Altium's Latest Cloud Collaboration Platform Links ECAD and MCAD

摘要

Two years after it was teased at a series of worldwide seminars with key customers and media, Altium's cloud platform for PCB design has begun to reach the potential the ECAD company promised. The latest update to Altium 365 now allows collaboration among PCB designers, mechanical designers, part suppliers and manufacturers. And Altium 365 provides a built-in co-designer capability that provides native integration with a trio of MCAD platforms: PTC Creo, Dassault SolidWorks and Autodesk Inventor. According to Leigh Gawne, chief software architect, 365 provides a "full-on collaboration in that actual PCBs and components can be changed. The MCAD user can place and move an electrical part, define the PCB, and push the (update) to the PCB engineer." "ECAD has really been confined to a desktop. With Altium 365, we are taking it off the desktop. Anyone with a web browser is now able to view and interact and col-laborate on these designs. For those who want to open a schematic and cross-probe to a net on a PCB or a component in a 3-D rendering of the board, it doesn't require this heavyweight software to be installed. For people who want to consume and inspect and interact, this is possible anywhere, on any device, just through a browser." The latest rev leverages one of the great advantages of the cloud: ease of wide-spread access to a common file. It allows sharing, visualizing, and mark-ups of printed circuit board designs across a wide number of users. The latest version is known as Altium 365 Standard and is available to all subscribers.