CADSTAR Touch App and enhanced pusher routing available now
In a first for the EDA market, Zuken has launched a PCB design productivity app that allows today’s generation of PCB designers to interact with layouts using their own tablet or smart phone. The CADSTAR Touch App enables users to control Zuken’s CADSTAR expert desktop PCB design software, giving simultaneous control of view and program functions, and enabling faster, more efficient design.
Ian Broughton, Senior Electronics Design Engineer, C-TEC says: "There are some real benefits to be gained from using this App - especially the numerous small time savings and the ease-of-use that it offers. As long-time users of CADSTAR, we are pleased to see the continual progression of the software and that Zuken has been quick to adopt apps, making use of devices that are now part of everyday life."
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| A PCB designer tries the new CADSTAR Touch App |
The free App is available now with the latest CADSTAR release, which also features enhanced Activ-45 router and pusher technology that makes changing existing designs significantly faster and easier.
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| CADSTAR Touch viewed on an iPhone |
Zoom, pan, view
The App uses your iOS™ or Android™ mobile device’s Wi-Fi connection to communicate with your PC on the same local network. Android users have the benefit of voice control. 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, thus saving time.
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| Activ-45 router pushes existing routes and vias aside |
CADSTAR Touch is available for free from the App StoreSM (iPhone®, iPad® or iPod touch®) or the Google Play™ Store (Android).
Activ-45 router and pusher technology
Also included in the latest version of CADSTAR 14 is new routing technology that makes last minute design changes faster and easier. The Activ-45 router is a true 45-degree routing algorithm that routes effortlessly through even the densest areas of a design. Taking advantage of enhanced pusher technology, the route path will follow the cursor with minimum disruption of existing routing patterns.
The Activ-45 router makes space for itself by pushing existing routes and vias aside, while always obeying design rules. Where necessary, it will flip existing routes over pins and pads to create even more space, such as when creating a BGA fan-out. At any point before completing the route, if the cursor is moved back towards the starting point, the routes will spring-back to their original position.
