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ECAD/MCAD Collaboration is the Way Forward

By Amy Reyes

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Paul Musto is an expert when it comes to PCB design and collaboration between design systems. While he is likely a new face and name to those in this community, he has more than 28 years of electronic design automation (EDA) and design experience, and he’ll be sharing valuable insights around this trending topic with those who attend his presentation during Solid Edge University in Phoenix. You won’t want to miss the June 5th event – We will be announcing some exciting news around Solid Edge 2019. Read on for a sneak preview of what you’ll hear when you join Paul’s session “ECAD/MCAD co-design leveraging Siemens Solid Edge and Mentor PCB Portfolios.”

During the session, he will go through the industry trends and dynamics that are driving the need for an integrated, collaborative solution for mechanical and electronics design. “Mechanical and electronics design have traditionally been done independently,” Paul said. “What we see today with many companies is the need to do multi-domain multidimensional design work to handle the electro-mechanical complexities.”

This is due in large part to “a recent emergence of innovation around IoT and other key technology areas,” Paul continued. “That innovation is driving a new disruption in industry. Engineers are being driven to do everything now. When you look at the new generation of engineers, whether mechanical or electrical, they’re being asked to do much more than they have in the past.” Electrical engineers do not only circuit and PCB design, but often they may be doing mechanical design as well. “Conversely, if you’re doing mechanical centric design, there might be a small piece of electronics design that goes along with it as well,” Paul said.

He gave the example of a door lock, something that has traditionally only been a mechanical system.  Today, you can buy a door lock that is programmable from your smartphone, allowing you to lock and unlock your door directly in the app from anywhere in the world. It takes what is normally a mechanical system and adds electronic components to it.

When it comes to doing this type of work, “small-medium businesses don’t have the luxury of having the infrastructure to hire a large staff concentrated in different disciplines. You have people that are multidisciplinary,” Paul said. I’m sure this rings true for many of our Solid Edge users out there, too. “You have to do PCB design in a much more collaborative way. Many times that falls on an electrical engineer or mechanical engineer. Complexity, integration, the emergence of IoT where every device you can imagine is connected in some way shape or form… all of this is driving the changes you see in industry today,” he said.

For more info, be sure to catch Paul’s presentation during SEU in Phoenix this year. The event is coming up fast, so register now if you haven’t already.

About the Presenter:
Paul is the Director of Marketing for the Board Systems Division of Mentor, A Siemens Business. Throughout his career he has gained extensive experience serving in various technical, product marketing, and business development roles. Prior to joining Mentor, he was the senior group director of engineering at Cadence Design Systems where he was responsible for their Allegro PCB and IC Packaging implementation tools. He started out as an electrical engineer with his Bachelor of Science in EE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts. 

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This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/solidedge/ecad-mcad-collaboration-is-the-way-forward/