CADSTAR Release 13

Existing UK and Benelux Customers: If you have not already received your CADSTAR 13 licence file please complete the form at the bottom of this page

CADSTAR 13, the latest release from industry leader Zuken, adds a host of new and improved features in response to our customer's requirements and to extend support for advanced functionality.

CADSTAR 13 also incorporates a number of new product options* to extend the capabilities of Schematic & PCB layout and enhance the PCB design flow.

New product options include:

Power Integrity Advance

Power Integrity, EMC and DC Simulation help you to predict, analyse and control power distribution issues that can negatively impact signal quality and reliability.

Constraint Browser

Guiding engineers through a fully integrated, constraints-driven design methodology and with graphical topology editing to meet high-speed performance requirements, Constraint Browser helps you reduce design costs and time-to-market by eliminating unnecessary prototypes and re-engineering cycles.

IDF Interface

The new integrated  IDF interface provides a reliable and effective bi-directional interface between CADSTAR PCB Design and 3D Mechanical CAD solutions such as Autodesk Inventor.

Placement Planner

A cost-effective tool to provide electronic engineers with the core productivity tools required to effect design planning and critical placement, offering a comprehensive range of design configuration, placement and checking tools.

*For details of cost options contact Quadra Solutions.



Major CADSTAR Enhancements

Enhanced DXF Import

The enhanced DXF Import supports features and techniques common to mechanical systems and allows these features to be imported successfully into the CADSTAR environment. Enhanced DXF Import supports BLOCKS, ELLIPSES, SPLINES and POLYLINES. Furthermore, layer mapping is enhanced to allow objects of the same type defined on different layers to be imported into one layer in CADSTAR. CADSTAR DXF Import also allows DXF containing negative co-ordinates to be automatically shifted into a positive quadrant on import.

Drill Letters and Drill Table

CADSTAR's Manufacturing Export now supports automatic drill table generation coupled with automatic drill letter association, updating automatically whenever the design is changed.

Enhanced Frame Select

CADSTAR 13 offers more control over how items are selected during Frame Select, Polygon Select and Freehand Select.  When set to Cover mode, only items completely covered by the selection shape are selected.

Cross Probing Improvements

Running applications such as PREditor from the Tools menu no longer minimises the CADSTAR window,  allowing cross probing to be performed between all windows and running applications. Cross probing has also been extended to include Groups of items.

Other CADSTAR Enhancements

Active Reports as Dockable Windows

The Bus Report, Electrical Rules Report, Routing Completion Report, Unused Component Report and Design Rules Check Report can now be viewed as Dockable Windows. As well as being persistent, these windows are now Active so reflact any changes in status to the listed items.

Enhanced Library Editor Interface

The grids used in Library Editor have been updated giving several GUI benefits.  Select Symbol/Component Name dialog now displays a preview of the currently selected item.  Part Definition Symbol/Component view updated to allow mouse wheel panning and zooming.

PCB Mirror View

In response to many requests from Design Engineers it is now possible to switch between the conventional 'top down' view and an alternative Mirror View of the PCB.

Printing Improvements

Mirror and 1:1 Scaling options have been included in the Print options for all design types, including in the Library Editor.

Enhanced Undo / Redo Support

Undo / Redo Support has been implemented for Part Reload, Part Replace and Manual Gate / Pin Swap functionality.  The 'Keep Swap' dialog has been removed meaning less clicks when performing a manual swap.

Schematic Connection Overlap Improvements

For interactive operations in Schematic Designs a check is now performed to prevent overlapping connections on different nets. A new report has also been added which checks for overlapping connections.

Reload From Library with Local Changes

It is now possible to retain local reference names and pad information when reloading parts. A new interactive report also allows you to list local changes in the design.

Duplicate Assignment

The Assignments dialog now allows assignments (including any reassignments) to be duplicated with a single button click.

Reload Retains Alternate

It is now possible to keep the original alternate name when reloading parts.

Ignore Pad / Via - Profile Errors

Two new settings have been added that allow Pad - Profile and Via - Profile errors to be ignored while pouring copper.

Addition of Variant Information and Fitted Status to New Symbols

When adding a new gate or connector pin the system will now check if the name of the gate or connector pin already exists. If so the variant information and fitted status will be copied from the existing to the newly created gate or connector pin.

Automatic Addition of Unmatched Assignments

When performing ECO updates, Back Annotation and RINF imports you can now automatically add all unmatched assignments of a given type.

All Connector Pins to be Part Allocated

In a schematic design connector parts made up of individual pins are now automatically part allocated.

Enhanced Symbol/Pin Property Change

The default behaviour of CADSTAR has changed.  When editing symbols, certain changes are applied to all symbols with the same name. Similarly connector pins can be edited and certain changes are applied to all pins with the same name.

