14-day free trial · Plans from $60 per seat per month, billed annually (USD) · Guest viewers are free
As featured in
MCAD sits in one system, ECAD projects and harness drawings in another, and the board outline travels between them as an IDF or STEP file attached to an email.
A connector moves or a heat sink grows on the PCB, and the mechanical team only finds out at the next prototype build.
Updated STEP files come in by email, get re-imported as new files, and nobody can say which version is in the assembly.
The enclosure is on rev C, the board on rev 4 and the harness drawing nobody updated is still rev B. The contract manufacturer builds from whatever was emailed last.
A PCBA STEP export alone can carry thousands of component bodies. Add the enclosure and cable routing, and the full product runs to tens of thousands of parts and takes minutes to load.
Keep your ECAD source of truth where it is, in Altium 365, Git or your ECAD vault. Whether you design boards in Altium Designer, KiCad or Cadence OrCAD and Allegro, contribute the release outputs (PCBA STEP, fab package, schematic PDF) next to the enclosure. No plugin and no ECAD lock-in, whichever ECAD tool you use next.
Mechanical formats and PCBA STEP exports open in the browser viewer. ECAD files are versioned but not shown in 3D; a native ECAD integration is on our roadmap.
We use a sample sensor housing and its PCBA, never customer data, to follow one board change from the electrical contribution to the released set your suppliers build from.
1. Contribute board rev 4 beside the housing
Your electrical engineer exports board rev 4’s PCBA STEP and fab package to the synced project folder and contributes them as new versions beside the housing. No ECAD plugin and no emailed STEP: your mechanical engineer checks out the housing the same day.
2. Settle the wall thickness with your moulder
After your moulder’s comment, your mechanical engineer thickens the wall beside the new J3 cut-out to 1.5 mm, and the moulder measures it on the model before anyone cuts steel. Guests view, measure and comment in the browser on the files you share, and download only if you allow it. Guest viewers are free.
3. Check the cut-out against the tooled housing
Before your electrical and mechanical leads approve, CAD diffing puts the released housing the tool is cut to beside the new revision. The moved cut-out and thicker wall are highlighted, so each lead signs off exactly what changed.
Included on Business and Enterprise plans.
4. Release board, housing and harness together
One change order holds the new housing, the board rev 4 STEP and the updated harness drawing, with the fab package attached. With both approvals in, the set is released for prototype build 3, and your moulder and contract manufacturer each get their files as guests.
Included on Business and Enterprise plans.
Request a sandbox and we’ll email you an invite to a sample project.
ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type II attested, with GDPR-compliant processing. We never use your files, data or metadata to train AI.
Our information security management system is independently audited and certified to ISO/IEC 27001.
ISO 27001 certified
ECAD-MCAD questions, answered
Can we version PCB and harness files in CAD ROOMS?
Yes. CAD ROOMS versions files at file-system level, so ECAD release outputs (Gerber or ODB++ packages, schematic PDFs, IDF files), harness drawings and the PCBA STEP sit in the same project as the enclosure, with check-out and revision history. Mechanical formats and PCBA STEP exports open in the 3D viewer; native ECAD files are versioned but not shown in 3D.
Do you integrate with Altium or other ECAD tools?
Not natively today, and you don’t need to replace your exchange. MCAD CoDesigner, Onshape PCB Studio or IDF and IDX files move board geometry between tools. CAD ROOMS controls the files on both sides: check-out, revision history, CAD diffing of the enclosure, one change order for board and enclosure changes, and supplier access. A native ECAD integration is on our roadmap.
Which CAD and ECAD tools does it work with?
On the mechanical side, SOLIDWORKS, Creo, NX, CATIA, Solid Edge, Inventor and more: 35+ formats, including STEP, with no CAD plugin. On the electrical side, release outputs from any ECAD tool, including Altium Designer, KiCad and Cadence OrCAD or Allegro, can be versioned; we recommend keeping native projects in your ECAD tool’s own version control. A native ECAD integration is on our roadmap.
How do we release mechanical and electrical changes together?
Open one change order and attach everything the change touches: the enclosure revision, the board outputs, the harness drawing and a note of the firmware tag or commit. Mechanical and electrical reviewers discuss it in one thread and approve it before release, so everyone can see which set of revisions was approved for the build. Change orders are on Business and Enterprise.
Can CAD ROOMS support ISO 26262 or EN 50716 audits?
It supports them with change records, but it doesn’t make you compliant. Version history with notes shows what changed and why, and on Business and Enterprise plans change orders, approvals before release and audit logs show who approved each board, enclosure and harness revision, and when. That gives your safety team evidence for an ISO 26262 or EN 50716 (formerly EN 50128) assessment. Requirements, hazard analysis and software traceability stay in your safety process and tools.
Does CAD ROOMS manage BOMs?
Not yet; BOM management is on our roadmap. Today CAD ROOMS manages the CAD files, ECAD release outputs, revisions, reviews and releases your BOM is built from, so everyone works from the same released set. Custom integrations on Enterprise can pass released revisions and file metadata to your ERP or inventory system.
Do electrical engineers who only contribute outputs or approve changes need a paid seat?
Yes. Everyone inside your company is a workspace member with a paid seat, whether they edit files, contribute ECAD outputs or only review and approve changes with a viewer role. Suppliers and contract manufacturers you invite as guests are free and unlimited: they view, measure and comment on the files you share.
How do we share designs with contract manufacturers?
Add each supplier as a guest to the files they need, never the whole workspace, such as the released housing for your enclosure moulder or the fab package for your PCBA assembler. Guests view, measure and comment in the browser on the files you share. They can’t edit, check out or release files, and can download only if you allow it. Guest viewers are free.
14-day free trial · Plans from $60 per seat per month, billed annually (USD) · Guest viewers are free
