Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1470111
44 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2022 Pawela: e problem is that each of these groups of people—designers, supply chain management, and manufacturers—have fun- damentally different concerns. Yes, everybody wants to get PCBs and products built, but their requirements are different. You complicate that with the fact that they're generally not next-door neighbors. Manufacturing could be on a different continent, or at least in a differ- ent part of the country. Time, language, and communication style all get in the way, and if that's not enough, now in the last year or so, we've had these incredible supply chain and component shortages. Shaughnessy: Can you tell me what Altium is doing to address this? Pawela: Altium's mission is to help address these challenges through soware innova- tion, and in doing so, to transform the way our industry works. In the last couple of years we've taken three major steps toward making this idea a reality. e first is Altium 365, our cloud platform for PCB design. Nearly 20,000 Altium users are using this platform to collab- orate more easily than ever before with their colleagues throughout the design-to-realiza- tion process, across time zones, geographies, and departments. e second big project has been the intro- duction of Nexar. is is the partner-facing side of the Altium 365 cloud platform, com- prised of an open API that connects to all things PCB, including the design tools but also the unbelievably rich data we have for the electronics supply chain. e Nexar API has enabled us to work with MacroFab and others to begin building an ecosystem of partners and solutions that will make PCB design more con- nected to overall product design and manufac- turing. Nexar provides a standard and sustain- able way for partners to integrate with Altium 365, and as they do so, Altium 365 is becom- ing relevant to mechanical design, purchasing, program management, and all the functional domains that are required to go from concept to product. It's one easy-to-use cloud platform, enabling the entire team to collaborate simply and naturally. is leads me to the third major step we've made toward industry transformation. You'll recall that one of the important collabora- tion use cases that we've talked about before is between designers and manufacturers, with the intent of bringing manufacturing consider- ations into the design process much earlier. As you said, to go from design for manufacturing to design with manufacturing. Shaughnessy: ese are important steps and I bet this is making a difference. Tell me about Altimade. Pawela: Altimade is an application that we've built on Altium 365, in partnership with Mac- roFab, that makes it much easier and more convenient for an engineer or designer to not only design but actually get prototype printed circuit boards manufactured. Designers can get pricing and place an order for a fully assembled board directly inside the Altium design environment. It also enables the manu- facturer to provide feedback to board design- ers directly on the original design, eliminating the need to resolve issues through a series of Ted Pawela