Welcome to an era of PCB design where your common commands are elevated, visibility into your design is increased, and your experience is streamlined. You have known all along what Cadence tools are capable of, and it is time to combine that potential with the relief of intuitive design.
On this page you can view lots of videos of the new OrCAD X platform and also request the free OrCAD X trial.
With OrCAD X we have provided updates and improvements to create a more modern experience that new users expect, and engineers who have been with us for decades will greatly appreciate. A completely new layout environment, unmatched capacity for designing, and a vital, hybrid-cloud approach to team collaboration, component libraries, design reuse, and data management empowers engineers to design boldly.
OrCAD X Product Demonstration
OrCAD X is the next generation of PCB design, built to improve efficiency and streamline your design process.
- Complete PCB Design System
- Ease of Use and Performance
- Integrated Real-Time Analysis
- Fastest Path to Design Success
Sourcing accurate, ready-to-use component data is one of the most time-consuming bottlenecks in PCB design for small teams and individual engineers. Ultra Librarian,(opens in a new tab) now part of Cadence, eliminates this friction with a native integration directly inside OrCAD X, giving designers immediate access to over 18 million verified symbols, footprints, and 3D models from more than 2,500 manufacturers without ever leaving the design environment. Every model passes more than 30 verification tests and is built to IPC and ANSI standards, ensuring library quality without the manual overhead of building and maintaining parts in-house. Alongside each component, engineers can review real-time pricing, stock levels, lead times, and compliance data, and submit a fully managed bill of materials directly to a distributor for procurement, compressing the path from component selection to production-ready design.
OrCAD X Live BOM within OrCAD X Capture revolutionizes component management with real-time insights and market intelligence on over 1.6 billion parts from 3,600 suppliers. Powered by Sourcengine and Datalynq from Sourceability, it helps engineers tackle challenges like component availability, lifecycle risks, and compliance with standards such as REACH and RoHS. Identifying high-risk parts, suggesting suitable alternatives, and mitigating supply chain disruptions, making design decisions faster, smarter, and safer.
Built-in PSpice delivers a suite of advanced simulations to optimize circuits and resolve design issues early. Perform DC, AC, and transient analyses to understand performance across various domains, while Monte Carlo, Smoke, and worst-case analyses help account for component variability. With tools for noise analysis and parametric sweeps, industry-leading PSpice ensures your design remains stable, efficient, and error-free. Detect signal distortions, instability, and other issues before they escalate with the industry's top-tier simulation capabilities.
OrCAD X OnCloud provides a centralized, secure platform for seamless collaboration and efficient data management. This cloud-based solution eliminates version control headaches, streamlines workflows, and allows real-time team collaboration on library creation, design reviews, and more. With easy access to always up-to-date design data from anywhere, engineering teams can innovate faster and get to market quicker, all while maintaining control over designs.
Streamline communication between ECAD and MCAD teams with real-time bidirectional workflows. Avoid design conflicts, reduce costly revisions, and ensure accurate board placement. This push-button synchronization aligns electrical and mechanical design for a flawless fit, addressing enclosure, alignment, and thermal considerations early in the process. Say goodbye to manual file exchanges and hello to a fully integrated approach.
With OrCAD X, multiple engineers can work on the same PCB layout in real time, enabling unprecedented collaboration. Live updates, synchronized routing, and conflict resolution allow teams to work in harmony while reducing design cycle times. Handle placements, constraint management, and design reviews seamlessly with tools that keep everyone on the same page.
OrCAD X Constraint Management ensures PCB designs meet critical performance, reliability, and manufacturability demands. A unified interface across schematic and layout environments provides holistic rule enforcement, from clearances to trace widths. With dynamic feedback, hierarchical rule systems, and constraint grouping, staying compliant while managing complex designs is simpler and more effective than ever.
Optimize signal integrity with integrated Sigrity X Aurora’s impedance and coupling analysis right within the PCB layout environment. Evaluate trace impedance and electromagnetic coupling instantly, leveraging intuitive visual overlays and in-depth reports. Identify and resolve signal issues early in the process, reducing costly post-production rework. Unprecedented, intuitive workflows combined with powerful cross-referencing tools redefine precision and accelerate productivity.
Streamline manufacturing documentation with OrCAD X Live DOC. Automatically create accurate, up-to-date fabrication and assembly drawings with the click of a button. Customize interactive templates, add detailed annotations, and generate drill tables or component views directly from your design data. Automation significantly reduces errors and manual work, speeding up your design cycle.
Integrating real-time manufacturability checks directly into the PCB layout, OrCAD X Design for Manufacturing improves quality and reduces production costs. Detect and resolve violations during the design process with immediate feedback on fabrication, assembly, and testing parameters. This proactive approach shortens the feedback loop with fabricators, cutting time to market and ensuring a flawless final product.
