Thanks for your post. We have panelization on the list of things to do for sure. We are going to be doing it in Fusion where we can leverage the nesting tools that Fusion provides. This is why this hasn’t been done yet. It isn’t an excuse, for sure…We could have started this earlier, however we have had a lot to complete beforehand. If you consider however – panelization is not really a PCB step. It is a manufacturing step. The tools that do it in PCB do it in PCB because they aren’t really manufacturing tools and that’s the environment they have (and yes, I know Altium has Camtastic but that isn’t used on the factory floor…Fusion is! Mentor definitely has tools for the factory with the acq of Valor but those are generally *way* too expensive for a PCB designer and focused heavily on assembly and test).
Our thinking? Compare something like plasma cutting sheet metal and the cutting and stamping process for folded metal like you might use to make a coffee maker. That process, like PCB panels, is first a nesting process, to try and fit as many parts into the same material – ie there is a tradeoff is between using the most material, producing the least waste, and having the fastest “tool travel” for a panel (this is one of the best traveling salesman problems for anyone that is curious about SW engineering!). The nesting tools in Fusion are really second-to-none for sheet metal so rather than rush into something which is PCB-only, we have been planning (along with the nesting team) how Fusion could be used for panels that are nested the way your fab would nest them (for those interested, the only thing they DON’T do with sheet metal is mousebites…however they have tabbing so mousebites are relatively easy to implement in SW). This will also produce proper toolpath and even support defining tools from a tool library with holders, speeds & feeds, etc. (everything the mechanical guys already do for processes like sheet metal nesting or CNC machining).
To complete this, we have some work to do to get the Fusion PCB performance / experience a bit better (see my earlier post about that). When we wrap that up, panelization will be very high on the priority list because like you, many on our team have experience building electronic products or have experience in machining / machine tools. We just don't want to do what the “other” guys do because it’s convenient. It’s nice to do panels in PCB but it would be better if you could define tools with a plunge point, plunge depth (for scoring), tool geometry, spindle speed, etc. This is part of the answer to the question “why Fusion?”…Specifically because Fusion delivers design and manufacturing. This is EAGLE’s chance to evolve into something incredibly powerful that is more than a ‘tool to make Gerber files’. (Not sure if you’ve tried but I was building clamshell testers this weekend in Fusion and just having the full 3D environment and the ability to associate models like pogo pins to a pin on a part, create joints, move things and see them move associatively, was pretty awesome.).
I hope that is a little bit helpful and hope you can understand ‘why’ we are taking our time to get this right in Fusion. There’s a lot of stuff we will get “for free” if we get the integration right and that will deliver a lot of value to people actually doing this to earn a living and feed their families. Right now we are focused on performance in the Fusion environment and cleaning up the workflow so there aren’t so many dialogs, libraries are more intuitive, component management is easier, BOM, etc. Once that is complete, the next step is to ‘complete the job’ by bringing together integrated manufacturing and of course the future of that should be looking at new processes (eg 3D embedded passives, 3D routing for truly ‘printed’ electronics, and a lot more). It is all just work. It is taking a while but we had to know we had the foundations right first. I can only hope that you trust us when we say we are working! (My post on thanksgiving wasn’t a gimmick 😊 …I was truly working in the US while the rest of the family was arguing about how much salt to add to the soup!).
Apologies we hadn’t been more open about the roadmap and if this wasn’t clear. I will ask Edwin and Jorge to schedule a webinar in which I just lay out the roadmap and let everyone see what we’ve done and what we have planned. We don't want people to be frustrated by keeping these things a secret. Some things are secrets but only if we feel we don’t know enough yet. I will try and avoid saying “yes, we’ll do this” if we don't know yet. I have made that mistake a few times before and it is always a risk! But to be sure, panelization isn’t a matter of “if” but “when?”. None of us are happy in engineering with how long some things take. But we have to get the integration ‘right’ first or it’ll just be a house built on sand.
Best regards,
Matt
