What’s new in Xpedition 2409

By Dave Wiens

The latest 2409 release of Xpedition marks a significant milestone in Siemens’ journey to redefine electronic systems design. This release introduces AI capabilities and cloud connectivity, offering users a more intuitive, adaptive, and secure design experience.

With a focus on a modern user experience, the Xpedition 2409 update is designed to simplify complex design processes, reduce learning curves, and accelerate time-to-productivity. The enhanced user experience emphasizes ease-of-use and unification, enabling engineers to work more efficiently and achieve faster results. This commitment to usability and adaptability not only boosts productivity but also increases overall user satisfaction.

Take a full tour of the new user experience by watching the video below.

Discover the additional key advancements in the Xpedition 2409 release by reading below.

Layout

Simplified auto route setup

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces a simplified auto route option, designed to enhance the routing experience for users of all skill levels. Building on Siemens’ established expertise in auto-routing solutions, this new feature addresses the complexities of routing schemes by offering a more accessible, scalable alternative. It allows users to easily route all nets, marked nets, and components or selected nets and components with simple fan-out and routing passes. Real-time feedback on execution status and routing health ensures users can quickly adjust and optimize their designs, making the advanced routing capabilities of Xpedition more user-friendly and efficient.

Physical design reuse

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces one of the most effective strategies to boost productivity in PCB design: design reuse. By leveraging pre-tested and approved circuits and layouts, design teams can significantly reduce cycle times and costs. This approach not only accelerates the design process but also allows intellectual property to be shared across different projects and teams, amplifying benefits organization-wide. In Xpedition, reusable design elements can be managed like individual library components, enabling seamless sharing and tracking. Designers can easily manage modifications to reusable elements, especially when parts become obsolete or unavailable, further enhancing efficiency and flexibility in PCB design workflows.

Pad entry improvements

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces significant pad entry enhancements to streamline the PCB design process and ensure consistency across designs using similar technologies. Users can now create and apply default rules for specific pad types, such as round and rectangular pads, allowing for extended pad entries and odd angles. Additionally, the release includes updates to the “allow via under pad” rules, offering greater flexibility in design. Users can apply these default rules to new pads or reset all pads to the system default. Furthermore, pad entry rules can now be exported to a file and imported into other designs, making it easier to maintain consistency across multiple projects.

Accelerated object handling

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces new graphical accelerators in its modern user experience (UX) to make basic editing more intuitive and consistent with other modern tools like Designer. Key features include a new right-click popup menu that provides quick access to context-sensitive commands, allowing users to easily modify objects such as vias, components, or text without opening the full properties menu. This menu also includes helpful tooltips that explain each option.

Additionally, a new rotation handle allows for precise component rotation in increments of 1°, 45°, 90°, or 180°, with visual indicators showing the angle of rotation. In-situ text editing has also been introduced, enabling direct modification of text on the design canvas, similar to modern text editors, with support for keyboard navigation and advanced text editing options. These enhancements provide users with a more efficient and streamlined design process, reducing time and effort for common editing tasks.

Sawtooth tuning with complex vias

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces significant updates to tuning patterns and complex via creation, offering more flexibility and precision in PCB design. Building on previous enhancements, sawtooth tuning patterns can now be added and moved around corners, even on odd-angle routing. This allows designers to easily adjust patterns to create space for future routing needs.

The release also brings advancements in complex via creation, including the ability to add regular or curved teardrops within complex vias. Using the AATK Automation Script Complex Via Builder, users can efficiently create complex vias by selecting objects and defining naming conventions based on preferences. Additional scripts support complex via placement and 3D visualization, streamlining the design process. These new features provide enhanced control and ease of use, making complex via creation and usage more accessible and efficient in PCB designs.

Automated manufacturing data output (MDO)

With MDO, users can effortlessly select any PCB layout file, which automatically populates the designer project field with the necessary fab drawings and panel references. It allows quick access to Xpedition tools and easy configuration to set up unique manufacturing formats and outputs.

MDO enables users to create multiple custom setups for unique data output sets, ensuring controlled and consistent data extraction across all Xpedition Layout projects. These output sets allow users to select specific datasets and control which variant extractions are needed, making the process efficient and reducing the risk of errors. This streamlined approach ensures complete, organized, and ready-to-use manufacturing data for fabrication and assembly services, meeting the needs of customers with precision and ease.

Team layout performance monitor

The Xpedition 2409 release enhances support for concurrent design by making it easier to manage and review team performance during PCB design processes. With the new Team Layout Performance Monitor, users can now efficiently track processor and memory consumption not only for the team PCB server but also for each client connected to a session. This feature allows teams to work together seamlessly on design capture, constraint definition, and physical layout, ensuring a high-quality concurrent environment. By providing real-time visibility into resource usage, the Performance Monitor helps maintain optimal performance and collaboration throughout the design process.

Design aids

The Xpedition 2409 release introduces new Smart Utilities, enhancing users’ ability to leverage core layout functionalities for advanced design techniques. This feature allows for the creation of mesh patterns, both grid and line, on conductor, fabrication, and user layers with specific width, pitch, and angles. Users can quickly generate complex geometries with options to add or remove framing, providing additional control to meet specific design requirements.

