New in NX—Electronic CoDesign: PCB Design

Siemens Digital Industries Software announces several key enhancements for printed circuit board design in Siemens NX. 

New Capabilities Within PCB design  

The latest enhancements within NX will enable users to streamline mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD) and electronic computer-aided design (ECAD) collaboration workflows. This reinforces the workflow for intuitive and efficient PCB design. 

More Adaptable Features   

Within PCB Exchange, the Design Rule Manager has enhanced capabilities granting users an easier way to validate the design against corporate design rules. To view these new changes, open the customer defaults tab and find Design Rule Manager. This is where you can find new capabilities within NX. Once in the customer defaults tab, you will see a new automatic coloring feature that is controlled with a checkbox.  This gives users the ability to designate a specific color for the components within each design rule. 

Component Filtering  

Based on feedback from the NX community, Siemens now provides users with the ability to perform a new method of component type filtering. The reference designator is a feature that will help you better specify a component’s attributes. With the show log turned on, you can then see which components are “playing well” with each other. This stage is called the PCB validation stage. With the new features implemented, creating a new design rule has never been easier.

Just specify a component and measurement type and complete your tests. These improvements allow for more control over the level of detail from the validation.

Create Lightweight, Compact Products  

Rigid-flex designs have been allowing companies in multiple global industries to create complex products that require complicated circuitry. The nature of their material allows the placement and design of products to hold a smaller profile. Those who are electro-mechanical design engineers will appreciate that the creation, editing and collaboration functionality for rigid-flex designs can now occur without leaving NX.  

Improvements to the PCB Design workflow  

A prominent improvement for the new release of NX is the PCB design library management. With either imported geometry or finding out-of-the-box (OOTB) components that will work for your project within the MCAD library, you can now streamline your own library. Within PCB Exchange, you will also find a custom coordinate system (CSYS) for PCB components. This will eliminate the need to align your pieces with the global coordinate system. What this means is that you can easily work with MCAD and ECAD without ever leaving NX. 

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.