Has anybody ever used CircuitWorks or Desktop to bring in PCB design data? What kind of success have had? Failures? things to look out for? I used to do this years ago when I worked on Pro/E and Mentor Graphics but now I need to do this with Solidworks. I know I need the EMN and EMP files to import and I can export an IDF file. Which one of the programs would you suggest?
Richard Duck
We use Desktop EDA to bring in IDF files from Veribest. Absolutely no problems. Cheap and reliable. Good support by email. Just got Gold certified. We looked at Circuitworks, but it cost a lot more for no additional benefit.
bp Brian Park DVC Co.
Richard,
Several clients have adopted Desktop EDA. It works as advertised. Most of the choices came down to cost - with EDA being cheaper than Circuitworks.
I believe you can download demo copies of both programs. Using the supplied demo data should give you a good feel for each program. They are not hard to set-up so testing both of them wouldn't be a big time burden.
A little more time will be required if you use a PDM system since they look for existing library folders.
Cheers,
Len
Richard, We have used CircuitWorks since its inception and ben involved with its ongoing improvement. It works very well, either creating its own 'skyscraper' models or using your own SolidWorks library parts. You can filter out items that are not parts, such as test pads, fiducials etc. and decide whether holes are shown and which ones. I would recommend you trying it out.
Pete Nichols peter.nichols snipped-for-privacy@megger.com (throw out _RUBBISH)
If you will be using this in-house only these programs are not bad. If you plan on bringing in outside PCBA's however you may not have the correct alignment between the IDF file and the true PCBA. We build PCBA test fixtures and wated to try and bring in IDF data to get a virtual PCBA. How the individual parts are set-up may change how the part is aligned into the PCBA.
Jess
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