What's in the latest version

Pulsonix V13.0 is the latest edition with exciting 64Bit Speed and Capability enhancements to our highly valued user base. Below is an overview of the major new features in this release

For more details of the Version 13.0 release, view the datasheet

OptionDescription
Panel Editor The new Panel Editor feature allows customers to take control over pre-fabrication processes. It enables multi-PCB designs to be panelised ready for plotting and on into the manufacturing stage. The Panel Editor is more than just a plotting station; it allows panelisation of designs, addition of test coupons, fiducial markers, documentation and fabrication details. New facilities within it allow tab-routing paths to be defined. With control over the addition of tab direction, tab thickness, tab spacing and mouse bites, it enables accurate manufacture-ready breakout tabs to be created. V-Score paths can be added using the shape tools and then processed for manufacture, all within the Panel Editor environment.

Design Reuse - Apply Layout Pattern Multiple group selection for design reuse has been added to enhance the current reuse placement algorithm. When a selection has been made, this can now be applied to multiple groups in the design. You can select from existing designs or select duplicate portions of Circutry. Once placement has been made, multiple positional rearrangement options can also be applied to the existing design using a new placement pattern from the original design. These options significantly save precious design time and ensure inaccuracies are removed from the process.

Add Breakout Patterns in Footprint Editor Add breakout patterns (fanouts) to an existing BGA footprint in the footprint editor using a dialog driven interface without having to recreate it from scratch.This feature will save a huge amount of time where the footprint has been imported or created without the use of breakout patterns.

Cyclic Backup Methodology Cyclic design backups and security saves are available since Pulsonix 11.0 The style of naming and backup criteria allows customisation of this critical process. Users are able to choose backup styles to allow incremental or decremental naming or infinite naming. Additionally, a Restore point can be chosen during the design process which can be recovered at any point. Multiple Restore points can be chosen either manually or automatically.

Net Names Displayed in Tracks The visibility of Net Names in tracks has been added. As well as the display, control of the auto-hide zoom rate and font used have also been added. Visibility can be toggled on or off as a user preference, using the Layers and View/Hide menu

IPC-2581 Netlist Export The IPC-2581 netlist export is an intelligent vendor-neutral format that will serve as an alternative to traditional manufacturing outputs such as Gerber and ODB++. Pulsonix 11.0 will support this format in both its product and as a corporate consortium member.

Support for Gerber X2 Pulsonix 11.0 supports extensions to UCAMCO s Gerber format to produce Gerber X2 compliant files. The Gerber X2 format supports essential design attributes which themselves more closely support the transfer of PCB designs to manufacturing.

Position STEP Models The introduction of a dynamic graphical positioning tool for adding STEP models to the footprint enables accurate visual association between the two items. By changing values within the dialog, instant visual feedback takes the guesswork out of positioning the STEP model. As an additional enhancement to all dialogs that use the STEP Filename attribute, the STEP Filename Model can be selected from a drop down list from the library. A new option, Save STEP Models, has been added to enable the collection of all STEP Models used in the design and saved to a folder location. The dialog reports any items that have models or are missing models.

Dynamic Net Name Signal References Add dynamic net name markers using this new feature. The text callout box changes size to fit the size of the net name being added.

Additional Feature Summary
Assign shortcut keys for Change Layer to specific layers Using new shortcut key commands, you can assign keys for use during track editing to quickly navigate between layers.

Snap Cursor to Grid As well as free movement, this new feature enables a forced snap of the cursor to the current grid, all editing and cursor movement is then using the grid steps defined.

Gerber verification plot to PDF When plotting your Gerber files, in addition to a standard Windows verification plot, you can product a PDF file of the plot using the built-in Pulsonix PDF driver supplied. This saves you time mapping your Windows driver to a PDF device.

Local Pin Types Local pin types override global pin type settings defined in your Technology file. You may find a device has been assigned a pin type of I/O for example but during editing, that pin becomes fixed at Output only, this new mode enables this change to take place locally.

Scaling of DXF files during Import DXF files can be scaled during import. This can be invaluable where the host system has not specified a scale of the DXF file.

Align DXF to 0,0 during Import During import, you can align the DXF to the 0,0 system reference so that accurate placement within the design can be achieved.

Insert Multiple Connector Pins Connector pins can be inserted and placed using the Insert Multiple option. This saves time where there are large numbers of connector pins to a device.

3D Viewer - Layer Type choice for component body Choose the Layer Type that is used for displaying component body shapes in the 3D Viewer.

Component pushing uses accurate shapes When component pushing is active, the option now uses accurate shapes rather than a bounding box. This allows a denser packing of components without component shape to shape spacing errors.

New commands in Report Maker The powerful report maker option has been further expanded with the inclusion of over 20 new reporting commands.

Delete segment of Schematic connection When editing a Schematic connection, you can now delete a single selected segment.

Suppress pads on powerplanes A new option to enable pads to be suppressed on powerplanes during CAM plot.

Multiple file extensions The ability to have multiple extensions associated with a file type has been added. For
example for STEP Models, you could specify .stp and .step.

Execute Hyperlinks on Associated Parts From the Edit Associated Part dialog on the Design Properties dialog, an Execute Hyperlink button is available for hyperlink attributes on the associated part.