Trends in product design are requiring a more tightly interwoven design process between electrical and mechanical design teams. While this process has been merged from a consumer perspective, the back-end design workflow for these products still relies upon dated processes where design teams work in isolation.
The MCAD Co-Designer extension aims to eliminate the barriers between electrical and mechanical design teams by integrating the design data between ECAD and MCAD software environments. Component models and electrical data can be worked on independently in both design environments, and completed design data can then be joined into a unified component model.
With this latest extension designers have the ability to make changes to component placement and board shape in their respective design environments. With design data being linked between Altium Designer and a mechanical designer's software environment, designers can now export board assemblies to MCAD software with included copper information, allowing mechanical designers to perform thermal, vibration, and other mechanical simulations.
