{"id":212,"date":"2018-05-11T22:27:12","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T22:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/?p=212"},"modified":"2020-08-29T18:11:37","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T18:11:37","slug":"when-it-comes-to-libraries-maybe-its-time-to-take-a-page-from-the-mechanical-folks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/05\/11\/when-it-comes-to-libraries-maybe-its-time-to-take-a-page-from-the-mechanical-folks\/","title":{"rendered":"When it comes to libraries, maybe it\u2019s time to take a page from the mechanical folks!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Recently, Nine Dot Connects, a printed circuit board centric organization, became the national VAR for SOLIDWORKS PCB.\u00a0 With that came the opportunity to explore the mechanical side of design in our effort to better understand and prepare for the future of mechatronic design. Like the old saying, \u2018Can\u2019t see the forest for the trees\u2019, this insight into the mechanical domain gave us the opportunity to step back and see the electrical design flow from afar.\u00a0 It became apparent when compared to mechanical libraries, the PCB library structure is complicated by several factors, some by the very nature of electrical design, and others are self-inflicted by the PCB industry.<\/p>\n

The Design Process<\/u><\/p>\n

The mechanical design process is linear.\u00a0 One creates the part, and by creating the part, also creates a library component.\u00a0 That part is combined with others to form an assembly.\u00a0 By creating an assembly of parts, MCAD tools can quickly pull together the drawing (a.k.a. the blueprint) for manufacturing.\u00a0 It is a linear design process that builds upon itself.<\/p>\n

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In the PCB design domain, however, there are four editors.\u00a0 We need to have two representations of the electronic component; the symbol for the schematic and the footprint for the PCB layout.\u00a0 Once we create the symbol or footprint, we must place them onto the schematic editor and layout editor, respectively.<\/p>\n

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We create a schematic with all the symbols and wire them together.\u00a0 Upon completion, we push a netlist over.\u00a0 In tools like SOLIDWORKS PCB, if we\u2019ve properly created and linked footprints to the symbol, we get a pile of footprints (in no particular order) adjacent to PCB, along with connection lines (generally referred to as the rat\u2019s nest) to provide some guidance about connectivity between components.\u00a0 Then the process of placing the components and routing commences.\u00a0 In short, we create two drawings from scratch!\u00a0 PCB designers do not get the benefit of building the PCB directly off of the schematic. The schematic is conceptual and dimensionless; the PCB layout is physical.<\/p>\n

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Three schematics – completed schematic design<\/em><\/p>\n

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Information extracted from the schematics (minus the board shape)<\/em><\/p>\n

Lack of a Universal Library Format in ECAD<\/u><\/p>\n

MCAD tools like SOLIDWORKS CAD make use of the STEP format. \u00a0While no MCAD tool uses this as its default format, it can import and export STEP.\u00a0 This allows companies and component distributors to provide graphical representations of their products.\u00a0 This is a monumental time saving to the mechanical designer.\u00a0 Even electrical designers using SOLIDWORKS PCB who have little mechanical skills or access to such skills benefit from 3D components being widely available.<\/p>\n

Yet, nothing like this exists for ECAD.\u00a0 The EDA companies are so protective of their formats and market share, they make no effort to create an equivalent format to STEP.\u00a0 Though IPC has standards for a proper footprint, it does not call out a universal format usable by any tool.\u00a0 As a result, one becomes reliant upon libraries provided by the user community, the EDA company, importation and translation from other EDA tools, and the work done by the PCB designer.<\/p>\n

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An example of a symbol and footprint for the Atmel Mega chip.\u00a0 Note that if this was posted on-line, it could only be used by those who were using the same tool or a tool able to import the component.\u00a0 Note that importing means translation which is a nice way of saying \u2018clean up.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Millions of components<\/u><\/p>\n

Although mechanical and electrical design domains each have millions of components available to them, mechanical has the advantage of customization and in-house prototyping.\u00a0 It is easier to have a metal shop, 3D printers, or molding equipment than it is to have a silicon foundry and component packaging facility required to create electronic components.\u00a0 There are few technology companies out there that can take a custom design and put it into a computer chip.<\/p>\n

Most companies must select components on the market that are best suited based on functionality, cost, PCB real estate, lead time, etc.\u00a0 It does not mean mechanical has to spend less time figuring out which components are best suited, but they can go in the shop and create a prototype at their discretion. The PCB designers are limited to COTS (Common-Off-The-Shelf) components.<\/p>\n

This not only forces the PCB designer to \u2018fit a square peg into a round hole\u2019, but the lack of a universal library format also requires the reinventing of the wheel.\u00a0 Currently, if 100 different companies use a particular component, they will each invest precious design time to search for and\/or draw the component based on their ECAD tool. This is a massive waste of productivity for the entire PCB industry.<\/p>\n

The takeaway from all of this is that the PCB industry needs to address the flow and it boils down to libraries.\u00a0 Right now, every company is or has gone through the pains of pulling together an electronics library and most companies admit that their solution is far from perfect.<\/p>\n

The PCB library component creation and its management are a nightmare.\u00a0 Much of this can be remedied by allowing for a universal ECAD format which enables OEMs and suppliers the ability to provide these components to the user.\u00a0 And it is only going to get worse.\u00a0 Whether we like it or not, the age of mechatronics is upon us.\u00a0 If electronic libraries are a hassle now, wait until the mechanical and electronic libraries need to be merged!<\/p>\n

Authored by Paul Taubman<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, Nine Dot Connects, a printed circuit board centric organization, became the national VAR for SOLIDWORKS PCB.\u00a0 With that came the opportunity to explore the mechanical side of design in our effort to better understand and prepare for the future of mechatronic design. Like the old saying, \u2018Can\u2019t see the forest for the trees\u2019, this … Continue reading When it comes to libraries, maybe it\u2019s time to take a page from the mechanical folks!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[92,91,86,87,84,85,32,59,89,88,90],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechatronics","tag-3d","tag-footprint-library","tag-libraries","tag-mechanical-engineer","tag-mechatronic","tag-mechatronics","tag-pcb","tag-pcb-layout","tag-schematic-capture","tag-solidworks-pcb","tag-symbol-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninedotconnectssandbox.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}