Providing parts data in a CAE/CAD environment

The broad adoption of advanced tools in the electronic design environment bas caused a need for the creation and management of parts and component data that can be directly utilized with all these tools. The author gives an introduction to the critical issues of supplying parts and component data. He focuses on identifying the principal data requirements for EDA tools and the issues affecting the supplying of parts and component data by vendors and the use of these data by design teams. New design methodologies, like concurrent engineering, require new types and increasing achieving amounts of data. Further, they require the data to support all disciplines to be available earlier in the development process. Many critical technical issues can hinder the supplying of the part and component data necessary to support the new tools and design methods. Most important of these issues is defining the standards for part and component data and the standards for tool interfaces. Other critical technical issues include the balance between supplying the detailed data and protection of supplier´s proprietary information, training designers on the new tools and the detailed parts design data, and the methods for validation of data and product designs