PCB outline derived from case improved workflow

[jeremiahrose]

Hi all,

Just wanted to share a workflow that I figured out today, that allows a 3D PCB outline to be linked to the case/housing/assembly that it sits in, without using the broken "Derive PCB from Sketch" feature.

The problem with "Derive PCB from Sketch" is while it allows a 3D PCB to update its shape based on a sketch in the case assembly, it does not allow that PCB to be included in the same assembly - trying to do so errors out complaining about "circular references".

The way I'm about to describe doesn't seem to have this problem. Here goes...

1. Create a model for your case/housing/assembly and save it
2. Click "Create" -> "Create 3D PCB" (it doesn't matter which profile you choose so just pick one)
3. Save the new 3D PCB, go back to your assembly and insert the PCB into the assembly
4. Move the PCB to roughly where you want it
5. Hover over the PCB in the component list and click on "edit in place"
6. Double click on the "Outline" sketch in the PCB to edit it
7. In the sketch editor, use project/include to associate the PCB outline to geometry from the assembly. For instance, I included the walls of the case into my sketch, then set a dimension of 5mm between the wall and the outline of my PCB.
8. End sketch & end edit-in-place
9. Now when I change the position of the wall in my assembly, the PCB outline is automatically updated to match!
10. Associate the 3D sketch with a 2D sketch, electronics design and schematic

[yqliu]

Hi @jeremiahrose ,

Thank you very much for sharing your practice. The support of 3D PCB in "Edit in Place" was just released in August update and so not many users are familiar with it. Your post is definitely very helpful.

Maybe you have known, one way to avoid circular references when using "Derive PCB from Sketch" is to use a third document: you can create the sketch in the third document, then derive PCB, and create the enclosure assembly from this sketch document. 

[jeremiahrose]

No worries!

I have noticed some bugs with edit-in-place of 3D PCBs.

The main one is that references to geometry in the assembly seem to be lost when I push changes to the PCB from the 2D board layout.

Another annoyance is that when I edit-in-place the 3D PCB, there is no button to push those changes to the 2D PCB. I have to save, manually open the 3D PCB, push to 2D. This detracts from the convenience of edit-in-place somewhat.

Otherwise, good to see Fusion 360 continually improving by degrees!