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72 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2019 Article by Linda Mazzitelli PTC The ability to clearly communicate design in- tent from ECAD to MCAD is fraught with com- plexities and is a primary contributor towards missing key project milestones. "Product development now requires electro- mechanical collaboration with teams that not only work locally, but more often work across multiple states, countries, and continents, which presents a unique challenge when com- municating between the different design and engineering domains," said Alex Grange, tech- nical marketing engineer at Mentor, a Siemens Business. While collaboration is essential for ensur- ing ECAD designs and MCAD assemblies are in sync, the process itself can be time-consum- ing and error-prone, and as a result, issues can (and do) occur. In addition to the obvious technology gap between ECAD and MCAD, there is also a ter- minology gap. Terms, such as "layers" and "parts," have a slightly different connotation in each domain. Also, since work typically con- tinues after updates are sent, ensuring that the data is in sync creates its own set of challeng- es, leading to potentially more confusion and missed changes. Plus, the more popular for- mats (STEP/IDF) require supporting documen- tation to communicate their intent, and trying to find a methodology that will consistently work for you can be downright frustrating! Ron Sutherland, CAD/simulation adminis- trator at Intel, added, "At Intel, we are examin- ing our ECAD/MCAD collaboration processes more closely now than ever. The interaction and collaboration between these two engineer- ing disciplines have grown more and more vital to the successful design of electromechanical products. Close collaboration between ECAD and MCAD design engineers enables a high- er-quality product with less need for rework, which decreases time to market and costs." It's All in the Numbers Statistics show that design verification is 60–80% of the overall design cycle time due to the manual communication of engineering changes during the design review process. In addition, more than half of today's complex