Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1417991
16 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2021 these two worlds together, not only in under- standing what each of them is doing, but also making them talk the same language. If you have a fantastic CAD system with all colors, 3D dimensions, 3D views, and so on, then you need to convey this information to your manufacturer. ere are hardly any means to do so. Most of these CAD systems have little to no knowledge whatsoever about decent DFM rules and doing design for manufacturability. ere is no real manufacturing experience in these systems. e idea that you can drive a printed circuit board manufacturing shop from a CAD system is ludicrous. I mean, there are people thinking that this is possible. I don't think that I will ever experience this in my life. It's because these people are living in a differ- ent world. A CAM system is needed. You need some translation from CAD to CAM, and my dream is to build a bridge between CAD and CAM and being able to cross this bridge in two directions. And why is that? Because in the prototype phase, you're not dealing with a purchaser. e purchaser has probably never seen a PCB board from a close range. You're dealing with a designer, the guy who made the layout, and designers make mis- takes. ere's hardly any board where there is no mistake. Prototypes are also quick turn- around. We need them yesterday. Mistakes need to be cleared and corrected, and many times, the manufacturer corrects these mis- takes. So, how do you get the corrections back to the designer? It would be very efficient if you could cross this bridge in two directions. e Gerber format is a nice tool for this. For 30 years, we've made prototypes in PCB, and for the past four years in assembly; that's where it becomes even more complex. e world of PCB is very organized, but the world in assembly is a jungle. Nothing is organized. Not even formats are well specified. You can make your BOM in any way you like. As long as you understand what you're doing it's fine. As long as you stay in your CAD system, the world is wonderful. en you output it, and nobody understands it anymore. We need standardiza- tion coming from within the CAD system. For many years, I've been nagging Karel, saying, "Please make me X3," because at least then we have standardization about how to bring component information out of the CAD system. Some CAD systems have already adopted the component placement file (CPL); where components are concerned, that's dra- matic. My idea is a big step forward. e only question is, "Do people implement it from the CAD side?" at is not an unimportant thing. If you look purely at our situation, we process over 100,000 PCB data sets for orders per year; about 10,000 of them are assembled. For every order there are at least five times the number of calculations and analyses made before that. People can do that freely on our website. e tools are available, free to use, for all Eurocir- cuits users. at means that, per day, at least some 2,000 data sets are processed by our tools. e underlying tools are Karel's soware. We built our own platform on the Integrator. Tavernier: An impressive platform, I would say. Stans: ank you. It's a PCB and PCBA visu- alizer, so you can visualize and virtually pro- duce your PCB already, including the assem- bly, online, prior to ordering. It's free to use for Eurocircuits users. If I take this data per day, then the bulk that is supplied to us is Gerber X2, and some part in native EAGLE and native Most of these CAD systems have little to no knowledge whatsoever about decent DFM rules and doing design for manufacturability.