topic Re: One schematic, two boards! in Fusion Electronics Forum

One schematic, two boards!

Kristey — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 14:55:17 GMT

I have a project that has a very small enclosure. I will have to do some "floors" with multiple PCB's. However, I want to be able to move components freely between one PCB board and another to experience how componentes can best fit in the available space.

Is it then possible to do the whole project in a single schematic and then put the components on two boards to test the space in Fusion 360 in 3D for each component configuration?

Re: One schematic, two boards!

jorge_garcia — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 21:47:32 GMT

Hello @Kristey,

I hope you're doing well. This is currently not possible, although it is something we want to do.

In the meantime, you can import the two separate boards into a single assembly and check the clearances there.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: One schematic, two boards!

Kristey — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 15:09:04 GMT

@jorge_garcia I'm waiting for it, thank you to answer me.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 15:02:40 GMT

you might be able to work around by creating two rectangles in a documentation layer

and moving components back and forth between the rectangles

board layout will still work, it will just have a funny section between the rectangles

Re: One schematic, two boards!

Kristey — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 10:47:15 GMT

Hi @wwfeldman thank you for your answer .

Can you explain better?
😉

Thank you so much

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:12:38 GMT

you have one schematic and want to make two boards.

you want both boards on the same file so you can see how things change as parts are moved around.

port the schematic to PWB, as if you were going to make one board

draw two rectangles, say in a documentation layer (51 tDocu)

said rectangles should be the size and shape of the boards you want

place the components in rectangles 1 and 2, as if they were separate boards

you can run the autorouter (or not)

the connections that go between the rectangles will provide interconnect help

so you can choose a component to do the connection

Re: One schematic, two boards!

Kristey — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:35:48 GMT

Nice tip to check all schematic in 2D. I will use, thank you 😉

But we need another way to easy test it on 3D environment (suggestion do Fusion Team @jorge_garcia)

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 17:34:48 GMT

you can do the 3D the same way - it will look like one big board with a section with only traces going back and forth

until AutoDesk makes it possible to split one schematic into two boards, you will have to (eventually) separate the schematic into two and produce two boards

Re: One schematic, two boards!

rhdfmail — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 18:11:39 GMT

One problem is if you want to have one schematic for your "multiboard-project" with global labels/nets separate sheets per "board" etc.
Splitting it into 2 or more means you have to keep track of changes in 2 (or more) projects.

I have a project where everything is in one schematic with multiple sheets.
For the fist prototypes there will probably be one single board, but in the final product there is a need for 4 different boards with connectors/cables between them.

For now I've solved it by having separate sections on the board and avoiding airwires between them by assingning netnames and "fake" grounds/VDD (calling them GND_Sub1 etc)

I might have missed something, I can create a new project and link the schematic from another. But not link/import a separate sheet (sub-board)
That way i could still have a masterproject where i design my circuits and then have separate projects with a linked subsection of that for the separate pcbs

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Sun, 16 Oct 2022 00:11:38 GMT

how would you link a subsection?

basically, it seems to me, you're trying to force the software to do what we used to do on paper -

draw one schematic and use dashed lines to separate the various board mounted components and the various chassis mounted components.

usually one has to adjust what you do to the way the software is written
since F360 doesn't support multiple boards, (hopefully its a "yet") eventually,

you'll have to break it up.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 15:13:29 GMT

Jorge:

"its something we want to do"

Where is this in the queue?

Re: One schematic, two boards!

jorge_garcia — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 23:50:43 GMT

Hi @wwfeldman,

It's in the queue is really all I can say. The queue isn't a static single file line pumping functionality out. Sometimes things get re-prioritized. We laid some of the ground work for this with the Electronics Design file and the recent Design block work. We continue to move towards this goal.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: One schematic, two boards!

dbarrett1 — Sat, 08 Apr 2023 18:29:44 GMT

I hope this functionality gets added soon as it would be so helpful in so many designs... nearly all the designs I have been working on have super tight space constraints and this type of functionality would make all the difference in the speed of making these designs,

Re: One schematic, two boards!

jorge_garcia — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 20:25:42 GMT

Hi @dbarrett1,

Thank you for bumping this thread, I'll bring it up to the devs again.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: One schematic, two boards!

dbarrett1 — Sat, 06 Jul 2024 04:18:04 GMT

In addition it would be great to have a panelizing option in fusion would be a great addition as well to generate a panel for multiple pcb designs to go on a single sheet at once.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

wwfeldman — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 13:18:18 GMT

Hello
This thread started in August 2020, as one schematic, two boards.
I would like to point out that is should not be limited to two boards.
It should be one schematic, many boards plus chassis.

In the old days when we did everything with paper and pencil, at least one project
I worked on had 3 boards, about 8 inches by 3 inches, some power components mounted
on a heat sink (chassis) and a small board, about 1 inch square, with a few components
more or less mounted to a large, stud mounted power transistor.

It would be really spectacular if F360E could handle that - including the wiring from board to board.
One schematic, multiple assemblies, please.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

dbarrett1 — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 19:29:55 GMT

I completely agree with @wwfeldman on having the ability to make a single diagram for a many board layout... it would be handy to have bounding boxes in the pcb schematic that can be used to represent the boards that the components reside on when this happens.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

pczerwonka98 — Sun, 09 Jul 2023 22:08:24 GMT

Hi, I'm just working on my engineering thesis, I stupidly assumed that the possibility to make two PCB boards from one schematic is a sure thing. Now my schematic is on 12 sheets and I spent over a month drawing it, for the thesis I have to show a ready render of the model along with electronics and other parts. The solution I came up with is a time-consuming workaround. First, I generate the PCB from a sketch in which I include both PCB shapes. In the 3D file of the plate, I create a new sketch in which I project and edit the sketch so that the two board are right next to each other and connected them only in a few places, so that after production I can separate them by breaking. I arrange the components as they are supposed to be. Then I push the 2D model to 3D, and exports the model as a .step file. I open the same .step model in two separate files (top_board, bottom_board in my case), where I make all packages independent ( you can press shift on the first one and the last one to select all components ), I create a sketch with a rectangle to cut the part of the board I don't want, I put the rest into the main assembly, where I have the housing and other elements. It would be easier if you could split or cut the board component, but it's not possible either, for obvious reasons. It's worth noting that the electronics step file, at least in my case, is made out of 6000 separate bodies, which makes the model really slow even for my high-end pc (i7, rtx3060, 64 GB DDR4). One would say that it's not really time-consuming, well in my case I have many parts that are really close to each other and after making a simple change to see the result I have to go through exporting and other stuff once again which is a pain.

Re: One schematic, two boards!

jorge_garcia — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 21:32:00 GMT

Hi @pczerwonka98 ,

I hope you're doing well. It would be good to clarify the use case do you want the design split across multiple PCBs or do you want multiple layouts of the same design?

The first scenario isn't really possible now, unless you break up the schematic into multiple designs. The second scenario can be addressed by linking the schematic in multiple Electronic Designs.

Thank you for your feedback.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: One schematic, two boards!

pczerwonka98 — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 15:46:51 GMT

Hi @jorge.garcia,

I had to do the first thing, which is why I came up with this solution. The second option in my case would require putting many elements from the board to the side. My solution is enough for me for now. I needed two separate boards from the same schematic, with the ability to place 3D models of the boards separated in the main assembly and this was achieved, it takes a bit of extra work, but it works. Now I understand why it is worth having a separate schematic for a separate board, the project is then more transparent. At the moment I do not need help, I thought that my workaround might be useful to someone else someday.