E-CAD Tool Streamlines PCB Design

Zuken has released eCADSTAR 2022, an electrical CAD platform that now includes features that can streamline and improve PCB design.

According to Zuken, its development team in Bristol, UK, focused on addressing some of the top requests from their user base while maintaining a consistent and unified platform across the major components of eCADSTAR. The new release includes features that allow engineers to reuse of circuit elements and hierarchy, reduce uncertainty with tools to aid in fine-tuning high-speed circuit elements, and create densely populated circuit boards with semi-automated guidance.

“As roles expand, engineers are now looking for a design, analysis, and layout solution. eCADSTAR 2022 is a response to specific customer requests for more emphasis on organization and reuse of full and partial designs, advanced fine-tuning of high-speed circuitry, and automation-assisted layout and modification of densely populated PCB layouts,” says Chris Hambleton, Engineering General Manager, Zuken.

Improved features include: 

Hierarchy for Scale - eCADSTAR 2022 supports design reuse by introducing a multi-instanced hierarchy which makes it possible to create reusable circuit blocks such as memory channels or amplifier lineups.

Intuitive 3D Model Management Library - The 2022 release enhances the ability of users to organize and navigate 3D models by way of a new 3D Model Management Library. Users can more quickly navigate and implement 3D models into their designs.

Enhanced Accuracy and Capability of High-Speed and High-Frequency Circuit Design - The ability to analyze board cross-sections and define board stack-ups has been streamlined and gives the engineer more control over the definition of physical board parameters. eCADSTAR can now consider non-ideal manufacturing nuances that will result in a more realistic representation of the finished product during simulation.

Semi-Automatic Interactive Routing - The 2022 release of eCADSTAR accelerates go-to-market time with the introduction of “push-aside.” This feature enables engineers to easily adjust the position of board elements without having to manually move components that obstruct their new location. Now, two operations can be accomplished in one instance.

Reuse of Component Placement - eCADSTAR 2022 has a new feature that allows engineers to reuse component placement. The component locations of the entire board or part of a board can be saved and exported. That data can then be used to populate a new board with those critical component locations, saving significant time.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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