Tool suite improves high complexity board design

A major upgrade to the CR-5000 enterprise-wide printed circuit board design suite of tools includes 44 productivity enhancements.

Zuken has announced a major upgrade to its CR-5000 enterprise-wide printed circuit board (PCB) design suite of tools that includes 44 productivity enhancements in schematic capture, PCB layout and simulation.

CR-5000 Version 8.01 is a constraints-driven tool suite aimed at designers of high complexity boards that use extreme miniaturisation technologies such as embedded passives, flex circuits, high-density interconnects and FPGAs.

CR-5000 capabilities include RF design, design re-use and design partitioning with core design strengths that meet the requirements of consumer and high-tech electronics applications.

Version 8.01 has been built on the same design structure and methodology of version 7, which, due to a strict quality management philosophy experienced only two critical bugs in 21 months.

The improved version of CR-5000 has been developed in accordance with even higher quality standards, but also meets the growing demand for functionality to deal with variations, personalisation and increased complexity - while being a fully integrated system.

Enhancements to System Designer, CR-5000's schematic capture and analysis module, include a net connect view, the ability to both import and export net label and pin information in CSV format, new fault analysis functions and a property viewer that can be used during symbol re-load.

The upgrades to Board Designer, CR-5000's placement and routing module, mean that users now have use of automatic area correction functionality, benefit from even deeper integration with mechanical CAD and can achieve more consistent star-point connections.

The board layout tool can now space tracks automatically based on the electrical potential difference between them, and has support for multiple bond wires.

These and other productivity enhancements in the tool suite cut time to market and improve design quality.

Within System Designer, the net connect view enables net connections to be displayed over multiple sheets, and also means that pins can be selected on the schematic from a list to provide connection checking.

While earlier versions of the tool allowed only export, version 8.01 allows both the import and export of CSV data for net labels and pins, enabling constraints to be assigned without time-consuming analysis.

Now data can be exported, net information can be selected in Excel and reassigned to each net on the schematic and the data then imported back into the design.

The new fault analysis function allows easy testing of devices for open/short circuits and eliminates the need to export to a separate visualisation tool when only simple visualisation is needed.

This is particularly useful for creating documentation as it allows the user to omit symbols and colour codes that are not needed.

Views can be displayed when required, and independently controlled with the CR-5000 Version 8.01 property viewer.

This removes screen clutter and improves legibility, making it easier to create technical manuals or provide instructions for trouble-shooting.

Within Board Designer, the work involved in defining and editing conductive areas for wiring patterns and components is now greatly reduced through automation.

The "automatic correct area" function saves the user time, allowing them to focus on the more critical aspects of PCB design.

Mechanical CAD integration is improved with a two-way interface between footprints and DXF or Iges formats.

For the first time, footprints can be imported into the library for re-use in multiple designs.

CR-5000 Version 8.01 also allows star-points to be legal objects while maintaining consistency through schematic and PCB databases.

The new capability of the tool to add more bond wires, thereby increasing current carrying capacity, also includes a function for moving bond wire terminal positions, allowing a better distribution balance of wire bonds.

CR-5000 Version 8.01 is available now priced from $3000 per seat for System Designer and $38,000 per seat for Board Designer.

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