About Author

David Cousineau

Dave has been an Applications Engineer for 20 years in the EDA industry. He started in 1995 at a mid-Atlantic reseller that represented PADS Software, ViewLogic, and a host of other EDA tools. He moved on to work directly for PADS Software, and stayed on as they were acquired by Innoveda and then by Mentor Graphics. He and a business partner formed a VAR of their own in 2003 (Atlantic EDA Solutions) to represent Mentor's PADS channel, and later on Cadence's OrCAD and Allegro products. Since 2008, Dave has been working directly for Altium and is based at his home office in New Jersey.

Recent Articles

How to Create a 3D Donut and Other Unusual Shapes in Your PCB Design

How to Create a 3D Donut and Other Unusual Shapes in Your PCB Design It is generally very simple to create realistic 3D mechanical shapes in Altium Designer^® using the included Extruded, Cylinder, and Sphere shape types in the PCB Library editor. However, some shapes can be tricky. A board outline can be extremely helpful and can even produce shapes like the polygon (polygon pour). A 3D donut, however, is what we will be focusing on today. Although a hole cannot be cut out of any of the Altium-created shapes, a Read Article

Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design

How to Simplify Your Circuit Replication with Multi-Channel Design Circuit replication, especially in flat designs, presents several unique challenges that occur when you copy PCB layout designs. You can't simply copy and paste footprints around your PCB layout and expect all of your design data to remain synchronized without errors. What about reverse engineering? Similarly, when you need to reuse schematic circuit blocks, taking the copy and paste approach simply takes too long and can make your schematics Read Article

Design Prep: Centralizing Your Design Data

Design Prep: Centralizing Your Design Data Electronics design, like cooking, requires having the right ingredients in place to complete your creations. What if all that information was located in a single, centralized location so that everyone in the organization had access to pre-defined, pre-approved design ingredients to speed the process? Read on to learn more. I really like cooking. The satisfaction of tinkering with a recipe, and getting the flavors and balance just right. The Read Article

Creating 3D Component Bodies in a Footprint Library

PCB Design: Create 3D Component in a Footprint Library In today’s PCB design process, your design and CAD tool needs to be able to integrate mechanical design workflows into an electrical design tool. Read on to learn how to create 3D component bodies in a footprint library. In today’s PCB design process, you need to be able to integrate mechanical design workflows into an electrical design tool. Transferring inaccurate design data back and forth between the ECAD and MCAD worlds not only causes Read Article

Design Tip: Using the PCB Release View to Automate Output Job File Processing

Automate Output Job File Processing with PCB Release View in Altium Deisgner There are many ways to peel an orange - so to speak - and some are better than others. And when it comes to generating fabrication and assembly outputs from your designs this adage holds true. In this PCB design tip, FAE Dave Cousineau describes a re-usable, highly effective way of managing output jobs using the PCB design release capability of Altium Designer^®. Using Output Job files to define and store the necessary documentation needs for any Read Article

Using 3D STEP Models to Reduce Design Respins

Using 3D STEP Models to Reduce PCB Design Respins Integrating mechanical design workflows into electrical design tools has become a necessary component of today’s successful PCB design processes. But transferring inaccurate design data back and forth between the ECAD and MCAD worlds can not only cause frustrations felt by both design teams but can also drastically increase the number of design spins required to fit a PCB into its final assembly. Regardless of the electrical design tool’s 3D Read Article

Draftsman: Make the Software Do the Documentation

Draftsman: Make the Software Do the Documentation You’ve routed your last route. Stitched your last via. Poured your last pour. You’re finally done with that board — time to celebrate! (Or at least move on to the next project.) Hang on! You’re not done yet. There’s still the documentation to be done – the fab drawings, the assembly CAD drawings, everything the fab shop needs to turn your carefully crafted work of art into a real electronic product. Unfortunately, the tools you have access to in Read Article

Communicate Design Intent with the Right Output Job File

Communicate Design Intent with the Right Output Job File Learn how to save hours of manual labor by automating your output job file creation process using the Project Releaser in Altium Designer^®. In my previous blog post, I talked about the manual processes still being used to create professional PCB design documents like fab and assembly drawings, and how a tool like Altium Draftsman^® can help automate that process. Unfortunately, creating your drawings is only part of the battle you face when Read Article

Should You Place Bypass Capacitors Before or After the Circuit

Can You Place Bypass Capacitors Before or After the Circuit In my experience working with teams of engineers on PCB design projects, there inevitably comes a point where the brains in the rooms start disagreeing with each other. In some cases, the answer as to who is in the right is clear. However, as is often the case in technical trades, there are also times when it’s not clear (and the difference is chalked up to “different styles”). A disagreement between electrical engineers that I’ve run across is Read Article