Altium LLC announced the launch of Nexar, the cloud-based partner platform designed to connect the rapidly growing community of Altium 365 PCB design users and their companies with the software, suppliers and manufacturers needed to transform ideas into smart and connected products.

Electronics industry researchers estimate that there are 31 billion internet-connected devices in the world today, with consumer demand growing that number to 75 billion by 2025. Growth of that magnitude is driving the need to reimagine the way that the electronics industry works together, evolving from “tool chains” and isolated job functions to integrated environments and collaborative workflows.

Over 5,000 companies and 11,000 users have already adopted the Altium 365 cloud platform for electronics design. With the introduction of Nexar, partners can join this ecosystem of electronics innovators to make valuable software and services available to Altium 365 users.

“Design, supply chain and manufacturing stakeholders today operate largely in isolation from one another. By bringing them together on a collaborative, cloud platform, we have the opportunity to dramatically accelerate the industry’s ability to introduce new products,” said Ted Pawela, chief ecosystem officer at Altium.

Some of the ways that partners can use Nexar’s open API include integrating with Altium 365 and Altium NEXUS; presenting reliable, up-to-date component data from the Octopart search engine, and embedding ready to use “embeds” such as the Altium 365 ECAD viewer on web pages or within an application.

Important partner categories for the Nexar ecosystem include:

●      Software companies, including ECAD, MCAD, CAE, PLM and ERP

●      Board fabricators and electronic manufacturing service companies

●      Electronic component distributors and manufacturers

●      Engineering service providers

While these categories are anticipated, there are no restrictions on who can become a Nexar ecosystem partner, and no costs involved. “Our goal is to build a vibrant ecosystem of customers and partners who benefit from each other’s participation,” said Pawela. “We are doing everything possible to make the experience of joining this ecosystem frictionless.”