What Is CAM350?
Valor CAM350 is a comprehensive, industry-standard toolset for verifying, optimizing and generating manufacturing output for printed circuit boards (PCBs). Before a design moves into production, today’s complex PCB designs require thorough verification to help ensure successful fabrication on schedule.
For PCB fabricators, identifying design and DFM (Design for Manufacturing) issues early in pre-production, before they adversely affect fabrication, is critical. CAM350 provides a complete set of tools to import design data, make corrections where needed, analyze designs for potential fabrication problems and generate manufacturing output for the factory.
CAM350’s Core Technical Capabilities
- 3D visualization: Inspect the finished board from any angle, including the spaces between layers.
- Automated panelization: Create multi-PCB panels with an automated wizard to minimize material waste.
- Custom solder paste stencils: Create stencils from Gerber data, PCB footprints or a stencil library; save and reuse stencil configurations.
- Broad format compatibility: Import ODB++, IPC-2581, Gerber, Excellon, Sieb & Meyer, DXF, GenCAD and HPGL. Export manufacturing data in many corresponding formats, with additional export options including PADS ASCII and GenCAD.
- Critical design issue analysis: Check for acid traps, copper slivers, solder mask slivers, solder bridging, antennas, pinholes and thermal relief errors. Advanced checks cover plated and non-plated holes, blind and buried vias, back drilling, flex and rigid-flex designs.
- Measurement and reporting tools: Query individual design elements, measure point-to-point distances and generate Dcode, Bill of Materials (BOM), Netlist and Centroid reports.
- Script-based automation: A COM-based API makes it possible to record operations as Visual Basic scripts or build custom applications using Visual Basic, C or C++.
Feature reference: Siemens Valor CAM350 product page.
Origins: The Story Told by a Founder
CAM350 did not originate with DownStream Technologies. Joe Clark and his colleagues Rick Almeida and Ken Tepper brought the technology with them when they founded the company, officially starting on January 1, 2002, shortly after the events of September 11 and amid the collapse of the internet technology bubble.
“We brought CAM350 with us when we left InnovEDA. At the time, InnovEDA had decided to discontinue the product. We felt that decision was a mistake and that it overlooked a valuable opportunity.”
Joe Clark, founder of DownStream Technologies
From a decision to “rescue” a product that might otherwise have been abandoned, CAM350 developed into a CAM/DFM tool regarded as an industry standard. DownStream Technologies, together with CAM350, BluePrint-PCB and DFMStream, officially joined Siemens Digital Industries Software when the acquisition closed on April 7, 2025.
What Customers Say: CAM350 User Reviews
Source: User reviews on G2.com, a business software review platform.
On G2, CAM350 had an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars from 43 reviews when checked in September 2026. The review count and average rating may change over time.
“CAM350 is easy to use, and its DRC checks save a great deal of time. During IPC checks, shorted nets are shown at their precise locations, making shorts in the PCB layout much faster to resolve.”
Verified G2 reviewer, “Good tool to check Gerber for DFM”
A summary of user feedback on G2 also indicates that users appreciate the approachable interface, which is accessible to newcomers and experienced engineers alike. Reviewers highlight its DFM checks and Gerber file verification, although some report performance issues when working with large files.
CAM350 in Practice: Phuntronix B.V.
Source: Siemens case study, “Using Valor Process Preparation to achieve NPI efficiency and profitability”.
Phuntronix is a company specializing in PCB assembly, based in Soesterberg, the Netherlands. It serves customers in the automotive, medical, defense and security, robotics, and consumer electronics industries. Before digitizing its entire production preparation process, the company used CAM350 in its workflow. Minno de Roo, founder and director of Phuntronix, described the situation:
“Our production process was manual and time-consuming, with duplicated data flows. We had to upload each PCB layout into both CAM350 and the machine software.”
Minno de Roo, founder and director of Phuntronix B.V.
This detail, cited in Siemens’ official case study, shows that CAM350 served as a PCB data preparation tool in the production workflow of an international PCB assembly company. Phuntronix operates an automated line capable of placing up to 100,000 components per hour. After using CAM350 in its earlier workflow, the company implemented Valor Process Preparation to improve its production preparation process.
CAM350 Joins the Siemens Ecosystem
On April 7, 2025, Siemens completed its acquisition of DownStream Technologies, the company behind CAM350. Founded in 2002 and based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the company brought a set of PCB tools that expanded Siemens’ offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and extended its coverage from design through manufacturing preparation.
“Integrating DownStream Technologies enables Siemens EDA to offer a more comprehensive manufacturing data preparation solution, supporting a seamless transition from design to production within a fully digital, scalable electronic systems design process.”
Mike Ellow, CEO of Siemens EDA, Siemens Digital Industries Software
“We are pleased to join Siemens and bring decades of experience into its ecosystem. Together, we can deliver a deeply integrated solution that helps PCB designers hand their designs over to manufacturing more efficiently and with greater confidence.”
Rick Almeida, founder of DownStream Technologies
Source: Siemens press release announcing the DownStream Technologies acquisition.
Conclusion
From the story of “rescuing” a product that nearly faced discontinuation in 2002, to its 4.6/5 rating from real users and its role in the production workflow of an international company such as Phuntronix, CAM350 has demonstrated its value over more than two decades of development before becoming part of Siemens Digital Industries Software. That history provides a foundation for CAM350 to continue serving as a bridge between engineering design data and finished physical PCBs.
Learn more
- DFM analysis, data preparation and technical documentation solutions for PCB manufacturing from DownStream
- Purchase CAM350 from an official Siemens distributor in Vietnam
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