The third aspect of the kcide effort underway at Fenn College is the development of a software platform that would enhance the way engineers can move from one tool to the next, and back again.

Engineers, no matter which discipline, use a wide variety of software tools to increase their productivity. Indeed, very few professional designers would even think of creating complex drawings with paper and pencil anymore. With different packages performing design, analysis and simulation tasks, engineers are often required to manually export from one and import to another. Even worse, sometimes it is necessary to transfer information by hand. All this leads to wasted time and an increased chance for errors.

Cleveland State, led by CREATE, is currently funding an effort to develop an software 'operating' environment, that will provide a layer through which all these tools can communicate seamlessly. Much like Windows, CREATE's KCIDE will increase productivity through convenience and consistency. Unlike Windows, however, CREATE's KCIDE will have an integrated knowledge capture functionality, with tools to catalog, manage, retrieve and use information.

CSU has taken the first step towards this goal through the development of a Electric Circuits IDE for use with basic electric circuits problems. This platform integrates ORCAD and Microsoft Word or Power Point into one seamless problem solving interface. This software is free and available from our Downloads section.

This software will be featured in the third edition of Dean Charles K. Alexander's Fundamentals of Electric Circuits, to be released in January of 2006.