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OnTrack Newsletter - July 2019 Vol 3. No. 3

OnTrack Newsletter - July 2019 Vol 3. No. 3 OnTrack Newsletter July 2019 VOL. 3 No 3 AltiumLive 2019: The Hat Trick The third annual AltiumLive: Annual PCB Design conference is almost here again and will be located in San Diego and Frankfurt. Learn more about all that’s in store for this year’s event and how we plan to pull off a perfect hat trick! Read Article EIPC: A European Community of PCB Professionals In mid-June, I had the great pleasure of attending my first EIPC Conference in Read Article

9:39 Five Reasons to Switch Chris Carlson provides 5 compelling reasons to consider switching from your current EDA solution to Altium Designer. Watch Video

35:34 New Experiences of Part and Library Component Search Watch Video

How Integrated PCB Design Software Helps you Manage Documentation and Outputs

How Integrated PCB Design Software Helps you Manage Documentation and Outputs If you’re like me, then you’re a hardware fanatic. You’re the type that enjoys creating and watching your ideas come to life before your eyes. The last thing you want to do is sit behind a desk and create change orders, bills of materials, and assembly plans for your new product. What if there was a way to cut down the time required to generate these important documents? With deliverables and documentation requiring standardized formats and Read Article

How Integrated Tools Ease Multi-board PCB Systems Design

How Integrated Tools Ease Multi-board PCB Systems Design If you’ve ever taken apart a computer, then you know that the entire system can’t fit on a single PCB. Most complicated devices used in a variety of applications are multi-board systems, and designing these systems takes imagination, planning, and the right design software. Rigid-flex PCBs are just another type of multi-circuit boards system, and the same design concepts when designing each portion of the board, as well as the flex ribbon that Read Article

Managing 3D models

Managing 3D Models for ECAD/MCAD Data Transfer Communication is tricky when oppositional semantics fail to play well together. This sentence is a good case in point. When ill stated, information is rarely understood. The same goes with software infrastructures. Many do not play well together when information in one is defined differently in another. 3D models of components for use by mechanical and electrical CAD programs are historically represented quite differently across platforms. This Read Article

Split PCB Plane Pours are Partial to Carefully Managed Connections

Split PCB Plane Pours are Partial to Carefully Managed Connections James Madison said that “philosophy is common sense with big words.” Big words can produce a mess if applied with the wrong syntax. Similarly, the ability to produce intricate PCB designs requires extraordinary vision, each minute step exquisitely accomplished through common sense. Common sense and, if you’re lucky, elegant design tools. PCB design tools able to make common sense from complicated layout rules promote efficient development Read Article

50:25 Altium Designer 19 Key Features We are pleased to announce the release of Altium Designer 19.0! An exciting new era of Altium Designer is here Watch Video

Designing in an Intuitive Interface Leaves Time for Bright Ideas

Designing in an Intuitive Interface Leaves Time for Bright Ideas Keeping it simple with complex tasks demanding attention is challenging on a good day. Tools available to compute mountains of details with lightning speed is powerful but can be overwhelming if poorly designed. Powerful elegant tools move ideas into usage and benefit many. Many are benefited every day while using smartphones to communicate news, to navigate cars, and to keep scheduled calendar dates. Digital devices use printed circuit board Read Article

1:51 New Components Panel Watch Video

Test Out and Validate High-Speed Designs with Signal Integrity Simulation

Test Out and Validate High-Speed Designs with Signal Integrity Simulation Sometimes the biggest onion can’t be peeled. It seems simple enough. You pick up an onion, a knife, and get going. It would be nice if all of life were so simple, and I suppose it is if you can just break each task into a simple series of steps. Along with intuitive tools, each step leads to the next and pretty soon you’re sending commands from your smart phone to your food processor before you get home. Signal integrity simulators feel like a Read Article

28 Rigid-Flex Support for Multi-Board Designs Watch Video

24 Multi-Board Object Smart Mates Watch Video

Identify Vendor Parts Early: Manage BoMs Proactively With Consolidated Part Sourcing

Identify Vendor Parts Early: Manage BoMs Proactively With Consolidated Part Sourcing Walking a tightrope requires intricate balance. Simply visualized as a walker and a rope in space. Simple moves into complexity when the walker’s senses are skewed to balance. Careful placement of each foot pulls from neurological pathways communicating intricate information simultaneously. Should information fail to arrive when the foot is moving may push the walker off the rope. Managing Bills of Material from early circuit concept through Read Article

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing

Altium Vault Streamlines Product Development Process With Early Access to Component Sourcing and Costing The product development process for printed circuit assemblies is highly dependent on complete Bills of Material. Complete Bills of Material list the PCB along with all components soldered or adhered onto the board to make the assembly. Components are unavailable early in the product development cycle because EDA libraries are antiquated and lack current parts information when circuit designers are drawing schematics. To stay on the development’s Read Article

Worry Less About Schematic and Layout De-Sync

Worry Less About Schematic and Layout De-Sync Drawing out your next great idea on the back of an envelope is much easier than drawing out a PCB by hand. This is where PCB software becomes important and is used to take your design all the way to production. Your schematic and layout need keep your design data synchronized throughout the design entire process. Keeping all your design data synchronized across your design tools is critical to maintaining high productivity. Your design software Read Article

Creating Library Parts and Attaching 3D Models Enables Clearer Designs

Creating Library Parts and Attaching 3D Models Enables Clearer Designs Between custom and standard components, your component helps you keep track of everything from SPICE models to basic 2D footprints for use during layout. As PCB design leaves the two dimensions and enters three dimensions, modern component libraries now come packaged with 3D models. Building a 3D model for your proprietary components is also a good idea if you ever plan to check mechanical clearances. But most PCB design software platforms don’t Read Article