Founded in 1985 by John Durbetaki, Ken, and Keith Seymour as "OrCAD Systems Corporation" in Hillsboro, Oregon, the company became a supplier of desktop electronic design automation (EDA) software.

Durbetaki, who had left Intel Corp. after five years as an engineer and project manager, decided, along with brothers Keith and Ken Seymour, to start his own company to develop add-on instrumentation for the PC.

In 1986, OrCAD hired Peter LoCascio to develop sales, and co-founder Ken Seymour left the company.

[7][8] In late 1997 and early 1998, OrCAD and MicroSim Corporation merged, a business combination that ultimately proved to be disappointing.

MicroSim has been a supplier of PC-based analog and mixed-signal simulation software for designing printed circuit board systems (PSpice).

The latest iteration of OrCAD CIS schematic capture software has the ability to maintain a database of available integrated circuits.

[15] Intel offers reference PCBs designed with Cadence PCB Tools in the OrCAD Capture format for embedded and personal computers.

[17] The OrCAD Capture Marketplace enables customers to share and sell add-ons and design resources.

[19] OrCAD Capture and PSpice Designer[20] together provide a complete circuit simulation and verification solution with schematic entry, native analog, mixed-signal, and analysis engines.

The PSpice Advanced Analysis simulation capabilities cover various analyses- Sensitivity, Monte Carlo, Smoke (Stress), Optimizer, and Parametric Plotter providing a depth understanding of circuit performance beyond basic validation.

OrCAD EE is an upgraded version of the PSpice simulator, and includes automatic circuit optimization and support for waveform recording, viewing, analysis, curve-fitting, and post-processing.

[18][23] OrCAD EE contains an extensive library of models for physical components, including around 33,000 analog and mixed-signal devices and mathematical functions.

Subsequent versions improved on performance and moved to DEC/VAX minicomputers, Sun workstations, Apple Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows.

Users can find datasheets, application notes, tutorials, videos, and also information about regional PSpice training events and webinars.