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Geometry or Cost Engine Changes that Could Impact Configured Digital Factories

The following changes might impact costing, even for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Bug Fixes or Small Improvements to Prior Cost Model Versions

The following changes might impact costing for Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions.

  • NO IMPACT

Cost Model Changes that Do Not Affect Configured Digital Factories

The following changes do not affect costings with Digital Factories that use earlier cost model versions. The changes are available only in the latest cost model version.

  • Automated Material Stackup Definition: In this release, the PCB cost model assigns dielectric materials to the initial material stackup based on information extracted from ODB++ files, when that information is present. The previous release used such information, when present, to populate the Layer GCD properties Dielectric Thickness and Dielectric Type in the Geometric Cost Drivers pane, but it did not use the information to assign dielectric materials to the material stackup.

    The new behavior can reduce the required user input and can result in more accurate initial costing. As with the previous release, users can override the initial material stackup configuration by using process setup options.

    Note:

    In this release, when you cost a scenario from a previous release, the process setup option Layer Material Type Configuration reverts to its default setting. You must re-set the process setup option for old scenarios.

  • Machine Overhead and Labor Costs (can affect Direct Overhead Cost): In previous releases, some processes double counted the cost for labor by inappropriately including it in machine overhead. This release corrects the problem by changing the machine property Overhead Multiplier from 1 to 0 where appropriate.

    As a result, Direct Overhead Cost decreases for the following processes, compared to the previous release:

    • Automated Optical Inspection
    • Automated Visual Inspection
    • Bed of Nails
    • Drill Circuit Holes
    • Drill Registration Holes
    • Film Imaging
    • Hot Air Solder Leveling
    • Photolithography
    • Plug Vias
    • Router
    • Screen Printing
    • Stamp
    • Wet Film Solder Mask Direct Overhead Cost decreased by around 25.0% in a test set of affected parts, and Fully Burdened Cost decreased by around 12%.

  • cycleTimeAdjustmentFactor and Labor-independent Process Time (can affect cycle time): In the previous release, the cost model variable cycleTimeAdjustmentFactor adjusted only the portion of cycle time attributable to labor-dependent process time; it neglected to adjust the portion of cycle time attributable to labor-independent process time. This release corrects the problem and properly applies the adjustment to both labor-dependent and labor-independent process time. Costs change only if you have changed the value of cycleTimeAdjustmentFactor to a value other than 1.