Help with Decision to upgrade or not.

[jg_geadinc]

I have been doing work for a client of mine for 10 years now and have used Multisim/Ultiboard that entire time. Version 8 to 9 to 10. I have my own copy of Multisim up to version 11. The problem I am running into is my client has decided he would like to renumber the reference designators in the schematics so they are logically grouped to make them easier to find on the PCB's. Reasonable request. Except Version 10.1.1 makes this pretty much impossible. The only way to do it is by changing the designators in Ultiboard and back-annotate to Multisim but you really one get one chance as the log file it uses for the back-annotation is continuously appended to so as soon as you try to do a second back-annotation, it tries to do all the changes made from day 1 the design was created. Can create quite a mess that is not recoverable from. I've found references on this forum that back-annotation was improved in later versions. So I try this in Version 11 and yes, I can just change the designators in Multisim and forward annotate them to Ultiboard and after I tell it to ignore things it wants to change for no reason, it works. However, a new problem popped up. In version 10 I was able to edit a potentiometer's parameters in Multisim and assign the hidden mounting holes to net '0' so they are connected to ground in Ultiboard. Version 11 does not let me assign pins to nets at all! I have not been able to figure out yet how to connect these pins to ground (or chassis ground or anything) without making the pins visable, which makes for an ugly schematic. Is it possible to tie hidden pins to net 0 in later version like it was in Version 10? My client is asking if he should upgrade so I can clean up his designs and as it stands right now I would have to say no. 

[jg_geadinc · Accepted solution]

I upgraded anyway and found that all my concerns are not a problem in version 14.