Smart Design of Mechanical Components and PCBs in a Seamless Workflow

MELANIE THILO: Imagine a perfect world. You can be sure that you are working with the latest version of your electrical and mechanical design. You all work together on one platform. Error prone data conversions are history. You can quickly respond to design changes made by your colleagues and easily share your own changes as well. Collaboration has never been easier. Today, we want to show you exactly this. Hello. My name is Melanie Thilo, and today's session I'm doing together with my great colleague, Richard Hammerl.

As a child, I love looking over my father's shoulder. He could spend hours and hours looking at a geometric problem that he was trying to solve and kept. For him, it was almost like playing a computer game. The knowledge he gained here also helped him to be successful in his job. He had many very forward thinking ideas for that time. It was in the early 2000s. He was passionate about discussing his ideas at work and at home as well, so I grew up hearing stories of science emailing, the 3D printer, and, of course, the measuring arm.

This is the reason why I decided for a technical career. Before joining Autodesk in 2018, I worked more than 10 years as a Mechanical Design Engineer for various companies in different industries. Today, I see my role in helping our customers to be successful. In the later demo, you will see me as a Mechanical Design Engineer.

RICHARD HAMMERL: Thank you, Melanie. It's interesting to listen to your story. I could tell a similar one. I grew up with a dad who was fully in electronics. He built a lot of self-made electronic devices, but later, I decided to study mechanical engineering because I was much more interested in cars and the motors and so on. When I had finished my study and started to apply for a job, it was a coincident that Eagle crossed my way. Well, I started a small company named Cadsoft who invented a great electronics design tool.

I did not plan to stay my whole life with electronics design software, but then, here I am. And for five years without this, coming with the acquisition of Cadsoft, we now have electronics fully integrated into Fusion 360. Finally, the circle closes for me, coming from mechanics to electronics and now, being closely tied to mechanics again. My role at Autodesk is a Fusion 360 Community Specialist, helping people with Fusion 360 and the electronics. In the later demo, you will see me as an Electronics Design Engineer.

In our today's presentation, we wanted to talk about the design challenges when it comes to electronics and mechanics in product design. What would be the typical workflow? Which tools to be used for a flawless design process? And we want to show you in the demo, how we bring mechanical data from Inventor and electronics data made in Fusion 360 together into your product. Let us show you how Melanie and I collaborate. Finally, after this demo, let's summarize what we talked about in the key takeaways.

Design challenges. What are the design challenges when it comes to smart product design? The integration of mechanical and electrical systems is traditionally challenging. When it comes time to integrate both teams, we have a lot of problems. Well said, Mark. Let's look into the problems Mark might have in mind. The design environment that meets both the mechanical and the electrical requirements of product development. I would like to stay in one tool.

I would like to see the same user interface in electronics and mechanics. I do not want to learn several tools for electronics design for drawing in a mechanical tool for simulation in electronics or for simulation in the mechanics. Be confident that they are working with the most recent version of electrical and mechanical designs. How do you exchange this information now in your current workflow? Exploiting files from the latest version and sending them to your colleagues? Probably, yes.

But here, we know it is most likely that errors happen. Sending several files with different versions back and forth is most inefficient, especially in stressful times. It is more likely to make errors, sent the wrong version, and you did not notice, or noticed it just after clicking the Send button. What now? Resend and help your colleague reads this message? Quickly respond to design changes made by other teams. Collaboration has to be efficient and flawless.

Responding to design changes immediately shortens the development time noticeably.

MELANIE THILO: Let's have a look at the workflow. Most customers, I'm talking to workers Inventor. This solution is common in most mechanical design departments. But what if you want to benefit from the advantages of Fusion electronics? No worries, this is exactly what we want to show you today. Usually, this Inventor also hold, is used for data management so you know exactly the status of every data set. Is a colleague working on it, or is it released? In addition, you benefit from many other advantages of data management.

If you want to learn more about it, we will link some additional resources to the handout. Fusion 360 stores all data in Fusion team. The so-called project zone, you can connect Fusion team and vault to sync your data automatically. The first video turn directly into the demo. As a Mechanical Design Engineer, I'm used to work with the Inventor, so I created this assembly in my usual environment. And here, you can see that the PCP is still missing.

To share my design with Richard, I checked my assembly and to my PDM system. Work can synchronize my data fully automated in the background with Richard's project and the Fusion Team. My administrator has set up the project sync for me. This is the connection between vault and Fusion Team. As you can see, the sync can be fully automated and scheduled every day at 11:11, for example. It is now 11:10 in this recording and in one minute, a track will be created to initiate the synchronization.

We are just showing us here today to give you a better understanding of how the magic happens in the background. The task is processed by the job observer. Usually, the user is unaware of this and can focus entirely on the job. What job uploads the data from bullet to Fusion Team, as previously defined by the admin? Richard needs the data within the Fusion Team to access them in this design tool, Fusion 360. The advantage of this approach is that Richard has all this access to the latest data.

