Brussels / 3 & 4 February 2018

schedule

Proposal for an open and democratic Design Rule format

A missing piece in the open source EDA world


In the topic of Electronic-Design-Automation (EDA) Design Rules are used to validate a drawing against constraints usually set by the manufacturer. In this talk I'd like to introduce a (file-)format proposal for such Design Rules focused on the usage in PCB design.

In the past the definition of Design Rules has been a mess. Most EDA software provider (e.g. Autodesk, Altium, Cadence) have their own set of Design Rules which neither match the expectations of the users nor the requirements from the PCB manufacturers. Beside that the Design Rules are often misleading as they do not allow to describe what really breaks production or not. Because of that most PCB manufacturers give too loose rules which often break production for the customers. An open and democratic format for Design Rules could solve this. We face the issue that at least three parties are involved in these rules which I believe can only be solved by an open source format. Because of this I talked to EDA software supplieres, PCB manufactures and users and asked what they are missing and expect from it. Using this feedback I'd like to introduce our proposal and ask if and if yes, how work should be further organized. Depending on the projects schedule an practical implementation in Gerbv could be presented.

Speakers

Photo of Patrick Franken Patrick Franken

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