CADSTAR is a

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

-based

electronic design automation Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...

(EDA)

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

tool for designing and creating

schematic A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the key information the sc ...

diagrams and

printed circuit board A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...

s (PCBs). It provides engineers with a tool for designing simple or complex, multilayer PCBs. CADSTAR spans

schematic capture Schematic capture or schematic entry is a step in the design cycle of electronic design automation (EDA) at which the electronic diagram, or electronic schematic of the designed electronic circuit is created by a designer. This is done interactiv ...

, variant management, placement, automatic and high-speed routing,

signal integrity Signal integrity or SI is a set of measures of the quality of an electrical signal. In digital electronics, a stream of binary values is represented by a voltage (or current) waveform. However, digital signals are fundamentally analog in nature, ...

, power integrity, EMC analysis, design rule checks and production of manufacturing data. Originally developed by U.K. PCB vendor Racal-Redac, CADSTAR has been part of the

Zuken is a Japanese multinational corporation, specializing in software and Information technology consulting, consulting services for end-to-end electrical and electronic engineering. Zuken came into existence as a pioneer in the development of Comput ...

product portfolio since its acquisition in 1994. The software is developed at

's Technology Centre, ZTC in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The basic features of CADSTAR can be tested with the free version of CADSTAR Express Zuken Releases CADSTAR Express with Free Sample Download
/ref> or Schematic and PCB files produced by CADSTAR can be reviewed using the free CADSTAR Design Viewer.

History

The first version of CADSTAR was released in 1988 running under

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicatio ...

. CADSTAR for

1.0 was released in March 1994. Since then, there has been about one major release per year.

subsequently released eCADSTAR in 2019.

Modules

CADSTAR contains many modules for specific uses such as: *Design Editor This enables the engineer to draw schematic circuits, define the PCB layout and produce the manufacturing data from the completed PCB. *Library Editor Used for the creation of Symbols, Component and Parts. Supports ODBC compliant databases. *Embedded Router Used to create the tracks (layout) and other copper features of the board within the Design Editor environment. *P.R.Editor Used to create the tracks and other copper features of the board in an external environment to the Design Editor with many more features than the Embedded Router. *High-Speed P.R.Editor Allows the user to define a wide range of circuit rules and routing constraints to control the layout process. *Signal Integrity Verify Post-layout signal integrity simulation toolset and what-if analysis. *Power Integrity Fast analysis methodology including what-if analysis for concurrent power integrity. *EMC Adviser Helps designers predict, analyse and control EMC design issues. *Design Migration Tool Used to migrate designs and libraries from other EDA-tools into CADSTAR. *Variant Manager Allows support of variant assemblies for different part values or not fitted components on the same PCB.

References

External links

* Electronic design automation software Windows-only software {{Windows-software-stub

History

Modules

See also

References

External links