New ECAD System Technology

Abstract

In terms of computer support within the design phase of product development, requirements for electrical design are discussed in this section. The field of electrical engineering CAD (ECAD) bears some major differences to CAD for mechanical applications (MCAD): the main task is to describe the functional design of an electrical control unit and/or electrical connections of technical systems. This is accomplished via schematic drawings, representing the appropriate logical information. Typically, these schematics are organized as a set of sheets. Within a schematic, components, (e. g. relais) might be represented by a distributed set of symbols on different sheets of the design. Then typically cross references to the other parts of the component are being made. In subsequent development steps, different production documents need to be derived from the schematics. Examples of such documents are parts lists, terminal lists and connection lists.