Enhancements to proven PCB design system

The latest version of the P-CAD PCB design system includes more than 60 new and enhanced features, building on the proven stability and precision of the P-CAD product.

The latest version of the P-CAD PCB design system includes more than 60 new and enhanced features, building on the proven stability and precision of the P-CAD product.

"In today's PCB design market, a key challenge facing designers is increasing board complexity", says Nick Martin, Joint CEO and founder of Altium.

"P-CAD 2002 incorporates significant enhancements that address board complexity issues by concentrating on improving ease of use and offering a greater depth of control, specifically in the board layout stage".

Many interface elements have been redesigned in P-CAD 2002 to give PCB layout specialists enhanced ease of use and a more productive design environment.

A major new addition is the design manager feature that allows users to view and manage design data more easily.

It presents spreadsheet-like component and net views that are integrated into the PCB layout environment, allowing superior control over key elements of the design.

Another new feature is the visual placement area (VPA) interactive rules-based placement tool that, when a component is being placed, analyses design constraints and displays overlays representing the legal regions of the board in which a component may be placed.

This feature makes the critical component placement phase of PCB design faster and gives more control to the designer.

P-CAD 2002 introduces the ability to display an individual net's traces, connections and objects in their own unique colours.

This useful visualisation feature enables designers to easily see individual nets in the context of the board.

Other notable features of P-CAD 2002 include support for Valor's ODB++ file format, support for True Type fonts in Gerber and ODB++, component clearance rule checking, and a number of usability-targeted GUI refinements.

P-CAD 2002 is available immediately for purchase.

The P-CAD 2002 full suite is priced at US $9995 and upgrades start from US $1995.

Existing P-CAD customers who are on a valid prepaid upgrade contract will be shipped the new version automatically as part of their support contract.

Eligible users can expect to receive their new P-CAD 2002 product by the end of November.

A 30-day fully functional trial version of P-CAD 2002 will be available shortly for download from www.pcad.com.

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