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PCB DESIGN BEST PRACTICES

Library and design data management

Ensure quality, integrity and security at all stages of product development with a centralized library and design data management system.

Library and design data management overview

Integrate and manage design data through the entire PCB design lifecycle, and leverage a
central library to manage all aspects of the part data required in complex PCB designs.

The benefits of library and design data management

Library models

Manage components, metadata, documents, and electrical models allowing for schematic, layout, and electrical simulation

Managed blocks

Allow engineers to easily reuse known-good circuits including schematic, layout, and constraint data

Designs

Improve individual or team design with enhanced security, consistency, metric collection, and process control

Key features of library and design data management

Centralized environment for managing PCB design data
Xpedition provides a fully integrated and centralized PCB design data management infrastructure, from initial system definition through the design process, to release, to manufacturing. Improve individual or team design with enhanced security, consistency, metric collection and process control.

Increased overall team productivity
Controlled access is available for project team members to both design and design status information. Collaboration management is facilitated for concurrent design, design reviews, release and IP management.

Reuse existing IP in the form of components and certified circuits for new products.
Reusing proven elements from previous designs through a library of certified circuits allows new product development teams to leverage past successes for the benefit of their latest generation of products.

Simplified enterprise library management
Manage library data from part request, to part creation of multi-discipline models, to library distribution with filtering and timely updates, to where-used analysis and collaboration, with enterprise administration to control security and enable 3rd party integrations. Enterprise-level library management seamlessly integrates multiple disciplines.

Seamless PLM Integration
Xpedition integrates with the electronic design supply chain and extended enterprise applications like PLM and ERP.

Direct access to comprehensive part intelligence
Xpedition integrates technical parametric information, alternates, and real-time component sourcing intelligence for 650 million+ parts, providing actionable insights at every stage of the design process and synchronization with part request workflows and PLM systems. Learn more about supply chain resilience.

Learn more about Xpedition

Dive deeper into this topic

image - eda - library and data management blog

You want to establish internal guidelines and processes for library and design data management, that way you have an internal set of guidelines and rules in order to operate consistently. Read more in our library and design data management blog or listen to our library and design data management podcast.

Library and design data management resources:

Library and design data management

Frequently asked questions

Design data is the full spectrum of data utilized in developing individual circuit boards or multi-board systems connected by cables. The types of data can be broken down into four categories: Library models, managed blocks, designs and systems.

Design data management is the practice of controlling access to design data, managing relationships between different types of data, guiding user interactions in accessing and modifying data, reporting information about the data, and exchanging selected design data between adjacent engineering tools and enterprise systems.

A design data management practice is implemented using a software system built for that purpose, optimized for a certain type of design such as electronics. In addition to adopting data management tools, companies must consider and document different use cases and roles such as librarian, system design, PCB designer, and system administrator. Solution providers such as Siemens can help companies assess needs, capture requirements, and implement systems that meet their purposes based on best practices developed over years with many customers.

Companies should choose a data management system based on several criteria including the following.

  • Suitability for purpose – is the system optimized for electronics design?
  • Scalability – does the system meet our needs now and expand with us as our company grows?
  • Security – does the system allow users to access all the data they are entitled to see, and prevent them from accessing data that is off-limits for their role, nationality, or other factor?
  • Openness – does the system allow integrations to other systems such are component data services and Product Lifecycle Management?