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So, if you are an electronics design program manager or team manager, it’s unlikely that you work directly with any design tools, such as Allegro^® System Capture. However, you might still want quick access to ECAD data, including project lists, Live BOM data, Unified Search, part requests, specific designs, and so on. For example, you need access to this data for design review, to keep track of the progress of designs, risk assessment.

Not a problem. When working with Allegro System Capture in an enterprise mode (that is, when connected to a central Pulse server), you can quickly access all these features using a browser-based dashboard with a direct and easy-to-recall URL: http://<host name>:<port>/projects. Access through a web-based dashboard is useful for administrators or others in the organization who need real time access to ECAD design data. By the way, the URL can also be a fully-qualified domain name depending on how the Pulse server was configured. For example, http://<hostname>.global.cadence.com.

What you see in the dashboard depends on the group you belong to and your access level to various projects. For example, users who belong to, say the Designer, Administrator, or Librarian group, will all have different functions that they are allowed to use in the project dashboard.

For designers, the dashboard is particularly helpful when you create new designs since all the project details, such as description, status, BOM, schematic history, and a PDF of the schematic design, are easily accessible. You can even add parts to the project BOM from the Search tab of the dashboard.

 
The dashboard extends several capabilities of Allegro System Capture to designers. Here are a few examples:

• You can submit part requests and modify details of existing requests.
• When selecting third-party EDA part suppliers from the web-based dashboard, you can select a row and launch the New Part Request dialog already seeded with relevant data (datasheet, attributes)  to expedite the part development process.
• Based on access rights, you can view Allegro System Capture projects - the design list can include columns for attributes defined in the Project Details form.
• Based on access rights, you can view and edit project details - attributes can be annotated on the Allegro System Capture design canvas. For example, page borders.
• Create new projects from existing projects - designers can create templates and base new designs on these templates. Templates include design content, project metadata attributes, and parts (including parts added to Live BOM).
• View Live BOM and Unified Search - add electrical or mechanical parts to Live BOM from a web page. Live BOM displays design parts from the latest committed version.

Administrators have permission to view all the designs regardless of who the design is shared with. They can edit the project details or the New Part Request dialog using the dashboard.

So, like I said, it’s easy to get cracking with most of the common tasks for Allegro System Capture designs through the web-based dashboard.

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