PCB Design System Now Has Mobile Touch App

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Zuken (Munich, Germany, and Westford, MA) has launched the CADSTAR Touch App, a PCB (printed circuit board) design productivity app that allows PCB designers to interact with layouts using a tablet or smart phone. With the CADSTAR Touch App, users can control Zuken’s CADSTAR desktop PCB design environment, giving users simultaneous control of view and program functions.

CADSTAR Touch viewed on an iPhone. Image courtesy of Zuken.

CADSTAR, a unified suite of applications for defining,  visualizing, implementing, and verifying designs, offers tools and functionalities for a range of jobs such as schematics entry design, A/D simulation, floor planning, FPGA (field programmable gate array) simulation,  variant management, signal integrity verification and power integrity analysis. Zuken describes CADSTAR as optimized for small- and mid-sized design teams, as well as individual designers and corporations operating across multiple sites.

Activ-45 router technology in CADSTAR 14 enables existing routes and vias to be pushed aside. Image courtesy of Zuken.

The company says that CADSTAR 14 introduces an enhanced version of its Activ-45 router and pusher technology that makes changing existing designs faster and easier. Calling the Activ-45 router and pusher technology a true 45-degree routing algorithm, the company explains that the route path will follow the cursor with minimum disruption of existing routing patterns. Where necessary, it will flip existing routes over pins and pads to create even more space, such as when creating a BGA (ball grid array) fanout. If at any point before completing the route you should move the cursor back toward the starting point, the routes spring back to their original position.

A screen shot of the CADSTAR Touch app on an iPad. Image courtesy of Zuken.

The new CADSTAR Touch App uses an Android or iOS mobile device’s Wi-Fi connection to communicate with a PC located on the same local network. Features offered include pinch to zoom, drag to pan and double tap to view all. Designers can customize the app to give quick access to user-defined macros for the CADSTAR functionality and sequences they use most often. You can also use CADSTAR Touch App to operate functions in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer. Additionally, Android users can operate CADSTAR Touch App using voice control.

The CADSTAR Touch App is available now with the latest version of CADSTAR, release14, and as a free download from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.

For more information on the CADSTAR Touch App, go here.

Watch a brief video of the CADSTAR Touch App in action.

Click here for more information on CADSTAR 14.

Watch a brief video on CADSTAR’s 45-degree routing and pushing technology.

Sign-up and download CADSTAR Express, an evaluation version of CADSTAR 14.

See why DE’s editors selected the CADSTAR Touch App as their Pick of the Week.

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.