Altium unveils Nexar cloud platform

Altium has launched Nexar, a cloud-based partner platform that’s been designed to connect Altium 365 PCB design users and their companies with the software, suppliers, and manufacturers.

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

“Altium is committed to making our vision for industry transformation a reality,” said Ted Pawela, Chief Ecosystem Officer at Altium. “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.”

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 (EMS) companies
• Electronic component distributors and manufacturers
• Engineering service providers

According to Altium, 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.”