I understood you ok. My last wodering was about if the long way studing electronics it´s worth the effort in the real life.

 

[JohnRoberts]

Some people like working with things, some like working with people. If you like working with things it's useful to understand math and physics and electricity. If you prefer working with people study psychology...

I prefer things to people myself... they are more stable.

JR

 

[theremin]

[quote author="JohnRoberts"]Some people like working with things, some like working with people. If you like working with things it's useful to understand math and physics and electricity. If you prefer working with people study psychology...

I prefer things to people myself... they are more stable.

JR[/quote]

I agree with John

If you are interested in making money go into the business side. If you enjoy electronics, design, being creative more than dealing with people then go for something that interests you. But be forewarned that engineers are DEFINITELY underpaid

S!
Jason

 

[mikep]

take it with a grain of salt because I may not be well enough "seasoned" yet, but I do this electronics thing for a living. In rough order of frequency, I use:

CCS tools compiler
Labview
LT Switchercad
Eagle
Pentalogix viewmate (free gerber viewer)
Solidworks

thanks for the proteus tip, that program looks like it would help what I do!

mike

 

[Guest]

[quote author="JohnRoberts"]email, web bowsers, word proc, spread sheet, etc...
[/quote]

John, you've probably forgot couple of main things:

A pencil, and a paper with 1/10 inch squares is my favorite software (I used 2.5 mm back in Russia) ... Also, http://www.datasheetcatalog.com is one of the best software tools I use.

 

[Guest]

[quote author="theremin"][quote author="JohnRoberts"]Some people like working with things, some like working with people. If you like working with things it's useful to understand math and physics and electricity. If you prefer working with people study psychology...

I prefer things to people myself... they are more stable.

JR[/quote]

I agree with John

If you are interested in making money go into the business side. If you enjoy electronics, design, being creative more than dealing with people then go for something that interests you. But be forewarned that engineers are DEFINITELY underpaid

[/quote]

I have to add, that psychology helps as well when somebody prefers to work with things rather than with people: Dr. Richard Bandler conducts seminars where he trains to learn, modify, and apply creativity strategies.
Earlier he called them DHE (Design Human Engineering), but often changes names, so you may find the same seminar under some weird name like "Structure of Magic", or something similar...