“ ...3D viewer, enabling engineers to gain a ‘real life’ view of a PCb layout during design...”

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aNOThER DImENSION

DesignSpark PCb Version 2 takes PCb design to

by martin Keenan

Now, after just nine months, the number of downloads for

DesignSpark PCB has exceeded 60,000; that’s around 300 per working day since its launch!

With a commitment to maintaining and improving what is rapidly becoming one of the most important engineering resources to engineers in over 150 countries across the globe, RS has announced Version 2 of DesignSpark PCB. This is the fi rst offi cial revision of the tool and while it remains totally free and unrestricted in its functionality, it boasts a long list of new features. Engineers can download Version 2 today from www.designspark.com/pcb and start enjoying all the new features and existing benefi ts that large corporate users, as well as SMEs and hobbyists around the world, have already discovered.

In fact, the diverse cross-section of DesignSpark PCB users is something RS is particularly proud of; the intention is to develop, support and maintain DesignSpark PCB to remain an industry-leading resource, and with the release of Version 2 comes the addition of many new features that extend the tool’s capability, usability and

functionality, resulting in an even better experience for the many thousands of engineers already using it. The expectation is that this commitment to development will help to further increase its popularity and encourage the DesignSpark community to continue contributing their ideas for future enhancements.

3D Viewer addedOne of the major new features of DesignSpark PCB Version 2 takes PCB design to another dimension – literally! The development team have implemented a 3D Viewer, enabling design engineers to visualise in real time their fi nal project, rendered in a highly accurate, fully detailed 3D view.

DesignSpark PCB has always offered the ability to export designs to a CAD environment that offer a 3D representation of the board and its components, for mechanical design. While this is still possible, using a pre-loaded and extensible library of 3D components engineers no longer need to move to a CAD environment, or export an intermediary fi le, to visualise their design in 3D.

Through the 3D Viewer, engineers can review a three-dimensional representation of their board, at any stage during design, to quickly evaluate the mechanical design. Any adjustments can easily be carried out in the 2D view and checked in the 3D Viewer for near-instant visual feedback.

The 3D Viewer is found in the tool bar and along with the ability to view a populated board in 3 dimensions, engineers also have the option to edit individual component settings, to get the most realistic representation possible – all from within the same design environment; DesignSpark PCB.

The launch of DesignSpark in summer 2010 sent ripples through the engineering world. With free online resources and design support, waves of engineers soon joined the community. One of the biggest success stories since the launch of DesignSpark has been DesignSpark PCb; a completely free and unrestricted professional-grade schematic capture and PCb design environment.

deSiGNSparkPCB

Get more online...Share your experience using DesignSpark PCb on www.designspark.com

Amphenol range increased to over9,000 connectors at RS

See the full range at :rswww.com/amphenol

RJField range XLR Solutions

Ecomate Series 62GB Electroless Nickel

New introductions expand the Amphenol portfolio, including renewable energy, industrial, medical, military, data and audio technology markets, all available direct

from stock for next-day-delivery

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New capabilitiesAs well as the breathtaking 3D Viewer, DesignSpark PCB’s Version 2 also introduces a number of new capabilities. These enhancements include being able to automatically create and save a new library as an item, as well as saving the selected components directly to a library from the design view. Simpler and more comprehensive output is enabled through two new features; a new column type allows plain text to be inserted in to reports, while a new bitmap printing option enables greater fl exibility. In addition to these capabilities, DesignSpark PCB will also provide a drill indent output option, able to switch between separate plated and unplated drills.

Greater usabilityWe live in a connected world, where candid feedback via online portals has become second nature and, as with most well-received products, DesignSpark PCB has generated its fair share of on-line debate. Thanks in part to this user feedback some features have been highlighted where usability could be further improved. So in response to this, the fi rst major upgrade to DesignSpark PCB will include a number of usability enhancements, which include new commands in the Project menu that allow sheets within a project to be duplicated or renamed. It will also be easier when adding a new component to return to the dialog box; by simply pressing the

‘escape’ key. To enable fi ner gained design, the resolution of angular rotation has also been increased, while the Library Manager function will also offer new ‘move to’ and ‘save to’ commands.

more functionalityAdding to the enhanced usability, functionality has also received some attention; support for the widely used Excellon drill fi le format has been extended to support different drill tool numbers across drill fi les. Other enhancements include the ability to paste copies of components in the same position, as well as add values to all the alternate footprints of a component when editing just one.

The success of DesignSpark PCB reinforces the belief that the electronics engineering community needs professional tools and services that aren’t just free to use but offer real value, with an uncompromising commitment to support that only a company like RS can truly offer. With the release of DesignSpark PCB Version 2, RS has reaffi rmed its commitment to delivering the best open source experience to its engineering community.

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“ There are now some 30,000 registered users of DesignSpark and downloads of the tool number 55,000 ”