Joints in Electronics Designs for 3D PCB

[adwarbinek]

I'm excited about the new electronics/pcb integration into Fusion. Moving from the Eagle link to this was much needed.

I know there are many updates coming and the whole integration/implementation is new. 

Q: Creating a pcb design and using the 3D PCB render component that it creates is wonderful - yet when imported and jointed to an object the PCB components and layers do not stay together. There is not a joint option in the 3D pcb file as well. How do I maintain the positions of the PCB components when they are used with another moving component structure? Or even just to align the PCB using the align tool the same problem arises.

Can we just default the 3D pcb creation files to jointed relationships? This way all PCBs created can be imported to other components and have a seamless use case. I can't think of a single instance where you would want to move a PCB component after the fact. You will just go into the schematic and 2D pcb file associated with the PCB to move something - which in turn moves the 3D files representation as well.

[Anonymous]

Did you find a solution to this issue?

thanks in advance

[adwarbinek]

Unfortunately no.

You can add joints when importing your Electronics Design Board into another object file but have to joint each layer and part on your PBC. 

There are 4-5 layers on the pcb that need to be jointed to whatever component you are building around it. If you're like me and have too many to count 3D smd components as well to make it look realistic, you have to join all of those too. 

So there is no actual solution, just a time wasting solution.

[Anonymous]

One way is to create a rigid group for all the PCB components.

When you insert the 3D PCB into your model, before creating any joints to the model, select the PCB in the browser and then select Rigid Group in the Assemble menu.

[TrippyLighting]

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@adwarbinek wrote:

I can't think of a single instance where you would want to move a PCB component after the fact. You will just go into the schematic and 2D pcb file associated with the PCB to move something - which in turn moves the 3D files representation as well.

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Oh, I can.

Placing PCB components accurately to satisfy particular mechanical or optical (in the case of LEDs for example) requirements in Eagles grid-based 2D "world" is really light-years and a couple of parallel universes away from the methods available in all parametric CAD software packages.

There are situations where I'd much rather be able to position a component such as an LED using the joints in Fusion 360 and have the board layout adjust that the other way around and having to use the almost ridiculously archaic methods in Eagle.