CAD Review: Quadcept Circuit Designer/PCB Designer

Are you a circuit design engineer with the following CAD problems?

In conclusion, "Quadcept Circuit Designer" and "Quadcept PCB Designer" can solve those problems.

Please read this article for a detailed review of Quadcept Circuit Designer/PCB Designer.

This article is written by an engineer with more than 10 years of electrical design experience.

What is Quadcept?

Quadcept is a product brand name for EDA tools, mainly circuit design CAD and PCB design CAD, and a company that develops and sells them.

The word "Quadcept" was coined from the phrase "four concepts" (Quad + Concept): Cloud, Great Cost Performance, Customers Come First, and Innovation.

As these concepts indicate, the software can be used anywhere as long as there is an Internet environment, such as at home or on business trips, and can be used by companies and individuals who have not been able to introduce fee-based CAD due to budget constraints.

The number of installations has reached more than 72,000, and has been adopted by such large companies as TOYOTA, SONY, and Panasonic.

Quadcept Specifications

Specifications	Quadcept Professional
Circuit Design CAD	Quadcept Circuit Designer
PCB Design CAD	Quadcept PCB Designer
Price of Circuit Design CAD	\$39/month (\$429/year)
Price of PCB Design CAD	\$99/month (\$1,089/year)
Other Purchase and Discount	Volume Discount: 5 to 10 pcs 5%OFF 11 to 20 pcs 7%OFF 21 to 30 pcs 10%OFF After 31 pcs 12%OFF Continuity Discount: 2nd year 5%OFF 3rd year 7%OFF 4th year 10%OFF After 5th year 12%OFF
Free Trial Edition	Quadcept Professional(No License): Non-commercial only Limited to 4 layers and 100 pads *More than 4 layers and 100 pads can be used as a Viewer. *The full-featured free trial edition is valid for two weeks (contact us). Quadcept Community: Non-commercial only Limited to 4 layers and 1000 pads
Commercial Use	Available for commercial use(License Required)
English Support	Online Manual Videos Forum WEB Seminar E-mail Phone Paid Training *Email and phone support is available after license purchase.
OS	Windows 8.1 Windows 10 (1507～2004) Windows 11 *32bit/64bit
License Authentication Method	Network: Obtain and activate a license from Quadcept's license server via the Internet. Standalone: Activate a license offline by capturing it in advance on the device.
License Sharing	License sharing available
Parts Database	Digi-Key Mouser RS Components Chip One Stop CoreStaff
Parts Library	Share(Free parts library): About 250k parts data are available for free. Digi-Key Mouser RS Components Chip One Stop CoreStaff ROHM OMRON TOKIN/KEMET Murata etc. Tie-up with parts data library provider: Ultra Librarian/About 2,000k parts data are available for free. SamacSys/About 1,500k parts data are available for free. *Part data is duplicated.
Circuit Simulator	Linking with "LTspice".
Auto Routing	Linking with other auto routing tools. *Output of DSN files is possible. *Input of RTE files is possible.
3D Functions	3D viewer function Linking with other 3D CADs. *Input/output of 3D data is possible. *"Collision Detection" and "Thermal Analysis" can be checked in advance.
Data Conversion	CAD for schematic data conversion: CR5000 SD OrCad Capture Altium/Protel CAD for PCB data conversion: Allegro OrCAD Layout Board Station Expedition PADS power PCB ODB++ CADSTAR CR5000 BD CR5000 PWS CADVANCE Altium/Protel EAGLE IPC-2581 *Read in ALTAIR's PDB ASCII file. *CR5000 BD can also be converted in Quadcept.
SI/PI Analysis	Estimate on a case-by-case basis
EMC	Linking with the EMI noise suppression software "DEMITASNX". JPY110,000/Analysis Report
Vendor	Quadcept Inc.
Head Office	USA

If you would like to compare with other CADs, please refer to the following article.

Quadcept for Advanced Electronic CAD! 72,000 Download!

Quadcept Advantages

The world's cloud-based electronic CAD system that can be used anywhere

Quadcept is a cloud-based circuit/PCB design CAD system that can be used anywhere as long as there is an Internet environment, including at work, at home, and on overseas business trips.

Usually, the authentication method for fee-based CAD is "USB dongle authentication," which takes a long time before a license is issued, and it is difficult to take the software outside the company for fear of losing it.

However, Quadcept is a "network authentication" system, so as long as there is an Internet environment, a license can be issued in about one minute after user registration, regardless of where the CAD system is used.

This makes it possible to work remotely or during travel time on business trips.

