Footprints and Symbols with Natasha Baker

The Amp Hour · 22 Feb 2021 · 1h 18m · Episode 531

What this episode covers

Natasha Baker, Founder and CEO of SnapEDA, explains how her experience at National Instruments and a frustrating project with a Texas Instruments reference design led her to build a centralized library of symbols and footprints for PCB designers. She details the challenges of establishing trust with engineers, the importance of IPC 7351 standards, and how SnapEDA uses a neutral meta-format to export native-like libraries for tools like KiCad, Altium, and Eagle. Baker also discusses SnapEDA's growth through Y Combinator, their strategy of providing anonymized analytics to suppliers, and their future vision of using data to proactively assist engineers during the design process.

Mentioned

Companies
SnapEDA, National Instruments, Texas Instruments, Y Combinator, DigiKey
Tools
KiCad, Altium, Eagle, OrCAD, Allegro, PCB123, Proteus, Target 3001
Also
IPC 7351

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • OnTrack · 50m

    Solving PCB Library Issues: Expert Advice from Elizabeth Bustamante

    Elizabeth Bustamante, a CAD technical consultant at Altium, explains that inconsistent PCB libraries lead to costly manufacturing errors and project delays due to a lack of unified standards for footprints and land patterns. She highlights that while tools like Altium Designer’s Footprint Wizard offer transparency, many third-party libraries lack traceability regarding input parameters like fabrication tolerances, causing significant variance in pad sizes and courtyard definitions. Bustamante advises teams to rigorously verify third-party sources against internal checklists and standardize adjustments to ensure consistency, noting that failing to do so can result in failed prototypes and wasted budget.

  • Embedded.fm · 51m

    384: What's a Board File?

    Liam Cadigan, co-founder of InspectAR and now at Cadence Design Systems, explains how the company evolved from a Memorial University capstone project into a commercial product before being acquired. He details the technical challenges of parsing complex PCB manufacturing data formats, specifically contrasting the intelligent IPC-2581-B standard with the legacy Gerber format. Cadigan discusses the strategic decision to use Unity for cross-platform augmented reality development and the difficulties of founding a hardware-adjacent startup from Newfoundland, including investor outreach and the eventual sale to Cadence in August 2020.

  • Embedded.fm · 1h 15m

    353: Red for the Ones That Might Blow Up

    Seth Hillbrand, lead developer for KiCAD and founder of KiCAD Services Corporation, discusses the evolution of the open-source EDA tool from a physics experiment necessity to a professional-grade design suite. He details how commercial licensing restrictions at Zuken and SolidWorks forced his team to adopt KiCAD for the EBEX balloon experiment, leading to his contributions and eventual leadership role. Hillbrand explains how KiCAD Services provides paid support to professional engineers, creating a sustainable funding model that allows the core team to focus on development while maintaining a welcoming, inclusive community culture that actively moderates against toxic behavior.

  • OnTrack · 36m

    Solving PCB Library Nightmares with Kristen Aguiar

    Kristen Aguiar, a Training Developer at Altium, discusses the persistent challenges of managing PCB component libraries, categorizing the issues into data quality, process failures, and the 'people problem' of adoption. She argues that industry-wide standardization of CAD libraries is impossible due to conflicting vendor branding and designer preferences, but emphasizes that internal accountability systems are crucial for maintaining library integrity. Aguiar also advises engineers to use third-party CAD data cautiously, stressing the need for rigorous verification of footprints and schematic symbols before integration.

  • TRADEOFFS · 1h 01m

    T-25-010 : Ioannis Papamanoglou and Narayan Powderly - Engineers transforming how we design, test, and build hardware with atopile

    Narayan Powderly and Ioannis Papamanoglou, co-CEOs of atopile, discuss their command-line circuit design tool that brings software development practices to hardware engineering. They explain how their frustration with slow board development cycles at Tesla and smart bike lock projects led them to create a domain-specific language that captures design intent rather than just schematics. The guests detail how atopile integrates with KiCad for layout, leverages LLMs for rapid iteration, and aims to empower full-stack engineers by automating the drudgery of component selection and validation.

The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by The Amp Hour. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.