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38 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I SEPTEMBER 2019 ODB was that it obtained industry acceptance. There was a friendly, informal group work- ing together as early adopters put aside their previous thinking in the hopes of achieving a quick transformation from an effective product model into a deliverable PCB with the minimal amount of data manipulation possible, and in an effective, repeatable, and reliable manner (Figure 3). Like the transformation of a butterfly, the creation of a PCB from design into manufac- turing is complex. When assembly informa- tion was added to the ODB format, resulting in the ODB++ of today, this added additional demands to the format (Figure 4). This con- tinued complexity was highlighted in a 2014 Aberdeen Group Study [1] in which 44% of respondents indicated that the top challenge in PCB design data management is the com- plexity of data followed by the integration of that data into management processes, data ex- change, etc. This article will discuss how ODB++ began addressing these challenges over two decades ago, and how ODB++ will continue to evolve based on the needs of the industry. ODB++ was always, and will always be, open to the community to support required additions and changes as industry processes and demands are ever-evolving. Figure 3: A comparison of ODB++ vs. the traditional design data transfer process.