Fusion: Matching component placement to external footprint

[marcus_melin7WRNJ]

Hi, 

I'm new to Fusion as PCB CAD program and have a question regarding the best-practice towards aligning components with the footprint of a off-board (external) component. 

In my case I'm designing a "shield" to a dev. board. I have a library containing the dev. board component, including symbol, footprint & 3Dmodel. This dev. board will in turn attach to my PCB design through a combination of different headers. After I've chosen the header components I want, I would like to be able to "snap" these to the footprint of the dev. board to make sure they are in the correct position(s)

Should I make a new library component, reuse the footprint of the dev. board and combine the header 3D models into one and connect it to said footprint? Or is there a way to make a "assembly" library component, consisting of a set of individually specified library components in a predefined pattern, so that the "assembly" is reusable in another design (So that the individual component information is retained for the BOM later)? Basically I don't want to rely on measuring the space between two headers on my PCB design, when I already have the footprint readily available.

Happy for any help!

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi @marcus_melin7WRNJ ,

I hope this message finds you well. So here is my recommendation for this:

Make a schematic and board pair that only contains the circuitry that the shield connects to. The headers, any silkscreen you want, etc. Whenever you want to use that shield, just insert the Electronic design and place it wherever you want. In this way you have a reuseable layout and the BOM will be accurate.

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

Best Regards,

[lauri_barnhart]

@marcus_melin7WRNJ - Welcome! Thanks for your question.

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[marcus_melin7WRNJ]

Hi Jorge, 

Thanks for your recommendations, this solution works fine. 

However I was expecting to see at least a "measure" tool or dimensioning when making the footprint. The only way to make exact placements that I could find was to edit the coordinates of the individual footprints, and here we don't have the calculation functionality that I am familiar with from regular Fusion CAD (add/subtract etc.) I think something like this is really needed.

Another think I noticed was that when using this solution, is that any changes I make into the external design will not carry over into the main design. This feels like a feature that should exist, especially when working with multiples of the same sub-circuit in a larger design.

Best regards,
Marcus

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @marcus_melin7WRNJ ,

I hope you're doing well. There is a proper measure tool in the works so keep a look out for that. Currently, when you insert the electronic design it is treated as if you had manually drawn those parts in. There's no connection to the original design. This is a common request and we are looking into implementing things like this.

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

Best Regards,