topic Re: Electronic Libraries, Partnumber, BOM in Fusion Electronics Forum

Electronic Libraries, Partnumber, BOM

Kristey — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 12:11:19 GMT

I am testing fusion 360 for my company. The development team wants to migrate the entire PCB design (20 licenses).

The entire workflow "Schematic -> Layout <-> 3D" is incredible.

The problem has been to realize how we can take advantage of the new library system.
Our aim is at the end of the project to have a BOM with all the relevant information for ordering components.

For example with resistors:
Right now I have a built-in resistance library.
However, different resistance values and packages have a different Manufacturer / Part Number.

I tried to duplicate Devices for value in the library:
R (device references) -> R22, R330, R1K, R1M
In this way, I can ensure that all my values have all the footprints and packages on the market.

However, I couldn't figure out how I can:
- "fix the resistance value in the schematic" without having to create a new symbol for each value and make the association to all footprints.
- Associate a PartNumber with a given Package.

I must be here failing the "workflow".

And this issue is only needed to have the approval of the administration.
Creating component by component, footprint by footprint will take too long for the migration and the change will not be approved.

I accept suggestions to be able to make this management:
Start the project -> Finish with a correct BOM.

Re: Electronic Libraries, Partnumber, BOM

AlexandrGUR2M7 — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:05:56 GMT

Facing same issues, Im removed all parts attributes from library, and added them manually in schematic, it takes ages of time and hard to avoid mistakes...

Autodesk needs to add BOM management tool for fusion 360 electronics ASAP, because without it its not a proffessional eCAD system but a toy for simple hobby grade projects. And people like me are stuck in it and struggling.

Re: Electronic Libraries, Partnumber, BOM

engineeringNCMXB — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 20:18:00 GMT

This question is CRITICAL and I am glad you asked. I have been using Eagle for many years and the basics of managing part numbers has followed over to Fusion360 Electronics.

Integrating part numbers, vendor data, electronic parameters (and any metadata) is possible, but not even remotely obvious in Fusion. Even though this concept is absolutely critical for commercial users, it has been almost entirely ignored at this point.

I have very carefully designed my libraries to incorporate the meta data for each individual part. For example, I have resistors organized by package type, then by value/tolerance and each one has our part number associated with it.
Every category of part has its own library - capacitors, diodes, inductors, etc, etc.

With the libraries arranged this way, the circuit designers can build a schematic with generic parts and very easily assign specific values at a different time. When they pick the value, that contains the part number (and all purchasing, assembly and other data).

I wrote my own ULP for BOM and Pick and Place assembly data output in a format that I control and integrates into my external BOM management tools. Not everyone wants to write custom scripts to do this task that should be built-in, but at least you know it is possible. It is just extremely clumsy at first.

I did some YouTube videos on Eagle, but have not updated for F360. The basic rule of thumb is that you can manage parts, but if you make a mistake at any point you will be punished. Since nothing is obvious, it is easy to make mistakes and not realize it for months at which time it is a pain to fix.

Re: Electronic Libraries, Partnumber, BOM

engineeringNCMXB — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 20:33:19 GMT

As a simple example. In this circuit, I knew I needed a resistor divider, but the values were not known. I placed a part with a NULL value just to get the schematic together. After calculating the resistor value, I opened up the 'Technology' menu to get a list I defined of resistor values that are in-house standards (I can easily add values whenever needed). Once I choose a 1k0 value - you can see in the properties that it has assigned our in-house part number. Most of our parts include much more detailed information to define the part including purchasing data.

Technology menu:

Pick a value (defined by the user in the library)

You can see the part number is assigned along with the associated value being displayed on the schematic. You never manually input a value.

Once every part has been defined, the BOM and other data can be output automatically. I went the extra step to write scripts so the data perfectly matches what I need for purchase orders, BOMs, and assembly lines.