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CircuitWorks is a SolidWorks add-in product
which adds functionality to SolidWorks to allow it to read and write
industry standard IDF or PADS ASCII files produced by Electrical CAD (ECAD)
systems used for Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design.
What can CircuitWorks be used for?
CircuitWorks uses the information in IDF or
PADS ASCII files to produce a fully detailed 3D SolidWorks assembly of
the PCB and its components. The completed assembly can be used in a
number of ways: Checking Physical Constraints.
By transferring an accurate model of a PCB
and its components accurately into a Mechanical CAD system, users can
check for any potential clash between the PCB and its surroundings. If
there is a clash, then the PCB shape or the positions of components can
altered and the resulting changes saved back out for use with the ECAD
system.
Complex board shapes can be created in
SolidWorks and exported to an ECAD system to be populated with
components. Visualization & Prototyping. CAD models are increasingly
used for visualisation and sales use, often before the product itself
has been manufactured.
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The ability to show accurate PCBs with
components in visualizations or renderings adds an extra element of
accuracy to the image. CircuitWorks can add annotations such as
Reference Designators to assembly drawings which can then be used as
aids to manufacturing the PCB assembly.
Analysis
The 3D PCB models generated from ECAD data
can be used for thermal analysis within Mechanical CAD systems,
especially in the case of products with tight packaging constraints such
as cellular phones and PDAs where localized heat build up can cause
problems.
These images show a PCB assembly created
with CircuitWorks undergoing Thermal Analysis with Ansys Software. As
CircuitWorks is a bi-directional system, assemblies that have been
changed in SolidWorks can be saved back out as IDF files to update
information in the ECAD system.
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