Simple and inexpensive subscriptions from $39/month

Quadcept Circuit Designer and Quadcept PCB Designer are reasonable and simple subscription licenses at $39.00/month and $99.00/month, respectively.

The costs of other companies' CAD systems are enormous, including initial costs, maintenance costs, support costs, option costs, and version upgrade costs.

Quadcept allows for flexible operations, such as increasing the number of licenses during busy work periods, so even companies that have given up on implementing CAD in the past should definitely consider it.

In addition, it offers a "Volume Discount" and a "Continuity Discount," which enables significant cost reductions compared to other companies.

Short learning time for CAD with careful support system

In the case of board design, while CAD from other companies requires a minimum of 6 months to 1 year of paid support, Quadcept allows you to design a simple evaluation board or relay board in as little as 5 days.

The UI and functions are designed with an emphasis on ease of use by picking up feedback from CAD users, so you should first try downloading and using the free trial edition of Quadcept (Limited to 4 layers and 100 pads).

Online manuals, videos, and forums are available before license purchase, and free Quadcept webinars are frequently offered.

Furthermore, if you purchase a license, telephone and e-mail support is available, so it is unlikely that you will have trouble operating Quadcept.

About 250,000 free parts data to reduce design time

Quadcept offers a shared component library service called "Share," which makes about 250,000 parts data available free of charge.

In addition, Quadcept has partnered with the universal component library companies listed above, each of which makes tens of millions of part data available for free.

One of the time-consuming tasks in design using circuit and PCB design CAD is the creation of component data such as schematic symbols and footprints.

It is very difficult to create component data by ourselves because even a single mistake in "terminals of schematic symbols" or "dimensions of footprints" would be a design error.

However, by utilizing Quadcept's "Share" "Ultra Librarian" and "SamacSys", design time can be significantly reduced if the necessary part data is available for the design.

Data conversion makes it easy to switch from another company’s CAD

Quadcept can convert the above schematic and PCB data, making it easy to switch from other companies' CAD systems.

Quadcept's data conversion function supports three companies for converting schematic data and one company for converting PCB data.

The file can also be converted to a "PDB ASCII file" using "Altair PollEx PCB Modeler" by Altair Engineering Inc. and then imported into Quadcept.

Therefore, with this feature, we can handle the conversion of PCB data from 13 different companies.

Since design assets such as schematics and board layouts are very important, it is a great advantage to be able to use them in Quadcept without wasting them.

Quadcept Disadvantages

Software installation required

When you hear of cloud-based electrical CAD, you may have an image of it running on a browser like Gmail.

But, for the purpose of business efficiency, "license authentication," "parts library," "database of parts inventory and prices," etc., are all cloud-based, and Quadcept is only software to be installed and used on a local PC.

Therefore, the PC on which Quadcept is used must meet the following system requirements.

OS	Windows 8.1 Windows 10(1507～2004) Windows 11 *32-bit or 64-bit
CPU	Intel® Core™ i5 processor or equivalent
RAM	8GB or more recommended (Up to 1GB is used in 32-bit Quadcept.)
Storage	HDD/SDD 10GB or more free disk space (SSD recommended for high density multilayer PCB layout)
Display Resolution	1280x800 or more
Graphics	NVIDIA® GeForce® 8 series 256MB (or more) graphics card or equivalent
Other	Windows Internet Explorer (11.0 or later), Windows Microsoft Edge (latest version), Google Chrome (latest version) Microsoft Excel (required for BOM) Internet Connection

However, since the schematics and PCB data created by Quadcept are stored on a local PC rather than on the Internet, the risk of data leakage due to cyber attacks should be reduced.

If you do not have access to the Internet, Quadcept can also be used in an offline environment through standalone authentication (offline authentication).

Training is charged(Free online manuals and free online seminars available)

There is a fee for more customized training, such as individual follow-up and attendance of 3 or more people/company.

However, free online manuals, videos, forums, and web seminar are available, and phone and email support is available after license purchase, so you may want to consider paid training if you still need it.

Of course, you will receive training at a level commensurate with your fee, and you can choose to take the training online, which is more convenient than on-site training.

Who is "Quadcept" recommend for?

・Want to use circuit design CAD/PCB design CAD at various locations such as at the office, at home, and when traveling on business.
・Want to get customer support for circuit design CAD/PCB design CAD at the most reasonable cost possible.

Quadcept is useful for any professional circuit/PCB design engineer. It is especially recommended for those considering the above.

If you are interested in "Quadcept", there is a free trial edition (Limited to 4 layers and 100 pads) available for you to try.

＼　Over 72,000 users! Also used by TOYOTA!　／