someone won\u2019t point it out. But there\u2019s no ignoring it now, the elephant is taking up the entire room, and there\u2019s barely any room to move. So let\u2019s just admit it guys, the way we design is broken, and we\u2019re all doomed. That is unless our data can save us. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to tell when this problem started exactly. What problem? ECAD\/MCAD collaboration of course. You\u2019ve heard the drill before, and you\u2019ve likely experienced it yourself. Exchanging files through email, tracking changes through spreadsheets, and pushing and pulling back and forth with your mechanical designer just looking for some way to get the job done.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n But this coming together of the specialists never truly happens. We\u2019re raised as engineering specialists, taught to care only about the electrical, or only the mechanical. And so it\u2019s evident that even our tools and workflows have followed suit. Your PCB design tool<\/a>? It does 2D layout really well, spot on. And our colleague\u2019s mechanical tool? He\u2019s over there in the 3D world making shapes out of digital clay. All the while, there\u2019s a disconnect in between.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n This, my fellow engineers, is the Industrial Revolution of design still in action. Yes, we\u2019re still living in it, and no, we haven\u2019t moved on. Why? Because we don\u2019t have the workflow to do so because we don\u2019t have the tools to do so, and most importantly, because we don\u2019t have the right data to do so, at least not yet.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Look around at most engineering departments around the world, and you\u2019ll likely see the same thing. Fragmented parts of a design just getting passed down the line. From one black box to another, to another, and another, until finally, hopefully, it arrives as a finished product. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the world and way of living that every engineer knows to one degree or another, and I\u2019m finally starting to realize that it is broken. Have you ever wondered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll tell you what we need to do; we need to focus on solving the root issues first. And one of those happens to be our data.<\/p>\n\n\n Data, what exactly does that word even mean in the context of engineering? We hear about \u2018The Cloud\u2019, we hear about \u2018Big Data,’ but for an electrical engineer, what exactly is it? One of the most primary data points we use it every day, let\u2019s just call this PCB data a library. That little nugget of gold where every and every component is centrally stored, revisioned, sourced, and includes a 3D model, right?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of the biggest problems with our data today. We have these libraries, and we depend on them so dearly for the success of our design, but so often they\u2019re incomplete or missing. Take for example 3D models. How many of your parts have a linked 3D model? How do you fill the gap? Maybe you go scouring a manufacturer\u2019s website for some free downloads. And if that doesn\u2019t take care of the job, then your mechanical guy is going to be spending some serious hours making his own parts.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n How are you even going to communicate with your mechanical designer about what models are for your board? Sure, that 0805 package makes sense to you by name alone, it\u2019s a resistor, a capacitor. But for a mechanical designer, you might as well be speaking a foreign language. While you speak in package types, they speak in shapes and materials. It\u2019s like apples to oranges.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n This process gets even more complicated. Now you might have your 3D model, and you know its origin point in your ECAD software. The centroid or Pin1 is usually the center of your component. But then you get that model over to the MCAD software, and now you\u2019ve got a third axis (z), and things never quite line up between the two. Footprints need to be lined up with 3D models; origin points need to be aligned, it\u2019s all a tedious process, all because the data didn\u2019t line up right in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Are you starting to see the problem here? We\u2019ve got all our data, and we\u2019re just hacking it together. We\u2019re supplementing it with manual processes, manually aligning origins, manually sourcing 3D models, manually communicating. It\u2019s like you\u2019re keeping that 3D model held together entirely with duct tape.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n As EEs, I think what we care about, or should care about, is not whether our designs are done and can be passed down the line, but whether they actually fit, and whether they actually work.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the question, why even keep libraries separate between electrical and mechanical domains? What we need isn\u2019t to separate, but to centralize. Imagine the foundation to a house that you can build anything in your imagination upon. So long as you have that common foundation, everything else lines up. You wouldn\u2019t build a separate foundation for the walls and then another foundation for the roof. Your data (libraries) needs to be this singular foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Because when you\u2019re designing products these days, it\u2019s not just about the electrical considerations, like whether it\u2019s the right connection or the right value resistor. It\u2019s also about product considerations like:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn\u2019t that the end goal for both electrical and mechanical teams? At the end of the day, you want to know that you can clamp that enclosure together, bolt it tight, and power it on for years to come. You\u2019re both after the same objective, so why does your data need to be separate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we need as engineers to solve this problem is a singular data model that is communicative and intelligent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Think about that for a second, what would this mean for your design process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you have a stable foundation of data, then every engineer can connect around it. In the EEs perspective, that data might be a symbol, footprint, board layout, etc\u2026 And in the MEs perspective, that same data set might now be a 3D model, a set of parametrics, and modeling for simulation. But the data itself? That never changes, you just see your perspective in your editor or engineering medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So once we\u2019ve got our data problem solved, then what\u2019s next? When every engineer on a project is working from the same source of truth, what exactly will this mean for how we engineer? Here\u2019s a few predictions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The way we design is completely doomed, and good riddance about that. We\u2019re not just creating circuit boards anymore. We\u2019re not just designing enclosures anymore. We\u2019re not just designing software anymore. We\u2019re designing products. Look around you; the facts are in the air.<\/span> In 2020 there\u2019s going to be more than 34 billion devices floating around that are connected to the internet<\/span><\/a>, and you\u2019re going to be designing them. Doesn\u2019t that number terrify you right now, knowing how you currently design?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\nIt Starts With the Way We Work<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"factory-floor\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/eagle\/2017\/07\/HD-car-factory-wallpaper-2-610x457.jpg\")
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Data Here, Data There<\/h2>\n\n\n
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What a Mess!<\/h2>\n\n\n
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What You Really Want<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Data Done Right<\/h2>\n\n\n
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We\u2019re Doomed, Data Save Us!<\/h2>\n\n\n