Fusion team is web based, so you can access your data at any time and from any device. Here, we can see the assembly we just uploaded. A Fusion Team is designed for CAD data. They have an overview about the components used in this assembly. You can also see the different versions of our file and track exactly what was changed when and by whom. Also integrated into the platform is a viewer. As the model browser, you have access to the components of the assembly and could search for their name.

Here, for example, I use it today only to hide components, because I want to show Richard with a mark up here that I would place the PCP in my design. The mark up allows to create annotations directly in the 3D model. This eliminates the need for time consuming preparation and emailing of screenshots. For the recipient, it is much easier to get the information because we all think in 3D. My annotations are saved with the file as I comment. Richard can easily access the same information as I do.

Collaboration has never been easier.

RICHARD HAMMERL: Hi. I'm working with Fusion 360 and do all my electronics design in Fusion. To have electronics and mechanics under one hood gives us big advantages in collaboration. Now, I'm working on a project together with Melanie. She doesn't work with Fusion. She works with Inventor, but that's not a problem either. My schematic is almost done. I still add this usb connector from the library, plays it, and give it the correct name. Well done. That's my final version now. So, I think I will save it as a milestone.

This schematic will be the basis for my 2D PCB. Before I start with the layout, I checked my schematic with the electrical rule check. OK, it looks good. There are some messages I already approved. I have one warning left, but this is OK, no problems. All looks good. Now, I wanted to create the PCB, the click onto the switch icon. The components are placed and I move them onto the given board. It's just the template. The final geometry of the PCB I will get a letter from Melanie's Inventor drawing, as soon as she's ready with it.

Meanwhile, I can start to sort my components a bit and think about which components should be as close together as possible. For this task, I like to have the schematic on a second screen so it is easy for me to arrange components that belong to the same subset of schematics, similar layout. This has proven as a good first try for component placement. Later in the design process, I will start routing. Let me see if Melanie already had provided the data from Inventor.

I'm going to move my project to Melanie's team hub now, so we have all the data in one place I can easily move my AirQ project. In the browser, it takes just a few clicks. In the list of my projects, I click on the arrow on the far right and select the transfer option. I confirmed instruction that are given and then select Melanie's team. This works because Melanie invited me to join her team and gave me access. The data is now moved. I switch the hub, and I see my AirQ project is already there.

Back in Fusion, I switched to Melanie's team as well. My data is, of course, also completely accessible from Fusion and I can continue to edit. Schematic layout and electronics project are there. Now, I only need the specifications for the geometry of the PCB from Melanie. On Melanie's team, the Inventor data is also accessible to me. I can easily open the data in Fusion 360. Here, I can see the complete design and I can even show or hide the individual assets. I switch back to Fusion Team now and look at the Inventor data there.

In Fusion Team, there is the possibility to easily track the project. Even colleagues who do not work with Fusion or Inventor can participate in the project and follow the progress or leave comments. Here, Melanie made a short comment about the position of the PCB in the product. It has to be on the rest mark by her. OK, I will take care on this. Now, I'm back in the Fusion electronics moment. Let's define the geometry of the final PCB. I create a new design in Fusion, save it first, and then, I simply drag in Melanie's Inventor drawing.

Here it is. Let me hide some of the assets so that I can see the place from the printed circuit board. OK, here we are now. Now, I will start a new sketch. With hitting the C key, I start the circle command. The first click now defines the sketch plane. I select one of the rests Melanie showed me Fusion team. And the board will have round shape with a diameter of, let's say, 67 millimeters. I think this fits very well. There are three cutouts I have to define.

Now, let's keep it simple here, and I will choose a circle again with a diameter of 10 millimeters. For these, I choose the two point option for defining a circle, set the diameter, and move it to the center of the holder. Well, this was easy. Now, let me check the position of the board. The sketch line is in the correct position, so I can be sure that the board, finally, will be placed correctly. Now, I finished the sketch. And the next step is to create the 3D PCB.

Click Create 3D PCB and select the profiles. Now, click OK, and the bare 3D PCB is created immediately and shown in the 3D PCB editor. By clicking the link to 2D PCB icon and selecting my air quality sensor board, I linked the 3D PCB to my 2D PCB. The layout editor opens and shows the new board geometry. My pre-arranged components and already routed tracks remaining untouched.

Now, I will start the layout design, arrange the components on the board, route the signals, check for design rules. Well, that's my job now. This will take some time. So I will just jump to the final board now. Here it is. Finally, let's push the 2D PCB to the 3D PCB now. Click the switch icon and select view 3D PCB. Back in the 3D PCB editor, it takes a few seconds for processing the 3D board. Here it is. It looks pretty good. That's cool. I really like it.

