As an EDA Administrator at Israel Aerospace Industries...
As an EDA Administrator at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)the largest high-tech and defense company in Israel with over 15,000 employeesI am constantly evaluating tools that can streamline our complex engineering workflows. Managing hardware design across a multi-site enterprise of this scale presents unique challenges, particularly regarding tool fragmentation, legacy data migration, and secure collaboration.
After extensively evaluating the interCAD SOLUTION, I have found it to be a transformative platform for enterprise-level EDA management.
1. Unified ECAD Viewer: Consolidating Multiple Vendor Tools
In our company, we utilize three distinct ECAD tools: Mentor Board Station, Siemens EDA Xpedition, and Cadence OrCAD. Historically, managing and reviewing designs across these varied environments caused friction. Because interCAD acts as a universal viewer capable of opening files from almost all major EDA vendors, it provides a single, unified solution. You no longer need to jump between different native environments just to inspect a board or schematic, which dramatically simplifies administration and engineering workflows.
2. ECAD Compare: Precision in Revision Control
IAI produces a large number of different complex projects every year, which inevitably require ongoing modifications to existing schematics and PCB layouts. interCAD’s Visual Compare solution is outstanding. It allows visually detecting differences between two design iterations quickly and intuitively. Instead of relying on text-based comparison or manual spot-checking, changed areassuch as nets, components, and tracesare highlighted instantly. This ensures maintaining strict accuracy and absolute certainty in the revision control.
3. PCB Translator: Seamless Legacy Migration
From time to time, we are required to translate legacy designs from Mentor Board Station into our current standard, Siemens EDA Xpedition. The "Translator" which is a part of interCAD Editor makes this conversion exceptionally fast and exact. What elevates this feature is the ability to use the built-in Compare function immediately after translation and verify the quality of the conversion. It gives organizations total confidence when migrating their intellectual property. Because interCAD supports translation across most major EDA formats available today, it serves as an ultimate safety net for any company undergoing tool transitions.
4. Design Review, Sharing, and Defense-Grade Security
Perhaps the most crucial advantage for a defense contractor like IAI is how interCAD handles data sharing. By converting any Schematic or PCB design into interCAD's proprietary, lightweight IXD format, you achieve two major goals:
Cost Efficiency & Collaboration: significantly reducing the need to purchase expensive, redundant EDA licenses just for reviewing purposes. Every team member and manager can access the design, utilize the Review menu to leave comments, and collaborate seamlessly.
Secure External Deliveries: Defense projects require strict IP protection. The IXD format (along with executable and web viewer options) allows securely sharing design files with external vendors and subcontractors who can open the secured files using the free interCAD Reader without needing to purchase an expensive native EDA license, ensuring our supply chain remains both secure and cost-effective.
Additional considerations while working with interCAD Editor:
Eliminating Communication Errors: Simply having the interCAD Reader and IXD files available drastically reduces communication errors between hardware developers and layout teams.
Cross-Probing Capabilities: This function is incredibly useful when referencing previous models during a new design phase. This capability occurs even if an engineer would like to perform cross-probing between two different EDA vendors.
Workflow Continuity: One of the biggest inconvenience during PCB design reviews used to be switching tools and converting files just to look at the same data. interCAD completely eliminates this bottleneck, providing license-free design access to anyone who needs it.
Industry Trust: It is also worth noting that interCAD is already trusted by some of the world's leading technology companies.
In conclusion, the interCAD SOLUTION is undeniably the best-in-class solution for high-scale to low-scale electronics designing companies, as well as PCB designing and manufacturing companies. By consolidating viewing, comparing, translating, and secure sharing into a single, unified platform, it eliminates the traditional barriers of cross-tool compatibility.
It accelerates design review cycles, protects valuable intellectual property, ensures exact data translation, and drastically reduces licensing overhead. For any hardware engineering organization looking to optimize their EDA ecosystem and improve team collaboration, I highly recommend the interCAD SOLUTION.
After extensively evaluating the interCAD SOLUTION, I have found it to be a transformative platform for enterprise-level EDA management.
1. Unified ECAD Viewer: Consolidating Multiple Vendor Tools
In our company, we utilize three distinct ECAD tools: Mentor Board Station, Siemens EDA Xpedition, and Cadence OrCAD. Historically, managing and reviewing designs across these varied environments caused friction. Because interCAD acts as a universal viewer capable of opening files from almost all major EDA vendors, it provides a single, unified solution. You no longer need to jump between different native environments just to inspect a board or schematic, which dramatically simplifies administration and engineering workflows.
2. ECAD Compare: Precision in Revision Control
IAI produces a large number of different complex projects every year, which inevitably require ongoing modifications to existing schematics and PCB layouts. interCAD’s Visual Compare solution is outstanding. It allows visually detecting differences between two design iterations quickly and intuitively. Instead of relying on text-based comparison or manual spot-checking, changed areassuch as nets, components, and tracesare highlighted instantly. This ensures maintaining strict accuracy and absolute certainty in the revision control.
3. PCB Translator: Seamless Legacy Migration
From time to time, we are required to translate legacy designs from Mentor Board Station into our current standard, Siemens EDA Xpedition. The "Translator" which is a part of interCAD Editor makes this conversion exceptionally fast and exact. What elevates this feature is the ability to use the built-in Compare function immediately after translation and verify the quality of the conversion. It gives organizations total confidence when migrating their intellectual property. Because interCAD supports translation across most major EDA formats available today, it serves as an ultimate safety net for any company undergoing tool transitions.
4. Design Review, Sharing, and Defense-Grade Security
Perhaps the most crucial advantage for a defense contractor like IAI is how interCAD handles data sharing. By converting any Schematic or PCB design into interCAD's proprietary, lightweight IXD format, you achieve two major goals:
Cost Efficiency & Collaboration: significantly reducing the need to purchase expensive, redundant EDA licenses just for reviewing purposes. Every team member and manager can access the design, utilize the Review menu to leave comments, and collaborate seamlessly.
Secure External Deliveries: Defense projects require strict IP protection. The IXD format (along with executable and web viewer options) allows securely sharing design files with external vendors and subcontractors who can open the secured files using the free interCAD Reader without needing to purchase an expensive native EDA license, ensuring our supply chain remains both secure and cost-effective.
Additional considerations while working with interCAD Editor:
Eliminating Communication Errors: Simply having the interCAD Reader and IXD files available drastically reduces communication errors between hardware developers and layout teams.
Cross-Probing Capabilities: This function is incredibly useful when referencing previous models during a new design phase. This capability occurs even if an engineer would like to perform cross-probing between two different EDA vendors.
Workflow Continuity: One of the biggest inconvenience during PCB design reviews used to be switching tools and converting files just to look at the same data. interCAD completely eliminates this bottleneck, providing license-free design access to anyone who needs it.
Industry Trust: It is also worth noting that interCAD is already trusted by some of the world's leading technology companies.
In conclusion, the interCAD SOLUTION is undeniably the best-in-class solution for high-scale to low-scale electronics designing companies, as well as PCB designing and manufacturing companies. By consolidating viewing, comparing, translating, and secure sharing into a single, unified platform, it eliminates the traditional barriers of cross-tool compatibility.
It accelerates design review cycles, protects valuable intellectual property, ensures exact data translation, and drastically reduces licensing overhead. For any hardware engineering organization looking to optimize their EDA ecosystem and improve team collaboration, I highly recommend the interCAD SOLUTION.