P.R.Editor XR Enhancements

Item Properties Enhanced

All Editable Query dialogs have been renamed Item Properties for consistency with Layout, and Item Properties dialogs have an OK button.

Select Via For Layer Change

A new option has been added to the Manual Routing Context Menu allowing the user to choose which via to use.

Enhanced Statistic Dialogs

There are new Testpoint Report and Net Statistics dialogs. These allow the user to 'lock' each of the dialogs and to quickly sort displayed data.

Fill Type Improvement

The Fill Types tab of the Appearance dialog has been updated.  It is now possible to display pads and tracks using all of the fill types.  You can also set the fill type for Clearance Shapes and Copper.

Moving Routed Component Improvement

A new option has been added to the Interactive Move dialog.  With this option selected, the tracks connected to the components are rerouted as the component is moved. 

Smart Fan-Out Functionality (BGA's)

The Smart Fanout functionality is now available to CADSTAR users who do not have Dragon.

Extra Columns in Autorouting Report

Extra columns have been added to the Autorouting report that provide extra information during autorouting.

Improved Separation Report

Testpoints will now report the required Centre to Centre distance as well as the Actual Centre to Centre distance.

Ignore Pad / Via to Profile errors

Two new settings have been added that allow Pad - Profile and  Via - Profile errors to be ignored while pouring copper.

New Acid Trap Removal Tool

A new 45-Degree Acid Trap Removal Tool has been added.

P.R.Editor XR HS / SI Verify Enhancements

Creation of Skew Groups Enhanced

Adding design items to a skew group in Constraint Manager has been enhanced so it is more logical. For example, if all the nets of a bus are added to a skew group the nets are replaced with the name of the bus.

Enhanced Stimulus setting

Stimulus pins can now be set in Scenario Editor and Topology Editor using newly added menu options.

Enhanced Common Mode Voltage Map

Common Mode Voltage Map can now be controlled for its frequency. A new frequency selection dialog allows the frequency of interest to be specified for the CM Voltage Map display.

PREditor Configurations Setting

It is now possible to set the path for PREditor Configurations folder in CADSTAR, rather than share it's setting with the SIMLIB folder.

IBIS 5 Parser Upgrade

SI Verify is being updated to support IBIS 5, this allows the latest IBIS models to be imported.

Simulation Model Encryption

Passive component vendors provide simulation models ready for download by Zuken customers. These models are encrypted to protect vendor IP. Encrypted model content is not displayed to the user at any time.

Enhanced Sub-Model Support

Multiple sub-models can be considered for a single buffer. Combined characteristic (V/I curve) is derived by adding main model and sub-model characteristics.

Mouse wheel in Scenario Editor and Topology Editor

It is now possible to use the mouse wheel to pan and zoom the canvas in Scenario Editor and Topology Editor.

Dragon Enhancements

Enhanced Best Pass Control

Best Pass control has been added to the Manual/Autorouting tab of the Routing Setup dialog. This allows greater flexibility over the selection criteria for the best pass. It is also possible to automatically restore the results of the Best Pass as the final autorouting result.

Improved 45-Degree Routing

Performance improvements have been made to design load. This will benefit designs that contain large amounts of copper. Load time and size of settings files has been reduced.

Post Routing Tidy Enhanced

Post Routing Tidy has been enhanced to solve problems when running refine routing.

Landless Drilled Via Support

Single trace autorouter has been enhanced to support landless drilled vias. Autorouter will now see these as an obstacle for routing. 

Performance Improvements

Performance improvements have been made to design load. This will benefit designs that contain large amounts of copper. Load time and file size of settings files has been reduced.

What’s New in Board Modeler Lite 6.1

Interaction

Support for the SpaceNavigator 3D mouse from 3Dconnexion

GUI

Dockable Project Browser

Application window size(s) and positions retained between BML sessions. All open designs in the project will also be restored.

Access to common commands to be provided on RMB ‘pop-up’ context menus, based on object currently selected or tool being executed.

General

Improved 3D model editing functionality

Option to specify the board thickness to be used by BML on the CADSTAR Import dialog

Re-assignments defined in CADSTAR will be supported in BML

Design-specific mapping files may be specified during the Mechanical file / Import operation

Results of the ‘Measure’ tool may be saved with the project and will be restored when the project is next loaded

Control visibility of individual components using a new ‘View’ column in the Parts tab of the Control Panel

New ‘Lock’ column on the Parts tab of the Control Panel shows if components were fixed in CADSTAR (therefore can’t be moved)

BML will approximate spline curves (during STEP import) using circular arcs

Improved orbit/rotate command

BML now supports Update installation

The folder locations used for Import/Export operations will be remembered and used as the default location for subsequent operations

License File Request

To request a CADSTAR 13 license file please complete the form below and include your Customer Number or Dongle Numbers in the Message box.