Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1062752
DECEMBER 2018 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 79 Donato: Exactly. Some of these acquisitions stand alone, and some of them partner with the Altium Designer family of tools; the tech- nologies get shared to complement and give access across the user community. It's really exciting to see that we've continued in this fashion of PCB focus, and yet we've been able to move outside of PCB design and bring in these other companies that give us the ability to expand into the ecosystem and start to con - nect design to manufacturing. Shaughnessy: One thing that I notice when I talk to designers is that the lines are blurring dramatically between ECAD and MCAD. Beyond that, there are a variety of stake- holders, as you said: the manufacturer, EMS company, purchasing agent, and manager. Is it possible to please all of these different stakeholders? Donato: One of the next major capabili- ties in Altium 19 is the seamless ability to connect PCB design to the mechani- cal space—not just one mechanical ven- dor, but multiple mechanical vendors in an effortless way that we haven't seen in the industry yet. Altium was probably one of the first—if not the first company—to take PCB into the 3D space, so we have a bit of a history going down this road. Looking beyond ECAD/MCAD integration, Altium 365 also addresses this by enabling real-time collabo- ration between designers, fabricators, material suppliers, EMS partners, managers, and every contributor or stakeholder involved in the design-to-realization process. Instead of DFM, users will be able to design with manufactur- ing in real time, and it all happens right in their browser. You don't have to install special soft- ware; it's just there, and it works. As you said, Andy, the lines are blurred. We're not throwing designs over the fence anymore. Stakeholders are working in paral- lel now and have tight constraints—not only design constraints but business pressures that more and more customers are feeling on a regular basis, which we see in our daily inter- actions. We need to have tighter collaboration between PCB designers and all of their paral- lel disciplines or counterparts straight down to the manufacturing floor itself. In Altium Designer 19 and 365, we'll see all these capabilities take things to the next level. The possibilities are truly endless here. Shaughnessy: As we both said here, the lines are blurring, and time-to-market is a driver. What are some other things that you see from where you are sitting that are driving this need for seeing seamless integration as we've never seen before? Donato: I'd say it's just the world pushing it. What I mean by that is that everything has to be connected to the internet. If a company doesn't make a smart device, they need to make one, or they won't have a company any- more. We see it constantly from our customers; they are being pushed by the global economy. It is pushing the demand to have smaller, bet- ter, cheaper, faster products, which is pushing our engineers who then push us. I think this big, massive wind in our sails is pushing every- body and driving the need for faster, tighter designs done right the first time. I think that's the other economic pressure from companies. They know that if they don't get their product out faster, somebody else will. Shaughnessy: Thank you again, Chris. Maybe I'll see you in Munich. Donato: Great. Thank you, Andy. DESIGN007