Data entry and design analysis tool offers support for PCB surface finishing

Ucamco has announced the release of version v2017.05 of Integr8tor, the data entry and design analysis tool for sales, Pre-CAM and engineering. This version builds further on the v2016.12 release and in the line of tradition it abounds with must-have extensions and valuable enhancements. Among the many feature highlights of this release is support for PCB surface finishing and all of its derived benefits. This new version registers PCB surface finish information as a regular product parameter in the database, which puts the quotation engineer in a far better position to generate more accurate price offers. Moreover, the QED engine has been upgraded, not only to transfer the surface finish information via its XML interface to third-party quotation packages, but also to display all board-related images in PDF in a true what-you-see-is-what-you-get mode. This makes for a cool bonus to your customer quotation documentation. Linked to PCB surface finish as well is a new feature called Uncovered Via Surface Calculation. Many incoming designs still have via pads covered with solder mask. During CAM, these covered areas are likely to be "uncovered", which inevitably adds to the area of exposed copper. In combination with certain types of surface finish, this additional area may cause surface finish costs to soar. The tool caters for this, as it now calls out the area of copper covered with solder mask in the incoming data that will potentially be free of mask on the finished product.