I was recently visiting a client to discuss a new flex circuit application. They were trying to fit 10 pounds of electronics into an existing 5 pound package by utilizing flex circuit technology without making any changes to the current overall industrial design package. Everything had to fit into the current box.
I showed up to the meeting with one of our best application engineers, Mark Verbrugge, and we started the process of figuring out how to accomplish the task at hand by utilizing flex circuits. As we proceeded through this daunting task the client pulled out the attached Dolly! I was blown away, he had captured the essence of what we were trying to accomplish by simply making a paper mock-up and doing a fit check. He of course had all the electrical and component data needed for the package.
This can often be step one to making sure the 10/5 pound challenge can be met. I have personally used paper dollies as a reference when doing flex designs for many years but it is a rare occasion to show up and have the client engineering team already going down that path. Kudos to Scott L and the rest of his team for a job well done.