Design Environment

P-CAD 2006 gives you full access to the power of the latest PC platforms and Windows operating systems, creating a design environment with productivity firmly in mind. Dockable/floating/resizable toolbars, recently used file picks, tabbing to status line fields and keyboard shortcuts are just a few of the familiar features that make you feel at home with P-CAD 2006.

Taking full advantage of this environment, P-CAD 2006 lets you to query, move, copy, delete, and modify practically anything on the screen - with full context-sensitivity. Double-click an item to directly view and edit its properties. To accurately choose the objects you want to edit, P-CAD 2006 gives you an extensive range of powerful selection features, including selection-by-query, block selection, and selection of highlighted objects.

With P-CAD 2006 you customize the work environment to suit your needs and control design output to meet your standards. Reports can be fully customized to define the fields that are output, under what conditions, and in which order; custom pad designs are supported for those special shapes that you might need; and metric and imperial units are readily mixed to support worldwide operations. Define custom toolbars to allow direct access of external applications from the P-CAD menu and toolbar. User-defined fields and attributes give you full control over the data saved with your design, and actions based on that data.

P-CAD 2006's PCB editor supports up to 999 design layers, giving you virtually unlimited design potential. You have total flexibility in adding, naming, numbering, and assigning layers to your PCB design. P-CAD 2006 supports layer names with up to 30 characters to make your design and reports easy to view and read, and you can easily enable or disable individual layers for printing and/or viewing. The ability to fully define the properties of custom layers gives you unbounded flexibility in the definition of your board. For each custom layer you can set its type (signal, non-signal, plane), routing bias, color name and number.

Schematic capture with power and precision

To stay competitive and at the cutting edge you need the freedom to tackle designs of any complexity.

P-CAD 2006's powerful schematic editor works with you to create even the most detailed hierarchical multi-sheet schematics. Providing support for up to 999 sheets, the schematic editor's powerful interactive placement and editing tools give you all the power you need to support your most complex designs.

PCB Design

P-CAD 2006 provides a highly versatile and flexible environment for PCB layout and editing. Difficult concepts such as pad stacks and blind/buried vias are addressed with logical, intuitive dialog boxes and menus. Prompt and Status lines keep you informed with extensive online information, while the graphical icon-based toolbars provides single-click access to common commands and settings.

With P-CAD 2006's PCB editor, loading a netlist adds connections, components and attributes for nets and components to your PCB design. Missing patterns are no problem. P-CAD 2006 creates a placeholder pattern for any components in the netlist that don't have an attached pattern, allowing it to load without an error. You can then assign correct patterns at a later stage. Such successive disclosure readily supports adding data whenever it is available during the design cycle.

When placing components it is precision and flexibility that counts, and P-CAD 2006 gets the job done with ease. Graphically browse library patterns during placement and quickly change a component's reference designator. You can flip components, move components by designators, rotate entries on user-defined increments to 0.1 degrees, or replace one or more components by type. With P-CAD 2006 the power is in your hands.

Difficult component placement challenges arise from dense PCBs and short design cycles. P-CAD 2006 meets these challenges head-on by providing interactive placement and organization tools that make correct component placement quick and easy.

Design Verification

Reducing design iterations saves you time and money. P-CAD 2006 includes extensive Design Rule Checking (DRC) features that ensure your board's integrity through to manufacture. The batch DRC checks for clearance, silk-screen, copper pour, drill, plane, text, board edge clearance, and netlist violations. It also checks for unrouted nets, unconnected pins, and "less-than-complete" electrical connections.

You can check clearances layer-by-layer and item-to-item to ensure your minimum clearances are met in all circumstances.

P-CAD 2006 includes hierarchical design rules for class-to-class, net, net class, and design level precedence. To find, evaluate and fix errors quickly and efficiently, DRC error indicators track error type and location. Combined with P-CAD 2006's sophisticated filtering and error validation features, these error markers pinpoint trouble spots fast.

Advanced Editing Features

P-CAD 2006's advanced editing features put you in control of the PCB design process. Extensive cut/copy/paste support includes support for copying complete circuits, with control over reference designator and net naming, plus the handling of net attributes to favor the design or circuit. Such expediency for duplicating circuitry is particularly valuable for full or partial design re-use, such as the creation of multiple channels for an audio application.

To change the pattern assigned to a component, P-CAD 2006 allows you to select from multiple pattern graphics pre-assigned to a component, or to browse and select from a list of patterns with matching pad counts. When swapping patterns a new component is created on-the-fly and replaces the original one. The component has the same gate and pin designations as the original, and its attributes can be viewed, changed, deleted, or added before it is saved. In this manner, P-CAD 2006 further supports the philosophy of adding data whenever it becomes available.

For better placement results, connection lines are dynamically optimized when components are placed or moved so you can instantly determine the best component positions.

