Today’s design engineers are facing unprecedented change and challenges as the products we design become more intelligent and more connected.  New manufacturing methods, distributed manufacturing and distributed design further create a need for a more connected environment to develop these products.  The traditional means of increasing a product’s value is becoming less valid as the customer demands for new layers of connectivity and intelligence in their products increase.  We are left with significantly more design requirements, which in turn creates a more complex manufacturing environment.

This presents a huge opportunity for us to re-think the way we do design.  Engineers and designers working in the isolated silos of the past are becoming less and less productive.  To this end, we are excited to announce a new partnership between element14, CadSoft EAGLE and Autodesk Fusion360.  Together, we aim to bridge the gap between mechanical and electrical design to enable a more cohesive workflow.

Users of CadSoft’s EAGLE Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design software will now be able to directly publish their designs from EAGLE into Fusion 360.  Whether you need a simplified representation of the circuit board to design around, or you want to develop a more sophisticated representation of the electronic design to integrate into the mechanical design, this direct connection will allow for new levels of collaboration.

“We have created a design suite that allows engineers to move seamlessly between their electronic and mechanical designs. In a few simple clicks, distributed product development teams can move from PCB design in EAGLE to mechanical design in Fusion 360, leveraging the cloud to do so. This also means EAGLE users will have access to the rapidly expanding network of partners connected to the Fusion 360 platform. By bringing the ECAD and MCAD design ‎phases much closer together, we are able to provide customers with a work flow far better suited to their changing needs, as they design products in an increasingly agile environment and race to get products to market quicker than ever before.”

– Robin Colman, General Manager, CadSoft Computer

The world is changing. Products are changing. Manufacturing is changing. We could not be more excited to help move the industry forward. Never has it been so easy to go from an idea to complex electronics design, integrated mechanical design and ultimately to prototype or production with such a seamless process. 

See more here: www.element14.com/emds