IDF translators CircuitWorks and Desktop

Has anybody ever used CircuitWorks or Desktop to bring in PCB design
data?
What kind of success have had? Failures? things to look out for?
I used to do this years ago when I worked on Pro/E and Mentor Graphics
but now I need to do this with Solidworks.
I know I need the EMN and EMP files to import and I can export an IDF
file.
Which one of the programs would you suggest?

Richard Duck

 

Richard,

Several clients have adopted Desktop EDA. It works as advertised.
Most of the choices came down to cost - with EDA being cheaper than
Circuitworks.

I believe you can download demo copies of both programs.
Using the supplied demo data should give you a good feel for each
program.
They are not hard to set-up so testing both of them wouldn't be a big
time burden.

A little more time will be required if you use a PDM system since they
look for existing library folders.

Cheers,


Len

 

Richard,
We have used CircuitWorks since its inception and ben involved with
its ongoing improvement. It works very well, either creating its own
'skyscraper' models or using your own SolidWorks library parts. You
can filter out items that are not parts, such as test pads, fiducials
etc. and decide whether holes are shown and which ones.
I would recommend you trying it out.

Pete Nichols
(throw out _RUBBISH)

 

If you will be using this in-house only these programs are not bad.
If you plan on bringing in outside PCBA's however you may not have the
correct alignment between the IDF file and the true PCBA. We build
PCBA test fixtures and wated to try and bring in IDF data to get a
virtual PCBA. How the individual parts are set-up may change how the
part is aligned into the PCBA.

Jess