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The Cost of CAD Software: What Strong Design Tools are Really Worth How Much Does Cad Software Cost and Is It Worth It? We've all been there, we buy bargain products to save money only oftentimes for disappointment. This might happen when that knock-off shirt doesn't fit you properly or the cost CAD software ends up being far from what you were looking for. Although it takes money to make money holds true at times - the question still stands: How much should I invest in this software in order to achieve my desired result and how much does CAD software cost? The Read Article
PCB Routing Options to Maximize Design Adaptability PCB Routing Options to Maximize Design Adaptability Amusement parks often feature small raceways with gasoline-powered, two-passenger mini-cars going around a multi-lane track. Drivers can experience the thrill of steering and accelerating while trying to beat friends or family to the finish line. There’s a catch though. A rail-like barrier positioned in the middle of each lane prevents cars from moving from one lane to another. Consider the amusement park like a circuit: designing the amusement Read Article
Specialty Product Design Duplicates Success Across Campaigns Specialty Product Design and Manufacturing Duplicates Success Across Campaigns No matter what stage of business you’re at, if one of your designs has turned from circuit board ideation to fully manufactured product then you’ve already accomplished a great deal. But, the hardware arena that you reside in will always have opportunities for product development, expansion, and growth. There are a handful of considerations that should be taken into account before you get too giddy. Product designs, to be specialized, have to Read Article
Menu Changes and Switching Units in Altium Designer Menu Changes and Switching Units in Altium Designer When I was a kid, the one place I always felt safe and secure was at home. Regardless of what happened outside, my childhood home was my refuge and I wanted to live there with my parents forever. Of course, as I grew older, I longed to do new things, meet new people, and have new experiences, but to do so meant changing where I lived. Just as I had to embrace change to grow as a person, it is sometimes necessary to make changes in order to Read Article
Strength of BOM Applications for Everything from Hobby Boards to Large Systems Strength of BOM Applications for Everything from Hobby Boards to Large Systems I’m currently building a new tool shed and I was fortunate enough to find some plans for exactly what I need. Or at least I thought that I was fortunate until I started noticing some errors in the plans. At one point it instructed me to cut two door headers to a precise measurement, but that measurement was wrong and the headers ended up too short for assembly. I must confess, I may have uttered a few choice words concerning those shed plans on Read Article
Sporty 3D Component Model Drivers for Layout in PCB Design Sporty 3D Component Part Models Drivers for Layout in PCB Design Driving for most of us is an intuitive utility given the majority’s need to move around our current infrastructure. Many of us don’t think twice as we grab the car keys and head to the store for another latte. Although complex machines, drivers intuitively rely on fingertip commands to move the car down the road. Using PCB layout tools could be the same with cleverly built platforms emphasizing ease of use over knowledge of intricate operational Read Article
PCB Layout Considerations for Length Tolerance Matching and Avoiding Violations PCB Layout Considerations: Differential Pair Length Matching Tolerance and Avoiding Violations Detangling my daughter’s hair reminds me of detangling PCB traces. Everything needs to be set into layers, and crossover should be avoided. Detangling the hair of a 9-year old doesn’t take as long as routing PCB traces, but the results are just as painful if not done correctly. Ideally, though, your daughter’s hair isn’t causing short-circuiting of electronics or small fires to spark up. Routing traces in a layout is arguably the most important Read Article
Using Project Templates for PCB Design Development Using Project Templates for PCB Design Development If you've ever had the opportunity to use a bush ax to clear out an overgrown plot of land, then you have glimpsed the hardship and difficulties that early pioneers experienced as they carved paths across North America. The efforts of these pioneers were an exhibition of the best aspects of the human spirit. Although being a member of that group is no longer possible, you do have the means to be a trailblazer for the fellow PCB designer. When Read Article
How PCB Library Organization Expands Design Capabilities How PCB Library Organization Expands Design Capabilities A popular children’s cartoon featured a superhero called the “Masked Retriever” who had a real job as an ordinary librarian. In the pursuit of justice, the Masked Retriever left a bold checkmark as a calling card and pursued anyone with an overdue book. In one animated adventure, the Masked Retriever pursued the most powerful man in the region by horseback because he wouldn’t give up his book. Unlike the of the Masked Retriever, PCB libraries don Read Article
