The future of ELECTROMECHANICAL design

摘要

Examine most products today and you'll likely find both electrical and mechanical components. The cell-phone and automobile industries are at the forefront of this trend, with other industries such as medical, industrial, and aerospace close behind. That sophisticated electronics are being included in ever-more-complex mechanical form factors dictates that the two formerly separate design disciplines -- electronic CAD (ECAD) and mechanical CAD (MCAD) -- should become more harmonized and the line between each should become blurrier. Although there has been collaboration in some form between ECAD and MCAD for many years, different media, formats, and standards have blunted its effectiveness. What was needed was a truly collaborative and innovative product-development process between electrical and mechanical design so engineers could communicate incremental change(s) at any time during the (shortened) design cycle. The things the new collaboration processes entail include: 1. incremental data exchange, 2. support both synchronous and asynchronous communication, and 3. a communication protocol for all collaboration objects.