Software lets you check your design in 3-D
By Gabe Moretti -- EDN, January 24, 2002
Zuken USA derived its new CADStar 3D software for checking the pc-board placement within a mechanical enclosure from the company's electromechanical-design tools. Verification in 3-D increases your confidence in the design and avoids wasted space that occurs when you use 2-D design approximations. CADStar 3D lets you import 2-D CADStar 5.0 designs into a 3-D representation, into which you can import fixtures and enclosures and check them for collisions. The tool enables designers to view the heights of all components and see potential overlap problems that could occur in manufacturing. It also highlights potential placement-sequence problems. Users can directly import mechanical-enclosure data for easy identification of potential placement errors and placement of mechanical components, such as switches, connectors, and fans, on the enclosure. The interaction that occurs with CADStar 3D allows you to fix component placement errors and to transfer the modifications back to the pc-board-design system for final processing. You can check for adherence to design rules without accessing the mechanical-design system. CADStar 3D costs $5000.
Zuken USA, 1-978-692-4900, www.zuken.com.
