为缩短机电产品上市时间而增加的竞争推动了电子设计自动化（EDA）和机械设计自动化（MDA）软件集成的新趋势。制造商认识到，在工程学科之间共享数据可以避免繁琐、冗余的步骤，并消除传统上在制造车间发现的换位错误。在优化产品设计、在没有物理原型的情况下模拟其性能以及管理其工程数据的同时消除工程团队之间的障碍的新技术，现在可以优化设计周期，同时最大限度地提高EDA和MDA的投资回报。

INCREASED COMPETITION TO REDUCE THE TIME-TO-MARKET FOR ELECTRO-MECHANICAL PRODUCTS HAS DRIVEN A NEW TREND TOWARD INTEGRATING ELECTRONIC DESIGN AUTOMATION (EDA) AND MECHANICAL DESIGN AUTOMATION (MDA) SOFTWARE. MANUFACTURERS RECOGNIZE THAT SHARING DATA BETWEEN ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES AVOIDS TEDIOUS, REDUNDANT STEPS AND ELIMINATES TRANSPOSITIONAL ERRORS THAT ARE TRADITIONALLY UNCOVERED ON THE MANUFACTURING FLOOR. NEW TECHNOLOGY TO REMOVE THE BARRIERS BETWEEN ENGINEERING GROUPS WHILE OPTIMIZING PRODUCTS DESIGNS, SIMULATING THEIR PERFORMANCE WITHOUT PHYSICAL PROTOTYPES, AND MANAGING THEIR ENGINEERING DATA NOW MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO OPTIMIZE DESIGN CYCLES WHILE MAXIMIZING THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT IN EDA AND MDA.