When it comes to choosing a design-capture tool in the EDA world, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Depending on variety of factors, most of all personal preferences, the answer to “Which is the best design-capture application?” keeps changing. Most design tasks can be accomplished in all tools. Some tools might even look similar.
In this scenario, what differentiates one product from the rest is highly subjective. Usability, or ease of use combined with efficiency, is a key determinant. A user might ask: 
- How much do I need to know in advance?
- How much do I need to figure out?
- How many clicks are needed for doing the same task?
- How well does it work with other applications in the design to fabrication flow?
- Does it include a robust library? Can I extend the available libraries?
- Can I reuse my designs?
- How much of it is automated?
Cadence SPB has set benchmarks in what designers can expect when creating designs with its products, OrCAD® Capture and Design Entry HDL (DE-HDL). Joining these industry-standard products is Allegro® System Design Authoring (SDA), a powerful, enterprise-level application that brings you the robustness of DE-HDL and the lightness of OrCAD Capture.
SDA offers a gamut of new features and simpler, faster ways of completing design-capture tasks. Let’s take a look at the top 10 of the many features of Allegro SDA and how they benefit you, the designer:
1 | Simple, intuitive user interface |
No more remembering menus, commands, or navigating multiple windows. Context-sensitive menus and options show up based on what you are doing. The SDA interface is so easy to learn and use that before you know it, you have mastered its design-intent creation capabilities. | |
2 | Quick part selection |
Finding the right component is a repetitive, yet critical, task in the design cycle. Your search can be based on numbers, ranges, or free-form text. You’ll notice that the results are configured to show the most relevant parts for your project, along with their complete information. | |
3 | Smart connectivity use models |
Routine tasks are intelligently handled by SDA, letting you focus on larger design challenges. There are so many changes in the connectivity space as compared to other design-capture tools that a full series of posts would be needed, but we recommend that you create a sample design in SDA to know why we claim that SDA ensures your schematics are “correct-by-design”. | |
4 | Easy bypass capacitor configuration |
You can add a bypass cap rail with just a few clicks. One interesting feature is that the maximum distance you specify between capacitors and the power pins in SDA, gets passed on to PCB Editor, which automatically does an even distribution of the caps around the power pins of the associated device. | |
5 | Options for high-speed analysis |
Adding XNets is now much easier because you don’t need DML models. You can also extract the topology of an XNet in SigExplorer. Assigning constraints is possible at the object-level, as well as the design-level. The best part, in SDA you continue working with the familiar and robust Constraints Manager. | |
6 | Designs are always packaged |
As soon as you place a component on the schematic, it is packaged. Reference designators as well as pin numbers get automatically assigned based on configurable patterns. | |
7 | Fully integrated with PCB Layout |
The design data is synchronized between SDA and PCB Editor. Cross-probing between the tools is simple and helps identify objects quickly. Any changes made in PCB Editor get reported in SDA by the Design Differencing Engine. | |
8 | Simplified design reuse |
Logical and physical design reuse is fully supported. You can import blocks from DE-HDL as well as SDA to reuse all connectivity, constraints, and layout. At any given time, the full picture of the design, along with the output files, is available in the Design Explorer. | |
9 | Data management and team design |
Data management and team design features come built-in with SDA, so when designing, you do not need to use another application. Using the same environment increases the design team's efficiency and reduces the chances of errors. | |
10 | Library caching and managing parts |
Designs in SDA are cache-enabled. You can compare parts used in a design with reference libraries with Part Manager. You can update the design cache with the changes from the reference libraries, continue with the cached parts. |
This just begins to scratch the surface. SDA not only looks modern, it has built-in mechanisms that are contemporary and smart. Even though the interface and use models are intuitive, SDA Help includes a robust library of technical videos that quickly demonstrate SDA features along with an FAQ that addresses the most common questions. When you work with SDA, your design efficiency improves, and you'll realize how the entire PCB design ecosystem gets connected and streamlined.
The next generation of schematic entry is here.
For more information about SDA visit: http://support.cadence.com/wps/AllegroSDA
