QuadView: Next Generation Viewers for the Electronics Industry
QuadView is a powerful set of scalable board viewing modules that can be used either as a standalone viewer or fully integrated within customer’s applications.
QuadView’s unique digitization capability allows users to create schematic views directly from searchable PDF files, and the innovative ‘Netlist Navigator’ provides virtual schematic views reconstructed directly from a board netlist.
Layout views can be created from industry standard formats such as, GENCAD, CAMCAD, FATF, ODB++, or directly from any native CAD layout data such as Cadence, Mentor, Zuken, etc. See complete list
The fault ticket analyzer provides full interaction between component and net references in any type of paperless repair fault ticket, exported from test, repair or inspection systems.
twSystem: the first board level system viewer in the World!
twSystem, powered by QuadView, can be used in the design environment to assist DfT and test coverage analysis at the schematic capture stage as well as during prototype troubleshooting. Within the manufacturing environment, it becomes an integral part of the repair cycle, assisting in the locating of faults and significantly reducing repair time.
twSystem is designed to import native CAD data, from all the most popular CAD tools, for each board comprising the system. In addition, a formal description of the backplane or cables is used to describe the interconnection of the boards.
When the CAD data of the system is loaded, twSystem delivers various representations of the system under analysis.
- List of the boards, backplanes and cables comprising the system. When a board is part of an interconnection, the corresponding connection is highlighted.
- Flat netlist view of the full system, which is the foundation for navigation between interconnecting boards within a system.
- Mechanical 3D interactive view of the box, including the boards
- One window for each active board. Each combining the BOM, schematic diagram and CAD layout.
Product performance is a critical issue in order to speed-up loading, viewing, searching and navigation, even when the system includes more than 10 boards with 3000 components on each.
QuadView deeply integrated with TestStand
Functional test solutions are developed, primarily within the hardware design environment, as a test vehicle for verifying that a PCB meets its design criteria. Once the design validation and prototyping test phases are complete, the test vehicle is transferred to the Test Engineering department. It is then used as a functional test platform to verify that manufactured products meet their performance specification and are ‘fit for purpose’ to be shipped to the customer. The functional test stage is the final PCB quality gate.
However, functional testers are a challenge because:
- Functional test program development is time consuming compared with structural test.
- It is extremely difficult to predict test coverage provided by a test program unless fault simulation has been undertaken.
- Fault diagnosis is either limited or in some cases non-existent, with the majority of tests simply providing a PASS/FAIL status.
ASTER introduces a revolutionary technology to eliminate functional test drawbacks:
The integration of QuadView within National Instruments TestStand. 
- Reduced test program development & debug using the schematic & virtual schematic views.
- Precise test coverage analysis during functional test development.
- Quick localization of failure/defect on schematic and layout view: QuadView is used as Repair station.
Accurate diagnosis using the Sherlock algorithm: Overlapping test analysis between functional test steps or between structural tests and functional tests.
Key product benefits
Ease of Use
Powerful, scalable visualization environment, consisting of schematic, netlist, layout and fault ticket viewing modules that can be used either standalone or integrated within customer’s applications. No pre-processing of CAD data needed.
Schematic
Unique digitization capability that creates a schematic view directly from a searchable PDF file. Fully interactive with layout and Netlist Navigator.
Netlist Navigator
Reconstruct “virtual schematics” directly from a netlist, to provide a visual netlist navigation capability that includes advanced nodal detail.
Layout from native CAD formats
Create layout view from standard CAD formats such as GENCAD, CAMCAD, FATF, ODB++, or direct from native CAD layout data.
Fault ticket hot-links
Anyone who can surf the WWW can learn to use QuadView. Navigate between component and net references that appear as highlighted hot-links within the paperless fault ticket.
Fully Interactive Cross-probing
Cross-probe between layout, schematic and netlist viewers, and other products within the ASTER portfolio such as TestWay and Quad.
Flexible color assignment
Visualize test coverage and component pin properties using the QuadView color assignment palette, to simplify analysis and fault class recognition.
Functional test editor
Declare functional test coverage on both component and pin level. Simplify functional test diagnosis with the “Sherlock” algorithm.
Short-circuit search assistant
Reduce the time to locate short-circuits by intelligently highlighting areas where solder bridges are most likely.
Legacy product support
Migration Kit provides full backwards compatibility with legacy products DebugPlus, RepairPlus and FaultView.