March 23, 2010 – Munich, Germany and Westford, MA, USA – Zuken is making the migration from PADS to CADSTAR stress free with new functionality that enables users to migrate PADS designs into CADSTAR. The introduction of this new function will enable old PADS designs to be maintained in CADSTAR (12.0) for changing requirements or easy management of part obsolescence, while also facilitating possibilities for the re-use of tried and tested data within new PCBs.
Migrate PADS Designs to Simplify Obsolescence Management.
Despite today’s continued rapid advancement in technology, there are still a huge number of working designs which are stable and remain in production for very many years.
Even so, problems can occur when components within the PCBs become obsolete and can no longer be sourced, demanding that the designs be updated.
Managing this process manually within these legacy designs can be very time consuming. By utilizing this new functionality and migrating all the design data into CADSTAR, users can manage this process far more efficiently, using automated processes.
Users can assess how they can extend their PCB design skills into new areas that include schematic capture, through FPGA programming, final PCB design, 3D board design and clearance checking, dynamic links to MCAD designs and design release to manufacture, all within a single design environment.
When using Zuken’s CADSTAR PCB design solutions, users will have the option to continue using their older PADS designs while making use of the CADSTAR Schematics and PCB design solution available as standard.
Designers working for the industrial, medical, automotive, aerospace and defense industries that often have product lifetimes of up to 30 years; this has the opportunity to deliver the largest benefits.
Design Re-Use
Re-using blocks of a design to be employed in other applications is a well known technique for saving time and guaranteeing reliability, but the scope is often limited when legacy designs remain in a format that cannot be edited within the current design tool. The new migration tool from Zuken will mean that users can re-use even the oldest of data for new applications.
For more information about CADSTAR 12.0’s PADS migration capabilities visit www.zuken.com/cadstar-migration and download the white paper ‘Shelving the barriers to PCB design migration’.