Design Article
Case study: Designed for space
Gabor Marosy, Budapest University of Technology
4/5/2012 10:00 AM EDT
The results
Thanks to the features outlined above, the development costs of a project can be severely reduced with Altium Designer in general. In our particular case, i.e. during the development of Masat-1, the flexible capabilities of the software package that enabled a seamless workflow with the mechanical engineers substantially contributed to our cost saving aims. Gerber files could be generated with just a few clicks, which further facilitated the daily work. Having completed the circuit diagram, the PCB design was executed rapidly. The produced PCBs successfully passed both the vibration and the thermal vacuum tests.
Altium Designer gained the appreciation of not only the students but also the professors who supported them. As a result, this CAD toolkit was integrated in the educational framework at the University of Budapest. The feedback from the students performing their project laboratory assignments with this software is highly positive, confirming that beginners can easily adjust to the functions and services of this program, while advanced users can also fully exploit the powerful and versatile functions of Altium Designer. Worth mentioning are the 3D capabilities of the tool, which helped us to take care of all the mechanical aspects very early in the design process.
About the author
Gabor Marosy is a PhD student at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Electron Devices.
See also:
. A video of Altium Designer 10 is available here
. To access Masat-1 website, click here.
. Technical details about Masat-1 are available here.
----------------------
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Military/Aerospace Designline where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of military, defense and aerospace. And, to register to our weekly newsletter, click here.
Thanks to the features outlined above, the development costs of a project can be severely reduced with Altium Designer in general. In our particular case, i.e. during the development of Masat-1, the flexible capabilities of the software package that enabled a seamless workflow with the mechanical engineers substantially contributed to our cost saving aims. Gerber files could be generated with just a few clicks, which further facilitated the daily work. Having completed the circuit diagram, the PCB design was executed rapidly. The produced PCBs successfully passed both the vibration and the thermal vacuum tests.
Once the schematic was complete, the PCB design took little time and the PCBs passed the vibration and thermal vacuum tests without a problem.
Altium Designer gained the appreciation of not only the students but also the professors who supported them. As a result, this CAD toolkit was integrated in the educational framework at the University of Budapest. The feedback from the students performing their project laboratory assignments with this software is highly positive, confirming that beginners can easily adjust to the functions and services of this program, while advanced users can also fully exploit the powerful and versatile functions of Altium Designer. Worth mentioning are the 3D capabilities of the tool, which helped us to take care of all the mechanical aspects very early in the design process.
About the author
Gabor Marosy is a PhD student at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Electron Devices.
See also:
. A video of Altium Designer 10 is available here
. To access Masat-1 website, click here.
. Technical details about Masat-1 are available here.
----------------------
If you found this article to be of interest, visit Military/Aerospace Designline where you will find the latest and greatest design, technology, product, and news articles with regard to all aspects of military, defense and aerospace. And, to register to our weekly newsletter, click here.
|
|
|
|
|
Navigate to related information
Dr DSP
4/21/2012 6:01 PM EDT
I would be more interested in some lessons learned instead of a list of features of the tool. This seems like a very interesting project and I'm sure the designers must have some good examples of specific savings (in schedule, in board space, testing, etc.) that they could share. For example- were there some changes to the mechanicals that resulted from the ability to do 3D models that reduces size and/or weight?
Sign in to Reply