Designing for Medical IoT Applications: Challenges and Considerations IoT Medical Product and Application Design: Challenges and Considerations Ideally, any technology is going to drastically affect people and the ability of people to accomplish whatever tasks they need. Yet, when new technology is entering the medical domain, the stakes are always a bit higher: one has to be cognizant that any faults, errors, or malfunctions are going to immediately affect someone’s health. Granted, not every medical device is going to be life-or-death, but they should still be considered carefully Read Article
Constraint Driven Design versus Rules Driven Design in a Unified Environment Constraint Driven Design versus Rules Driven Design in a Unified Environment Wouldn’t it be great if more rules in life were checked automatically? I love to cook Italian food, but it gets tiring going back and forth between a cookbook and a pot of tomato sauce. The only automatic rules checking mechanism in the kitchen is your oven timer. Fortunately for PCB designers, high-quality software packages include constraint and rules checking features that can check your layout and schematic automatically. The ability to set Read Article
Creating a Bill of Material with PCB Design Software using Altium Designer PCB Design Software: Creating a Bill of Material using Altium Designer You’ve done it, your printed circuit board is finished and ready for PCB assembly. The schematic is finalized, the layout is checked and approved and you are ready to get this thing built. To do that though, you need to create a bill of materials. Fortunately, we are long past the days where these documents were created by hand. Every CAD system out there will automatically create a bill of materials through some library or other process. But Read Article
The Role of Embedded Capacitors in PCB Design Role of the Embedded PCB Capacitor in Circuit Board Design Mention capacitance, conductors, and dielectric capacitors in PCB to a 7th-grade science class, and you may see glazed-over expressions and hear bored sighs. I mean, hey, sometimes I get this with adults and coworkers I’m talking to so I can’t say I’m unsympathetic to the kids, but I have to promise them that circuits and circuit boards are, truly, fascinating. Let's help them answer the question: why are capacitors used in circuit boards? To Read Article
Design Planning with Differential Pair Routing Software and Directive Symbols Design Planning with Differential Pair Routing Software and Directive Symbols If the components on your PCB are like the organs in your body, then your trace routing between components are like blood vessels. What looks like a complex tangle of copper connections is actually a meticulously designed system that uses well-understood design rules. Your PCB design software can help you maximize your productivity while routing and prevent errors using directive designations. Great PCB design software doesn’t just let you set Read Article
CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers CAD Layout Software for Modern PCB Design and Modern PCB Designers Back in the day, PCB designers drew schematics by hand. Instead of guiding a mouse, technicians used red and blue pencils to carefully draw pads and traces on vellum parchment paper. Their tools included a triangle, a T-square, and templates. Forget a thorough design process involving CAD tools, full team collaboration, differentiated schematic diagrams and circuit board designs - one was lucky enough to have a steady hand. After completing a Read Article
Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons Auto-Interactive Routing to Overcome Obstacles and Other Polygons There’s no doubt about it, routing traces on a printed circuit board by hand can be a lot of fun. It’s an engaging challenge to make the routing as neat, tight, and correct as possible to give you the shortest routes with the best signal integrity. Once you are done you can take a lot of pride in knowing that your measured lines are perfect, you differential pairs are spot on, and everything looks great. The only problem is that level of manual Read Article
Dispel Confusion with Global Editing: Poor DxDesigner Usability Causes Confusion Dispel Confusion with Global Editing: Poor DxDesigner Usability Causes Confusion The world has turned the corner from linear to organic. The need for global editing within versatile environments continues to grow. It used to be I could keep one file in my office drawer to collect bills for the month. When I got paid, it was a simple matter to list the bills, add them up, and write the checks. These days, bill paying goes much quicker on the computer. But I’ve had to adapt to different steps on each utility website and Read Article