Abstract: Adopting the mechatronics as contemporary most emerging engineering discipline the integration of mechanical and electrical CAD (MCAD/ECAD) systems remains a big challenge in concurrent engineering because their data models and functionality have been developed continuously further apart. Market research confirms that an integrated tool chain for ECAD and MCAD design is prerequisite for a better mechatronic development process. This paper presents the overview of various integration approaches with different degree of maturity and describes the concept of deep integration for mechatronic products conducted by ProSTEP iViP Association which combines existing standards in engineering collaboration context. Version 3 of the current ProSTEP iViP Recommendation PSI 5 entitled “ECAD/MCAD-Collaboration” provides a comprehensive specification for collaboration between the ECAD and MCAD worlds. A considerable number of vendors have now implemented the underlying data schema and integrated it in the corresponding products. As a result, users can now choose the solutions that best meet their particular needs from an increasingly wide range of efficient systems for collaborative product development within the ECAD and MCAD fields.
