Altium and MacroFab Partner to Launch Industry-First Integrated PCB “Design WITH Manufacturing” Application
February 08, 2022
News
Altium LLC and MacroFab, Inc. announced that Altimade, the electronics industry’s first “design WITH manufacturing” application, is now available to the Altium user community.
Available on the Altium 365 cloud platform and connected directly to MacroFab’s fully digital, elastic manufacturing platform, Altimade enables customers to request an instant quote and place an order to produce their PCB assembly without ever leaving their design environment.
Altimade modernizes and accelerates the prototype manufacturing process by connecting design, manufacturing, and supply chain data and professionals on the Altium 365 cloud platform to provide an easy, convenient user experience.
Using Altimade, Altium customers have access to continuously updated component and manufacturing prices and lead times at their fingertips and can place an order to produce their printed circuit boards directly within the design environment. All data required for manufacturing is shared via the secure, cloud-based Altium 365 platform, without file translations and exports. Per the companies, orders are fulfilled by MacroFab’s network of manufacturers in a fraction of the time and effort compared with the traditional process of going from design to manufacture. Altimade creates, maintains, and displays a complete and continuous digital data trail that represents a true “golden record” for every step in the design, procurement, and manufacturing processes of a PCB. Any changes to the original bill of materials or design details automatically update the golden record.
Per the company, Altimade helps customers achieve higher quality PCBs by maintaining a digital thread between the design intent and what is physically produced, leaving no room for errors from misinterpretation. In addition, Altimade helps engineers ensure manufacturability since the Altium Designer software runs design rule checking (DRC) to ensure the design meets MacroFab’s manufacturing specifications.
The MacroFab digital platform is used by supply chain teams to build everything from PCB assemblies to fully tested and packaged electronics products. MacroFab aggregates unused capacity at 75+ factories in the US, Canada, and Mexico to give mid-market companies an alternative to offshoring, where capacity is increasingly constrained and lead times are impacted by supply chain and freight disruptions. MacroFab turns its network of factories, logistics centers, and warehouses used in manufacturing into a cloud resource, driven by software and connected to Altium 365 through modern APIs.
Altimade is now available to all Altium Designer 22 and Altium 365 users.
For more information, visit: altium.com/altimade
Tiera Oliver is the assistant managing editor at Embedded Computing Design. She is responsible for web content editing, product news, and story development. She also manages, edits, and develops content for ECD podcasts, including Embedded Insiders.
She utilizes her expertise in journalism and content management to oversee editorial content, coordinate with editors, and ensure high-quality output across web, print, and multimedia platforms. She manages diverse projects, assists in the production of digital magazines, and hosts company podcasts by conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders to deliver engaging and insightful discussions.
Tiera attended Northern Arizona University, where she received her bachelor's in journalism and political science. She was also a news reporter for the student-led newspaper, The Lumberjack.
