A brand new version of Easy-PC for Windows - the affordable printed circuit
board design system that integrates schematic capture and PCB layout with
features normally found in the world's most expensive PCB design systems -
has just been released. Available from Adept Scientific, Easy-PC 10 is a
major upgrade with a host of new productivity features that make board
design faster and more intuitive, keep up with the latest developments in
electronics design, and ensure your boards are easy to manufacture.
One of the most useful additions to this new version of Easy-PC is 'hug
mode' routing. When you manually route tracks, they automatically 'hug' and
follow the path of previously laid tracks as closely as possible, at the
same time adhering to your design spacing rules. This makes it much easier
and quicker to lay out single-sided or tightly packed boards where space is
at a premium.
Easy-PC 10 introduces advanced blind (top to inner layer) and buried (inner
to inner layer) via technology, so that you can define drilling spans and
optimise the use of space in dense designs. A new Layer Stack Preview can
be used in conjunction with this new technology to provide a cross-section
visualisation of the PCB showing and naming the full layer stack and all
via spans defined for the PCB design. This ensures you have visual
confirmation of the manufacturability of the design before being actually
made.
A new, optional Intelligent Gerber Import add-on lets you reverse engineer
Gerber data from any original source and rebuild them in the Easy-PC design
format. Using the intelligence within this new option you can build and use
parts, fully rebuild track paths with vias and layer changes and regain
full component placement. You can even reverse engineer the PCB back into
an original schematic.
Easy-PC's Footprint Wizard has been significantly enhanced in this new
version. For example, you can now automatically add teardrop fillets to all
pad connections on a track path in your design, or to selected tracks. This
reduces the chance of mechanical cracking of the track at the point it
enters the pad/via due to thermal shock, solder joint stresses and board
loading in high stress applications; and also greatly aids solder direction
during the automatic wave flow soldering process.
The Footprint Wizard adds a number of new devices, such as Axial, SON and
QFN footprint, and a new graphical representation of the device similar to
the way it appears on the manufacturer's datasheet. This means you can
create your new footprint quickly and accurately by transferring the device
specifications directly to the appropriate dimension boxes in the wizard.
There's a new, customisable Drill Table option that lets you specify
whether normal, throughhole, blind and buried or non-plated through vias
are tabulated in the design. Each type is displayed in its own dynamic
table, and drill symbols specified.
RF designers will welcome the ability to create and add spiral tracks and
shapes to designs and easily define the spiral parameters. Easy-PC 10 also
allows multiple items (pads, vias, components) to be added; for example,
multiple vias can be added to a net and then used to staple GND to a copper
area.
Other new features include copper shapes in PCB footprints, enhanced copper
pour, finish markers to show legal landing sites, striped tracks to
highlight full path, spacing clearance display during routing and a range
of new pad shapes including rounded rectangle which provides a better
platform when using lead-free soldering techniques under the new ROHS
directive.
Dynamic text callouts, design tooltips, multi-line text, editable
dimensions, enhanced printing and many other usability enhancements help
make Easy-PC 10 a must-have upgrade for existing users and a serious
competitor to highly-priced PCB design software.
Also available from Adept Scientific are Easy-PC compatible autorouting and
SPICE simulation options; tools for circuit synthesis, electromagnetic
simulation and RF analysis; a tool to generate IDF data for mechanical and
3D CAD systems; parts and symbol libraries; and a new library of 1500
microcontrollers and microprocessors.