Alternatives to OrCAD X
Cadence's commercial PCB design suite for schematic capture, simulation and board layout. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
OrCAD X
Cadence's commercial PCB design suite for schematic capture, simulation and board layout.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as OrCAD X.
Altium Designer
Professional PCB design suite covering schematics, layout, and simulation.
Altium Designer is a Windows suite covering schematic, simulation, layout and manufacturing files, widely used by professional teams, with expensive commercial licensing.
KiCad
A full electronics design suite: draw the schematic, lay out the board, view it in 3D, send it to a fab.
KiCad is free and open source on Windows, macOS and Linux with no board size or layer limits, though its simulation is basic next to dedicated SPICE packages.
Proteus Design Suite
Electronics design software combining schematic capture, circuit and microcontroller simulation, and PCB layout.
Proteus Design Suite combines schematic capture, PCB layout and microcontroller firmware simulation on Windows under a commercial licence with unlisted pricing.
DipTrace
Schematic capture and PCB layout software with constraint-driven design and interactive push-and-shove routing.
DipTrace offers schematic capture and PCB layout with push-and-shove and differential pair routing on Windows, sold with a perpetual licence rather than a subscription.
EasyEDA
Design electronic schematics and printed circuit boards in a browser.
EasyEDA moves schematic and PCB design into the browser on a freemium model with component libraries, while manufacturing orders cost extra.
DesignSpark PCB
Schematic capture and printed circuit board layout software with a free plan and paid tiers.
DesignSpark PCB is a Windows tool with a free plan without layer or schematic size limits, while newer features such as length-matching routing need paid plans.
CircuitMaker
Free schematic and PCB design software from Altium with a community component library.
CircuitMaker is free Windows software built on Altium technology allowing commercial use, but only five projects can be private and it has no simulation listed.
LibrePCB
A free, open-source electronics design suite for drawing schematics and laying out printed circuit boards.
LibrePCB is free and open source on Windows, Linux and macOS with a Git-friendly file format, but it has no built-in circuit simulation.
Also worth comparing
These listings name OrCAD X as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
LTspice
A free SPICE circuit simulator with schematic capture and a waveform viewer, from Analog Devices.
OrCAD X is Cadence's commercial Windows suite combining schematic, SPICE and mixed-signal analysis in higher editions, plus PCB layout, with paid licences.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
ngspice
An open-source SPICE simulator for analog, digital and mixed-signal electronic circuits described as netlists.
Qucs-S
An open-source circuit simulator interface that drives SPICE engines such as Ngspice.
Gerbv
An open-source viewer for Gerber RS-274X, Excellon drill and pick-and-place PCB files.
Horizon EDA
Design circuit boards from schematics through manufacturing files.