When reconnecting nets, you can optionally add a system-assigned net name to "free copper" when the copper connects two or more non-net nodes (nodes not already assigned to a net).

ECOs generated when splitting nets will only remove copper tracks local to the change to minimize re-routing.

Powerful Interactive Placement tools with precise component positioning

When placing components it is precision and flexibility that counts, and P-CAD 2006 gets the job done with ease. Graphically browse library patterns during placement and quickly change a component's reference designator. You can flip components, move components by designators, rotate entries on user-defined increments to 0.1 degrees, or replace one or more components by type. With P-CAD 2006 the power is in your hands.

With P-CAD 2006's powerful parametric pattern graphics feature you can assign multiple graphics to a single pattern and define different graphics to be automatically displayed as you rotate a component or swap layers during placement, or according to the specified direction of solder flow. You can also manually swap pattern graphics for a component at any time - very useful for tight spaces when you need to insert a resistor on its end, for example.

Difficult component placement challenges arise from dense PCBs and short design cycles. P-CAD 2006 meets these challenges head-on by providing interactive placement and organization tools that make correct component placement quick and easy. P-CAD 2006 provides Visual Placement Areas that show clearly where a component can be placed without violating design constraints. Physical, electrical, and manufacturing rules can be analyzed simultaneously or independently. For example, the placement area for a given component might consider component spacing, maximum net length, and component height restrictions at the same time.

P-CAD 2006 displays the board regions satisfying the desired rules, helping you determine which design constraints are limiting placement options. Components can be clustered by different properties including placement side, reference designator, type, pin count, package size, and height. These flexible functions assist you in organizing components for efficient placement, no matter what kind of board you are creating.

Design Synchronizer

P-CAD 2006's schematic editor provides advanced linking between your schematic and PCB layout, allowing you to transfer design data, automatically cross-probe between documents, and forward and back-annotate your design.

P-CAD's netlist supports system and user-defined attributes as well as component and net connectivity. The netlist includes all design constraints and attributes, including those that are defined mathematically based on other constraints. These are subsequently used to constrain PCB placement, routing and manufacturing.

P-CAD 2006 uses advanced DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) techniques to enable a variety of cross-probe features. When both a schematic and its corresponding PCB documents are open on the desktop, highlighted component and net information is visible in both applications. For example, highlighting a net or component in one document highlights the corresponding net or component in the other.

A full set of Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) is supported for forward and back annotation with the PCB layout to keep them synchronized and current. From the schematic you can record ECOs for use by the PCB editor, or import ECOs generated from the PCB, depending on where the change was initiated. Pending ECOs can be viewed while still in memory, giving you full control of the forward and back annotation process.

ECOs can record reference designator changes (Was-Is), net name changes, pin and gate swap changes, and additions, deletions, and modifications of components, parts, nets, net nodes, and attributes.

Manual Routing

For precise control over track placement P-CAD 2006 includes a host of powerful manual routing features that let you quickly lay down traces exactly where you want.

Manually route traces using 45°, 90° and any angle curved placement modes, with hot-key control over corners. Corners can be constrained to 45 degree or orthogonal, or placed at any angle. Corner arcs are fully supported as well. Any-angle, tangential arc routing supports high speed and flex board requirements, with the arc radius specified on the status line.

Easily start a route anywhere along existing copper using P-CAD 2006's "T" and "Y" routing features. Change layers during manual routing and P-CAD 2006 will automatically insert a via for you. Trace width and via style attributes are automatically applied.

While routing a connection you can stop placing traces at any point and let P-CAD 2006 complete the connection for you, or leave the connection partially routed with the option to automatically re-optimize connection lines to the end of the partial route. Manually route to the center of a pad, via, or the endpoint of a line that is not part of any net and P-CAD 2006 adds that item to the net being routed.

Autorouting

P-CAD 2006 features Altium's second-generation Situs Topological Autorouter offering users the latest in autorouting technology. Included as part of P-CAD 2006’s DXP Bonus Technologies, Situs utilizes a topological approach to autorouting and, as such, is able to map the routing space of the board to the greatest efficiency - free of the coordinate and geometric constraints of grid and shape-based routers.

The Router essentially creates a map of the routing space by performing spatial analysis between neighbouring objects on the board (based on triangulation), which the Router then uses to identify the most efficient path through the space. The paths found can take any angle along their route from source pad to destination pad.

After the topological map has been created and the initial routing paths for the board identified, various routing algorithms are called on by the routing strategy to produce high-quality finished routes. These routing algorithms perform the tasks (e.g. push and shove, hugging, routing direction, fanout) that turn the virtual paths identified in the topological map into routing reality. The routing algorithms closely follow the electrical and routing design rules defined for the design.