Please, save 3D PCB before we start the final step and insert the 3D PCB in our assembly drawing. Open Melanie's design and right click the 3D PCB infusions data panel, select Insert into current drawing. There we are. Melanie's product has got some electronics. You can switch on and off the assets and check if everything is OK. Well, I think it looks pretty good. After some further investigation, I found a small problem in the design. There is a gap between the printed circuit board and the holder above.

Now, I'm in Fusion Team, in the inventor drawing. Let me show you what I think might be a problem. I will ask Melanie to check this. Let me mark the area with two errors and add a comment for Melanie and the team. The board usually has a thickness of about 1.6 millimeters. The holder should be a little bit longer to properly fix the board, I guess. OK, just write the comment and that's it. As soon as Melanie answers to my comment, I will get a notification by email.

MELANIE THILO: Look, I got a message from Richard. There is a gap between space and PCB. I can look at Richard's mark up directly in the 3D viewer and easily understand the context, because we all think three dimensionally. That makes my work much easier. So I go straight into my tool of choice, Inventor. Before I change this space, I place the PCB in my design. We all know, until our design is ready to be released, it takes some changes, and then it is helpful to have all information at one single source of tool.

While importing, I can choose whether I want to reference or convert the model. I choose to reference it because then, I always get the most recent PCB from Richard in my assembly. This eliminates the need for annoying and error prone data conversion. Instead, I directly read the original Fusion file and I'm always informed about changes. Simply great. I can load the model in advance and select exactly the components I want to place. In this case, only the PCB.

Simply grounded at the origin, and I already have to be at the correct position in my assembly. Thanks to Richard's comment, I know immediately what to do. I quickly make a minor change to the space. Here you go. After finishing my edit, I check in the model again. Thanks to the project sync activated by my admin, Richard gets the most recent data. This happens fully automated in the background and I, as a user, do not really have to care about it.

And because I'm a nice colleague, I let Richard know that a new version is available.

RICHARD HAMMERL: OK, what have we seen in the demo? Isn't it impressive? Let's wrap it up. What have we seen in the demo? On the one side, we have Melanie working with Inventor in designing a device. For data management, she uses mold and checks in the Inventor data on a regular basis. Mold does a project sync with Fusion Team. This means that Melanie's Inventor data are available for Fusion 360.

As an Electronic Engineer, I worked with Fusion 360 electronics, and now can access Melanie's Inventor data from Fusion Team. She invited me to her team up and gave me access to her Inventor design. Since I started already with my electronics design before I got access to Melanie's hub, I transfer my data to the team hub. Now, we are working in a common environment. I can also directly communicate with Melanie via Fusion Team. Is Fusion 360 adjust open in meta data and work in the mechanical design environment?

In this example, I draw a sketch to create the 3D PCB, which are linked to my 2D PCB work environment. And now, I start to find a placement and routing of the printed circuit board. As soon as the layout has been done, I pushed it back to the 3D PCB. Now, the 3D board is available in Melanie's Inventor data. As soon as it is saved, vault syncs the data again, and is available for Melanie in Inventor. For a flawless collaboration, we use Fusion Team. Team members have access to the project through a web browser.

They can investigate the design, check progress, do some commenting and redlining in real time. We never have to convert data. We do not have to send emails, and it's a very consistent workflow. And that's exactly what we have heard from Mark before. I think we addressed all his concerns, right?

MELANIE THILO: You all worked together in a design environment that meets both, the electrical and mechanical requirements of product development. On this datacentric platform, error prone data conversions are history. Be confident that you are working with the most recent version of your electrical and mechanical design. We see bi-directional cooperation, you can quickly respond to design changes made by your colleagues and easily share your own changes as well. Collaboration has never been easier.

RICHARD HAMMERL: Key learnings. Get the basics of electronics in Fusion 360. Fusion 360 does now include a full featured electronics design system, schematic editor, SPICE simulation, 2D PCB editor, 3D PCB editor, library editor, and a cam processor of generating manufacturing data, fully connected to the mechanical workspaces in Fusion. Implement a seamless collaboration workflow for mechanical and electronic designers. Seamless collaboration from Fusion Team for all project members via the web browser.

Assess the best workflow for your use case. The demo video showed a path to bring two different Autodesk software packages, Inventor and Fusion, efficiently together and collaborate. How does your workflow currently look like and how can we help you to improve? Identify the values of this connected collaboration. What other venues? Efficient development of smart products, minimizing time for development cycle, and less error prone without data conversion and diversion conflicts.

MELANIE THILO: You may ask, what license do I need for this workflow? Good news, it's all accessible, the product design and manufacturing collection. This collection is tailored for you to cover advanced workflows in design and manufacturing. With just a single affordable subscription, you get access to all these tools. It includes solutions you need for mechanical and electrical design, simulation, tolerance analysis, nesting, cam, 2D-3D layout, and much more. So you can always use a tool for your work to get your job done best.

Thank you very much for watching this video. We hope we could inspire you to improve your product development in the future and wish you all the best in implementing this new workflow.

RICHARD HAMMERL: Thank you and bye.