CAD Software Keeps Pace With Computer System Development
Some custom system builders use CAD applications such as AutoDesk Inc.'s AutoCAD to create illustrations for contract proposals and system documentation for customers. Others use AutoCAD and applications such as Parametric Technology Corp.'s (PTC) Pro/Engineer to develop and test system designs. And those that design their own system boards use PCB design applications from Mentor Graphics Corp., Cadence Design Systems Inc. and others.
The capabilities of the CAD applications have advanced rapidly in recent years—take a look at AutoCAD's increasingly sophisticated three-dimensional drawing capabilities. But the more recent major trend in CAD has been to link different types of design software, such as electrical and mechanical CAD, and integrate CAD applications with product life-cycle management (PLM) systems with the goal of sharing system design information and other data.
PCB design products from Mentor Graphics, including Board Station, Expedition Enterprise and PADS, account for roughly $200 million of the Wilsonville, Ore.-based company's annual sales, said John Isaac, director of market development for the company's systems design division in Longmont, Colo.
The increasing complexity of today's information technology "presents extreme problems for the designers," Isaac said. Take the example of high-density interconnect components, which generate a lot of heat. To help designers tackle that problem, Mentor recently acquired U.K.-based Flomerics Group PLC, whose computational fluid dynamics analysis software will add advanced electronic cooling thermal analysis—typically used by mechanical engineers—to Mentor's PCB design tools.
Robert Stewart, CEO of Alert Computing LLC, a Sedona, Ariz.-based custom system builder, uses CAD software to provide his clients with graphical renderings of what the guts of his custom servers will look like. "I know how to build them," he said. "But the IT department wants to see what it will look like."
Stewart often uses San Rafael, Calif.-based AutoDesk's AutoCAD application to draw the designs for his customers, but he sometimes uses CAD applications from Concord, Mass.-based Dassault Systemes' SolidWorks Corp.
He's not alone. AutoCAD is being used by an increasing number of system builders for general system design and specific tasks such as designing computer enclosures, according to Chris Hession, AutoCAD product marketing manager. AutoCAD is also used for communicating computer system plans throughout a company, such as between engineering and manufacturing operations, and providing supporting documentation for customers.
While AutoCAD offers both two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics capabilities, Hession said system builders are demanding increasingly sophisticated 3-D technology.
"Our more progressive customers have really been pushing us on the 3-D side," he said. Some of that, he said, is due to the number of people who grew up playing hyper-realistic video games and expect the same experience as they move into the workforce.
Stewart said CAD vendors, surprisingly, don't offer an application with specific capabilities for designing computers—he uses general CAD and drafting software like AutoCAD and SolidWorks to create illustrations of his servers.
Cadence's PCB design software, including its Allegro Design Workbench, has long been a staple among electrical engineers. But with its expanding collaborative design and data management capabilities, the software is reaching into other departments such as purchasing and component engineering, said Linda Mazzitelli, ADW product marketing director at the San Jose, Calif.-based company.
Next: PCB design PTC doesn't have an application specifically for PCB design. But the Needham, Mass.-based company's flagship Pro/Engineer 3-D mechanical CAD application is used for a broad range of system-design tasks. About 25 percent of Pro/Engineer sales are through VARs to smaller companies, according to Chad Hawkinson, vice president of product strategy, electronics.
Like other CAD software vendors, PTC has been working to integrate its multiple products to improve sharing of system data and designs across a company. PTC, for example, has linked its Mathcad software, which is popular among electrical engineers, with Pro/Engineer for a range of design tasks. In late 2007 PTC acquired CoCreate Software, a line of CAD and product data management applications.
PTC's two-year-old Product Development System is an effort to manage and synchronize electrical, mechanical and software design data and project teams. The PDS offers system designers a way to integrate Pro/Engineer with electrical CAD tools and software configuration management software, the latter including IBM's Rational ClearCase.
"The key issue we hear about the most from our customers is how to align the different disciplines during the design process," Hawkinson said.
In September, Mentor and PTC announced links between Mentor's electrical CAD products and PTC's mechanical CAD tools based on electromechanical data interchange standards approved by the ProSTEP iViP Association, a CAD industry standards organization. That linkage, according to the companies, provides design collaboration capabilities that will improve a company's CAD process from design inception to manufacturing.
One of the biggest trends is linking CAD applications to major product life-cycle management (PLM) systems in an effort to take company-wide sharing of product data to the next level.
Cadence, for example, has integrated ADW with Paris-based Dassault Systemes' PLM system and Mazzitelli said links to other PLM systems are in the works. That allows engineers to tap into PLM data, such as customer specifications for computer systems, and load it into their desktop CAD systems. AutoDesk has been working to link its AutoDesk Inventor (for digital prototyping) and AutoCAD Electrical (for designing and documenting electrical control systems) with PLM systems, Hession said, although he declined to provide more details.
PTC offers its own PLM system, Windchill, for managing product data through change management and release-to-manufacturing processes and to help system designers collaborate with outside developers. In June PTC unveiled Windchill ProductPoint, a system based on Microsoft Corp.'s Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the .Net framework for capturing, handling and sharing product development information. ProductPoint supports Pro/Engineer data as well as other CAD file formats.
Most CAD applications support a range of operating environments. While many have their roots in Unix, many also support Windows and now support Linux as well. PTC, for example, supports HP-UX, IBM AIX and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris, as well as Windows, Linux and a number of IBM platforms. Cadence supports Windows, Linux and Solaris.
AutoCAD, however, currently runs only on Windows-based PCs, but Hession wouldn't rule out support for other desktop operating systems in the future. "It's something we're always looking at," he said.
While the CAD industry isn't immune from the economic slowdown, Mentor's Isaac said businesses such as custom system builders still need CAD technology to design ever-more innovative products to stay ahead of the competition and to design those products in a more cost-effective manner.
Cadence's Mazzitelli said the goal within most businesses today is to do more with less and increase IT ROI. Today's more tightly integrated CAD systems help system builders get their designs to manufacturing more quickly.