Designing printed circuit boards was once a skill reserved for those with in-depth knowledge of the field. However, the industry is changing and that’s largely a result of DIY PCB design, allowing hobbyists to create their own printed circuit boards at home. Whilst designing your own PCB at home is becoming easier and easier, it can still be something a of a lengthy process, especially if you’re looking for a simple design to use with a one-off project.
One PCB designer has taken that issue into it’s own hands, launching PADS AMS Cloud, the world’s first cloud community for PCB designers. The new online environment is something of a multi-tool for PCB designers, providing a platform to both create and share share analogue and mixed-signal designs. However, arguably the most useful aspect of the platform is that it gives users the ability to both publish and download PCB models.
Anyone who’s dealt with PCB boards in the past will know that it can often be time consuming to recreate a board that’s already been created by another designer. With that in mind, PADS AMS Cloud provides an incredibly effective solution for PCB users.
With a platform like PADS AMS Cloud, you’d expect to be limited to the platform’s inhouse design environment. However, that couldn’t be further from the case. One of the best things about the platform is it’s compatibility with external PCB design software. It means that users can take advantage of the best PCB design software by Altium to create their own PCB design in environment of their choice and share that design online with other users. At the same time, users can take advantage of the software to load PCB designs that they’ve taken from PADS AMS Cloud and alter them to their liking using Altium software.
Printed circuit boards are now an important part of modern computing. Just about every electronic device in your home takes advantage of PCB technology, whether it’s the complicated boards used in your desktop computer or the simplified technology that your kitchen appliances take advantage of. With that in mind, it’s easy to imagine that designing PCB board is no easy task, given the purpose of these boards.
However, software from the likes of Altium and other PCB experts allows for the easy creation of boards that you can use in your own technology. In fact, the advent of DIY PCB design has enhanced DIY computing, allowing users to create their own micro-computers, much like the Raspberry Pi, which was released a couple of years ago. It’s more than fair to say that PCB design is completely changing electronics and computing.
The first cloud community for PCB designers, PADS AMS Cloud is only furthering the popularity of DIY printed circuit board design, allowing users to share their designs and advice with other enthusiasts online. That being said, there’s still a fair distance to go before less experienced computer users are able to create PCB of their own.