Has any one on this Forum got any comments to make regarding the ease or not of using Workstation 4 having used Workstation 3 for some time?
The main difference is the speed of creating/editing a test. No more multiple windows just to go and change a range setting. You can change it right in the Tree grid.
Also, on today's big monitors the windows in 3.X are tiny since it was designed when a normal monitor was 640x480 pixels.
One of my favorite features is for Probers where you can create an image of the board using the Prober camera. The created image can then be used to navigate the camera around the PCB. This is very helpful when dealing with the solder side of a through-hole PCB (or any large PCB for that matter).
Trouble is version 4 is a lot of bucks and even more in time learning how to use it!
It is my feeling that Version 3 is archaic by today's standards in software design. Workstation 4 is a much more feature rich and flexible platform. The tutorials cover the basics pretty well and from my experience with the hands-on training of many people is fairly easy to learn. Huntron has also been adding support of test instruments other than Trackers for the past couple of years. As far as I know, there is not a software package out there that does what Workstation does as far as creating guided test procedures and providing comparison capabilities to stored test measurements.
As far as cost, software development is an expensive proposition and as a company Huntron needs to recover the cost as well as keeping the product moving forward. The test equipment industry is a niche that does not see the volumes of consumer related electronics and software so it will be inherently more expensive.
I appreciate your company has to get back the 1000's of $'s invested in your Test Equipment & Software.
But is Workstation 4 the best program to used if a Prober is totally out of the the question.
Is just using a Pro Track and Scanner or the later model with scanner built in quicker and more straightforward using workstation 3.54. Probably not the best question to ask someone who wants you to buy workstation 4!!