OrCADX: High Performance That's Easy to Use

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

During DesignCon, I spoke with Chris Banton of EMA about the newest developments around OrCADX, which provides PCB designers with more design automation capability across the whole design process in an easy-to-use GUI. As Chris says, this tool is designed for agile design teams, and features an updated PCB UX, an enhanced 3D engine, SolidWorks integration, and AI for a superior user experience.

Andy Shaughnessy: How are you, Chris? It’s been about a year since we last spoke, and I see you have the new OrCAD X tool on display. 

Chris Banton: Good to see you, Andy. OrCAD has a great history, and we're really excited about this release. It is a reimagining of what design needs to look like in the next five to 10 years. The team did a great job of taking a step back and saying, “What do we need to offer the designer now and in the future?” It’s the next generation of a design tool geared toward how we solve more than just the layout problem. That is where OrCAD X is coming from.

We see engineers increasingly responsible for more parts of the design process. They're the electrical engineer, PCB designer, test engineer, librarian, etc. They are doing everything. The goal of OrCAD X is to accelerate the whole process, such as bringing in supply chain information upfront so that designers can make good part decisions. Better collaboration is enabled with a new feature called Review and Markup, which operates like a Google doc. It is a way to collaborate on your design directly within the tool cockpit. Another area of the flow being automated is the documentation step with LiveDoc—documentation is something that no one wants to do, but it's critical, this makes that process much easier to manage. It even automates how you package that design for manufacturing, so it's repeatable and accurate. There is a lot in it, but it's all very needed going forward. 

Cadence continues to be a leader in AI technology as well to help engineers deal with resource bottlenecks. So, these platforms are AI-ready and can be leveraged with AI capability as they roll out. 

Shaughnessy: OrCAD is famous for being easy to use. But OrCAD needed to grow and make improvements, while still being easy to use.

Banton: Yes, and that’s a fine line to tow, but I think they did a really good job. The initial feedback has been very positive. Designers are seeing significantly enhanced productivity with OrCADX.

Shaughnessy: For the first time in about 20 years, we’re seeing many young new designers coming into the fold. This seems like it would be ideal for a young designer. 

Banton: I agree, and we are seeing that as well. One of the great things about OrCADX is that it’s fully file-compatible with Allegro and the Cadence suite. So, if you have a mix of young and experienced designers at your organization, they can use the workflow that works best for them, but they can still share IPs, libraries, and all the key things you want to be able to do to make your team efficient. 

Shaughnessy: That’s great, Chris. Is there anything you’d like to add? 

Banton: We are really excited for this year. Every year  it seems like technology just can't go any faster and solutions can’t keep up but they always find a way, there are a lot of great things coming, and we are looking forward to sharing them.

Shaughnessy: Chris, thank you for speaking with us. 

Banton: Thank you, Andy. Great talking with you.