Siemens PLM Software Announces NX PCB Exchange for Zuken

TOKYO – Siemens PLM Software has announced NX™ PCB Exchange for Zuken, a new application of NX software, Siemens PLM Software’s comprehensive digital product development solution. The new solution provides direct data exchange between NX and Zuken’s CR-5000 Board Designer, a software application for printed circuit board layout, facilitating mechanical and electrical design team collaboration and significantly improving efficiency and optimization throughout product development.

“The NX PCB Exchange for Zuken package leverages our close relationship with Zuken to expand the current printed circuit board modeling capabilities in NX,” said Joan Hirsch, Vice President of Product Design Solutions for Siemens PLM Software. “This product features an enhanced dataset including not only trace and layer data, but also flexible bend region data which is unique to the NX and CR-5000 exchange. Exchanging the enhanced data set natively enables NX and CR-5000 users to streamline their MCAD and ECAD workflows. This new capability has especially high value for products where space and weight constraints are critical.”

NX PCB Exchange for Zuken delivers several capabilities that facilitate collaboration between mechanical and electrical design teams.

* Directly generates NX 3D assembly models of a printed circuit board and its components from the Board Designer data and makes it usable by all NX applications for design review and simulation.
* Provides the ability to bend or flatten a board design for assembly parts.
* Offers the ability to transmit data such as the board outline, component placements, hole placements, patterns, masks, resists and pads bi-directionally between Board Designer and NX.

“Electronic device manufacturers not only pursue styling and performance, they must sharply reduce processes from design to prototyping by effectively utilizing 3D information in order to survive the development race for product lifecycles that have been reduced to an unprecedented degree,” said Kazuhiro Kariya, chief technical officer, Zuken Inc. “For NX and CR-5000 users, this collaboration is extremely significant and compelling due to its potential to produce significant customer value with minimal additional costs.”

According to the 2009 Package Solution Marketing Report from Fuji Chimera Research Institute, Inc., in recent years, a wider range of manufactured products are employing PCBs, which make the interaction between mechanical and electrical designs more important. Traditionally the designers tried to connect those two domains with their own communication links. The direct link between MCAD and ECAD enables designers in both disciplines to share information and reflect the information on their CAD data comments.

NX PCB Exchange for Zuken is scheduled to ship at the end of this month.