Design-For-Manufacture support

P-CAD 2006 gives you full design output and documentation support to ensure a smooth passage to manufacture. With extensive DXF import/export support, full Gerber output control, and complete design annotation and documentation features P-CAD 2006 meets all your output needs. From within the PCB editor, comprehensive dimension editing features allow you to effortlessly move dimensions and edit properties. Extensive DXF import/export support, full Gerber output control, and comprehensive design annotation and documentation features ensure a smooth passage to manufacture.

P-CAD 2006's updated IDF translator ensures a fluid exchange of design data between the P-CAD PCB editor and mechanical designers, ensuring clear communications for more effective solid model form-fit analysis and placement of critical components.

Also included with P-CAD 2006 is CAMtastic DXP, giving you the power to directly export your PCB files into the perfect environment to view, print, convert, edit, analyze and verify critical manufacturing data.

CAMtastic DXP loads most popular CAM formats and provides all the graphical and geometrical tools you need to Edit/Modify any design. With extensive fabrication and assembly tools, CAMtastic DXP allows you to gracefully translate between all commonly used CAM formats. Loading, editing and outputting manufacturing data has never been easier.

Signal Integrity

Ensure the "real world" performance of your board design with P-CAD 2006’s sophisticated signal integrity simulator. Providing detailed and valuable information on overshoot, under-shoot, impedance and signal slope, the simulator takes the guesswork out of your design.

To investigate problems, P-CAD 2006's integrated signal integrity simulator uses advanced transmission line calculations and I/O buffer macro-model information as input for accurate signal integrity analysis of your board using a fast reflection and crosstalk simulator model. A powerful CRO-like wave analyzer shows simulation results of any net in graphical form, with full zoom and measurement support.

P-CAD 2006’s signal integrity simulator includes a powerful Termination Advisor that lets you explore the effects of different termination options without having to alter your board. Simply select a termination method for any node in the Advisor and re-run the analysis to see the results. Don’t waste time with trial-and-error board redesigns, with P-CAD 2006 you can eliminate signal integrity problems before committing your board to manufacture.

Library Management

Finding, creating and managing components is fundamental to efficient design, and P-CAD 2006 is specifically designed to put every aspect of library management under your complete control.

P-CAD 2006 takes library organization to new heights with a powerful library manager that acts as your complete library control center. P-CAD 2006's unique integrated component library system stores all component information, making true forward/back annotation between the schematic and PCB possible. Create integrated components complete with schematic symbols and PCB patterns, copy and paste components between libraries, and link components to your corporate databases.

P-CAD 2006 allows you to create and store multiple and varying pattern graphics for each component, giving you the option of manual or automatic graphic swapping to suit component orientation or specific design requirements, enhancing placement efficiency.

Bonus Technologies

To add even more power to your PCB Design Package, we’ve included two bonus technologies that will further enhance your design capabilities!

CAMtastic! 2006

Also included with P-CAD 2006 is CAMtastic! 2006, giving you the power to directly export your PCB files into the perfect environment to view, print, convert, edit, analyze and verify critical manufacturing data.

CAMtastic!^® 2006 loads most popular CAM formats and provides all the graphical and geometrical tools you need to Edit/Modify any design. With extensive fabrication and assembly tools, CAMtastic!^® 2000 Designers’ Edition allows you to gracefully translate between all commonly used CAM formats. Loading, editing and outputting manufacturing data has never been easier.

Mixed-Signal Circuit Simulator

To achieve timely product development it’s crucial to know that your circuit will work just the way you expect. P-CAD 2006 now includes a powerful mixed analog and digital circuit simulator, based on the latest XSPICE 3f5 engine, allowing you to verify and fine tune your design before laying out the board.

The Mixed-Mode Circuit Simulator, supplied with each P-CAD 2006 license, uses advanced analog and digital modeling techniques to generate accurate, "real-world" simulations of analog, digital and mixed-mode circuits directly from a P-CAD 2006 schematic at the touch of a button.

With no limit on the number of circuit nodes the simulator can handle designs of any complexity. Effects such as propagation delays, setup and hold times, output loading – in fact almost all physical circuit parameters – are fully accounted for, ensuring you get results you can trust. And P-CAD 2006 comes supplied with a comprehensive set of simulation-ready libraries containing almost 6,000 analog and digital devices, allowing you to model your design "straight from the box".

Being a true mixed-signal environment, the Mixed-Mode Circuit Simulator integrates the simulation of continuous analog waveforms and discrete digital signals. You can run and view complex analog and digital simulation waveforms side-by-side, giving a full picture of your circuit’s performance.

And because the Mixed-Mode Circuit Simulator provides true SPICE compatibility – the industry standard for analog simulation – you can use all the latest device manufacturers’ models directly with P-CAD 2006.