Smart Utilities also enable precision drawing of detailed shapes like lines, polylines, polygons, and rectangles using relative coordinate input for exact measurements. The introduction of tangent line tools allows users to easily connect circles and arcs or extend lines to specific points, with the flexibility to toggle between multiple tangent locations. Enhanced multi-line stretch functionality further simplifies the modification of line objects, while new highlight features in the Smart Utility panel improve layout visualization. These enhancements empower users to maintain high productivity with greater accuracy and control in PCB design.

Library and design data management

Footprint generation

In the 2409 release, Footprint Expert is integrated into the Library Manager, streamlining the footprint creation process within a familiar workflow. Footprint Expert features a user-friendly interface divided into three sections: the Library, Footprint Editor, and Calculator windows. Users can access prebuilt libraries, create custom footprints, and manage them efficiently. The tool supports both surface mount and through-hole component footprints, adhering to industry standards like IPC specifications. After designing, users can export footprints and 3D models directly to the Library Manager for seamless part creation, modification, and integration into designs. This integration enhances productivity by simplifying library management and ensuring consistency across designs.

Part request manager

In the latest Xpedition release, the Part Request module of Xpedition EDM has been integrated into EDM Collaborate, offering a unified, web-based experience for part request management. The new module adopts the familiar interface style of Collaborate, including features like faceting, custom filtering, and domain-specific views. Users can now create and modify part requests directly within the web-based tool, with changes synchronized across EDM Collaborate and EDM Library Cockpit. The module supports adding attachments and offers enhanced control over field visibility and permissions, maintaining compatibility with existing Library Flow management and Process Flow configurations.

Part library sync with Teamcenter

In the latest Xpedition release, the integration between EDM and Teamcenter has been enhanced to support synchronization of 3D models associated with EDM library components or their corresponding 2D cells. Through EDM Collaborate, users can schedule exports to generate EDX files periodically, capturing any component library changes—such as 3D model assignments, approved manufacturer lists, lifecycle status, or cost—and synchronize them with Teamcenter. This automated background process ensures libraries remain up-to-date without requiring constant user input. The enhanced integration allows electronics and mechanical engineers to collaborate more effectively through Teamcenter, enabling ECAD-MCAD co-design with flexibility to manage primary or alternate 3D model representations based on design constraints.

Improved part search and selection

The 2409 release introduces enhancements to PartQuest, allowing users to search for new parts using descriptive terms or part numbers and verify them with supply chain information links. PartQuest boasts the largest collection of CAD models available in the market. Before downloading, users can preview models, enlarge them for detailed views, and rotate 3D models to inspect them thoroughly. Once verified, parts can be dragged and dropped directly into a schematic project library for immediate use or downloaded as EDX files for import into Library Manager or EDM to update the company library.

Enhanced data security

Data security and access control are crucial for many companies, and Xpedition data management addresses these concerns with enhanced security features. Administrators can create custom data restriction profiles tailored to their company’s specific needs, which control access to design and library data based on user nationality and location. Each user is assigned a profile that identifies their nationality and home country, and the system integrates with the company’s infrastructure to verify the user’s current location. For example, an American user can access ITAR data while in the United States but will be restricted from access when traveling abroad. Project managers assign appropriate data restriction profiles when setting up projects, ensuring that users can only access data and component libraries that align with their profiles and current location.

HyperLynx data management in EDM

The Xpedition 2409 release brings significant enhancements to the integration between Xpedition’s Engineering Data Management (EDM) tool and the HyperLynx family of simulation tools. Users can now perform pre-layout simulations with HyperLynx LineSim directly at the board level, and manage LineSim data independently within a designated data folder, improving flexibility and collaboration.

New features include the ability to export net data from BboardSim to LineSim and store it in the EDM-managed data folder, with customizable output file names. The release also introduces enhanced check-in structures and reporting capabilities, allowing users to selectively save and share simulation reports via EDM’s cloud collaboration features. Additionally, EDM now supports version management for HyperLynx and Xpedition layout, enabling users to open simulation files directly from the EDM cockpit. These updates streamline data management and collaboration, making the integration of HyperLynx and EDM more efficient and user-friendly.

Design capture

Requirements decomposition and verification

Xpedition Model-Based Engineering (MBE) allows engineers to decompose high-level requirements to a level where PCB designs can be verified using simulation tools. For example, a safety requirement can be broken down into a specific creepage distance constraint, which can then be verified using tools like HyperLynx DRC. Xpedition MBE provides complete traceability of requirements, simplifying the constraint definition process by connecting requirements to PCB design and verification.

Download Xpedition 2409 today!

The Xpedition 2409 release marks a pivotal step in Siemens’ vision to revolutionize electronic systems design. This release brings groundbreaking features, including advanced AI capabilities and cloud connectivity, creating a more intuitive, adaptive, and secure design experience. With a focus on usability and modern user experience, Xpedition 2409 simplifies complex design processes, reduces learning curves, and accelerates time-to-productivity. Learn more about the new features and functionality here.

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