Watch the "top ten things you can do with OrCAD X" video interview and demo here
1:02 Circuit Replicate - Design Reuse OrCAD X
2:28 Via Arrays OrCAD X
3:24 New User Interface OrCAD X
7:02 Design Review Markup OrCAD X
10:20 Super Fast 3D engine OrCAD X
12:35 3D Flexi OrCAD X
15:10 3D DRC Design Rule Check OrCAD X
17:24 Dynamic Shapes OrCAD X
20:10 Live Doc OrCAD X
24:48 X AI Artificial intelligence OrCAD X
26:38 DRC Browsing OrCAD X
28:40 Export to Manufacturing OrCAD X
Please also view the PDF Presentation on what is new in OrCAD X and Allegro X here
| Standard X | Professional X |
| Free Access to online libraries from Ultra Librarian, SnapMagic and Samacsys | Free Access to online libraries from Ultra Librarian, SnapMagic and Samacsys |
| Cloud Access design and Library data | Cloud Access design and Library data |
| Presto Interface | Presto Interface |
| Capture CIS | Capture CIS |
| Schematic and BOM variants manager (part not fitted and more) | Schematic and BOM variants manager (part not fitted and more) |
| Part Manager | Part Manager |
| Windows Compliant ODBC Database | Windows Compliant ODBC Database |
| Interface to relational database | Interface to relational database |
| Database query for Part Selection and parametric properties | Database query for Part Selection and parametric properties |
| 3D Constraint Manager collision Checks | 3D Constraint Manager collision Checks |
| Full Constraint Manager including (diff pair, impedance, return path, prop delays, vias, scheduling, physical, spacing). Presto Interface only | Full Constraint Manager including (diff pair, impedance, return path, prop delays, vias, scheduling, physical, spacing). Presto Interface only |
| Rigid Flex Design | Rigid Flex Design |
| Design Review and Markup | Design Review and Markup |
| 3DX Canvas | 3DX Canvas |
| Design True DFM (100+ DFM/DFA/DFT rules) | Design True DFM (100+ DFM/DFA/DFT rules) |
| Layer based Dynamic Shape control | Layer based Dynamic Shape control |
| Region Rules | Region Rules |
| Single Button Post Process | Single Button Post Process |
| LiveDoc | LiveDoc |
| MCAD Imports including DXF, IDX and STEP. | MCAD Imports including DXF, IDX and STEP. |
| MCAD Exports including IDX and STEP. | MCAD Exports including IDX and STEP. |
| MCADX Interface (Solidworks ECAD-MCAD) | MCADX Interface (Solidworks ECAD-MCAD) |
| Active Search Pane | Active Search Pane |
| 10Gb Cloud based storage | 50Gb Cloud based storage |
| Cloud Configuration capabilities to setup and share designs and libraries | |
| Cloud based 2 person Co-Op PCB environment “Symphony” * | |
| Delay Tune (length match) | |
| Phase Tune | |
| Live BOM |
* Standard X user can join a Pro Symphony session with a cloud based token
PCB ONLY FEATURES MATRIX - PRESTO VS TRADITIONAL
What You Will Learn
- Navigate the OrCAD X Presto design environment
- Configure a board outline and stackup
- Place components through multiple methods
- Add copper planes and pours
- Configure constraints
- Route a design, including fanouts and vias
- Analyze the design for errors with design rule checking
- Analyze the design in 3D
- Quickly create manufacturing documentation
- Export a manufacturing package
- Efficiently collaborate with design review and markup
Course Summary
Download the Free OrCAD X Trial - a fully functional license for 15 days
experience the powerful - easy to use OrCAD X Platform today
Engineers can maximize design performance, yield, cost-effectiveness, and reliability with PSpice Advanced Analysis used in conjunction with core PSpice. PSpice Advanced Analysis addresses engineers' concerns about testing designs to meet real environmental constraints. Now, engineers will know how their designs perform with manufacturing tolerance variations, external temperature, operational range, and aging components. Engineers can test components when they are stressed—know how designs perform in the field, whether there are any critical sensitivities, and what might fail during manufacturing.
OrCAD Professional Plus also includes PSpice Advanced Option, so now engineers can:
- Improve design quality and productivity with automatic performance optimization algorithms
- Find optimum combinations of component values, automatically simulate, evaluate results, and adjust component values to reach performance requirements
- Retarget existing designs with new goals without modifying the layout
- Go beyond debugging waveforms— optimize design, improve design reliability and manufacturing yield, and reduce the cost of components
- Improved accuracy with tight integration to schematic tools
OrCAD Professional Plus also includes PSpice Systems Option, so now engineers can:
- Perform system-level simulation powered by PSpice and MathWorks Simulink
- Cadence PSpice MATLAB Simulink Interface combines two industry-leading simulation tools to create an environment for electro-mechanical system simulation
OrCAD Professional Plus also includes PSpice System Analysis, so now engineers can:
- Co-simulate Simulink and PSpice together for complete system simulation
- View PSpice simulation results in MATLAB
- Use MATLAB functions directly in measurement expressions within PSpice
- Export behavioral models from Simulink to PSpice using Cadence’s Device Modeling Interface (DMI)
