Frequently Asked Questions

We have compiled a list of requirements which can be viewed at the link below. The list includes data requirements for both Layout and Manufacturing quote requests.

View Data Requirements

• Cadence Allegro: We have extensive experience with the Cadence Allegro tool suite; we currently support versions 15, 16, and 17. We are proud to be one of a handful of Early Adopter Program Members with Cadence.
• Siemens/Mentor Graphics Xpedition, PADS, and Board Station: We currently support the latest versions of these tools as well as most previous versions of the tools.
• Altium Designer: We support the latest versions of Altium Designer. Our dedicated Altium designers have the experience necessary to utilize the unique features of this tool including Altium’ s powerful query engine, the new xsignal and 3D modeling capabilities.
• Valor NPI: This is a cornerstone process tool for FREEDOMCAD to assure manufacturability and minimal delays in the fabrication process. We are a Valor Certified Design Partner.
• DalTools: The DalTools applications integrate directly and seamlessly into Cadence Allegro tools to improve all aspects of the PCB design process.
• Custom Programs: Over the past 20 years we have developed custom programs and scripts to gain efficiencies, improve quality and augment the current design tools.
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Our headquarters are located at 264 South River Road, Suite 490, Bedford, NH 03110, USA. 

Our footprint has been expanding, and we also have employees located in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Montana, Kentucky, Maryland in the US, and also in Ottawa and Vancouver Canada.

The most up to date list of requirements for quoting layout, engineering, and turnkey manufacturing can be found at the link below.

See the list ›

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We invite everyone to create an account on our secure and encrypted ShareFile System. It is very easy to use and facilitates faster data transfers. Please contact us to request an account. During normal business hours you should receive your login information within 1 hour.

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You can connect to your account using an FTP client such as WS-FTP or FileZilla. To connect using an FTP client, use the settings below.

Your FTP user name includes your account’s subdomain to the left of your e-mail address. If you are unable to log in, or your FTP client does not allow you to enter the / and @ characters as part of your user name, you can use the shorter, alternate form to the right of your full user name.

Once your design has started, changes can be made by emailing them to the Operations Team at ops@freedomcad.com with a new scope of work. This will insure that the changes are implemented and, if need be, re-quoted and/or re-scheduled.

We utilize the ValorNPI software, performing over 700 different DFM checks on every job we do. Processing each job through Valor assures all DFM requirements meet your specifications, and it minimizes the transition to the manufacturing process. You can supply your own Engineering Rules Files (ERF), or you may specify your Fabricator and we will take care of the rest.

We provide a set of industry-standard deliverables for fabrication, assembly and test, but can customize to your company’s standards and naming conventions. PADs and Xpedition outputs are similar.

We are staffed for two shifts daily on all of our design tools. This enables us to provide quick-turn support on time-sensitive projects. We also have the ability to provide 24 x 7 layout support when a project demands extreme measures. Please contact us if you have a hot project that requires quick-turn layout support!

The routers we utilize are the Cadence Spectra router and the Mentor Destiny router. In general, auto-routing is done to help expedite the job only after all the critical circuitry has been hand-routed and locked down. In many rules-driven, highly constrained boards, 50-80% of the board may be critical and need to be hand routed. Like all tools, auto-routers have a place and time for their use. We utilize them for up front test feasibility routes to determine layer count and hot spots. And we utilize them when the customer would like to hand route just a few critical circuits and then go for a first-pass to test the board.

We understand the importance of Intellectual Property and take all Non-Disclosure Agreements very seriously. We hold our employees to very high confidentiality standards.

Customer data at FREEDOMCAD is backed up on a secure system. When the time comes to archive a project, not only does the customer receive a copy but we also archive a copy and lock it in an off-site fireproof safe for retrieval if necessary.

Our ShareFile system for transferring data uses bank-level security and above. All active transfers of data are encrypted using 256 bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Files are stored with 128-bit RC4 encryption on SSAE-16 compliant servers.

FREEDOMCAD also employs a Disaster Recovery Plan that covers us with a complete pro-active approach to any disaster, allowing us to be up-and-running in 24 hours with minimum impact to our customers’ schedules. Ask us about it.

FCS’s default standard is IPC. Our mode of operation is to design to your standards. Your standards will be adopted and conformed so as to insure seamless interaction with your in-house resource and down-stream manufacturing. If you do not have standards, we will help guide you in the latest standards.

FREEDOMCAD recognizes that the challenges facing our industry today are Time, Technology and Cost. To support our customers, FREEDOMCAD offers critical value-added services through strategic partnerships with world-class companies. Our goal is to save you time and money while delivering you a quality product.

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Fixed-price designs are a simple way to compare one design house to another if price is the bottom line. Should the scope of work change significantly during a fixed-price design, the job may need to be re-quoted; change orders to a fixed-price quote will be evaluated on the individual basis. Minor tweaks and edits are assumed, and should not change the price.

Hourly quoting is usually done when the project is expected to have concurrent engineering edits or other changes as the design progresses. These quotes can be generated on a “Not-to-Exceed” basis or on a budgetary estimate basis, depending upon the completeness of the data supplied to us at the time of quotation.

Our philosophy on this is simple: we work hard to make the outsourcing model work for you.

Without outsourcing, you take on the challenge of adding and balancing many liabilities/costs. During peaks, you hire, train, manage and outfit your in-house team with expensive tools. During valleys, you may need to lay-off designers and continue to pay for idle licenses and overhead.

By outsourcing with FREEDOMCAD, you save the tangible and intangible time and money required to sustain an extended full in-house design team, all the while getting fast, professional results from an outstanding team that acts as an extension of your engineering department.

Our people are our company. The people we employ are hand-selected and understand our mission and goals clearly: service and quality on time. We are well versed in rules-driven, highly constrained, high speed, analog, power supply, military, medical and RF design technology, to name a few. We run on the Cadence and Mentor suites – the two highest-end design software companies in North America.

The scale of our operation allows us to take on large, multi-board projects with ease and keep them on-time, even when extensive changes occur. Our strategy is to be an extension of your engineering team and seamlessly augment your in-house design team.

We take a teamwork approach toward projects, making sure that we align the right designer with the correct technology to meet your needs. We create teams for complex projects and match 1st and 2nd shifts to expedite work when you request faster turnaround. When 1st and 2nd shift is not enough to meet your time line, we have the ability to run 24 x 7 for as long as it takes to complete your project. This is not out of the ordinary at FREEDOMCAD; on average we have several requests per month and execute this process fluidly.

Our designers participate in training and information sharing on a weekly basis, keeping them up to date on the latest technologies, techniques and software. This allows us to efficiently execute your design. As a general rule, in-house design teams do not have the luxury of this kind of training investment.

We are committed to operating on advanced software suites and leading-edge hardware that take advantage of automation and fast processing speeds so we can efficiently complete your designs in minimal time. Again, because design is all we do, we take added steps that most in-house teams cannot.

“Early Adopter Program” members are given access to Cadence’s newest PCB design software revisions six months before their formal release. This early access enables steeper learning curves as the Program Members are provided extensive training by Cadence during this beta phase. As a result, we are often able to help our customers make their transition to these new tools more efficient by sharing our experiences and offering structured training classes when appropriate.

The CAD tool developers typically offer “Free Viewers” or “Browsers” to enable viewing and often marking up the design. They may also offer viewers with even more capabilities for a nominal cost.

Cadence’s The Allegro Physical Viewer is a database viewer for Allegro PCB Editor, Allegro PCB SI, and Allegro IC package solutions. Allegro Physical Viewer includes all of the features of Allegro FREE Physical Viewer plus property and element query, measure distance, find, reports, and more.