SAN FRANCISCO — A standard linking CAD to CAM for improved pc-board manufacturability is nearing reality. On the eve of the Design Automation Conference this week, backers said their electronic CAD-to-CAM exchange (Ecce) standard has gained major support from leaders in both industries.

Cadence Design Systems, Mentor Graphics and Zuken-Redac have committed to Ecce, according to sponsors Intermetrics Inc., the Electronics Industries Alliance (EIA) and Interconnecting and Packaging Components (IPC). Those EDA companies, along with CAM tool vendors Fabmaster, GraphiCode, Infinite Graphics, Mitron, Orbatech and Valor have vowed to add interfaces supporting EDIF 4 0 0 and the Ecce information model and its syntax, called CAM-F. Tools supporting the standard are scheduled to roll out in early 1999.

'A big step'
"This is a big step for the industry," said Dave DeMaria, division chairman for EDIF. "It is the first time we have gotten a commitment from vendors on both sides to support the standard for the specific purpose of exchanging info between the CAD and CAM domains."

DeMaria said Mentor, Cadence and Zuken-Redac will be ready to output CAM-F-compliant EDIF 4 0 0 early next year. Meanwhile, Fabmaster, GraphiCode, InfiniteGraphics, Mitron and Valor will provide tools to the CAM market fitted with CAM-F readers.

The result will be a "shrink-wrap" solution to the CAD/CAM data-transfer problem.

The Ecce committee, which brought the EIA and IPC together to work on the standard, is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and run by Intermetrics (Burlington, Mass.). Steve Fortier, director of Intermetics and project leader for Ecce, said the committee was chartered to create a format based on information modeling to allow a seamless exchange of design data to manufacturing. Previously, customers passed Gerber files along with a multitude of other file formats and drawings to the manufacturer.