Reusing a board layout in another board.

[josh_l]

Hi,

I have two large PCB designs, built entirely in Fusion 360, that I wish to merge into one new board. I have tried the following, with no luck:

- Insert Schematic: This feature imports the schematic properly but doesn't bring in the board layout - it just scatters the inserted components across the PCB canvas.

- Insert Electronic Design: This gives exactly the same results as Insert Schematic. Component layout is not preserved.

- Insert 2D PCB: This doesn't work, and gives the error "A 2D PCB only electronics design can't be inserted into a svnchronous proiect. Please link a corresponding Schematic to your electronics design file."

So my question is simply whether this is possible in Fusion 360 today? I found this post from 18 months ago saying it doesn't work and it's planned, but couldn't find anything since. There is also a product update announcement video from a year ago showing the Insert 2D PCB feature working, but I can't replicate whatever is happening there.

Any help is appreciated! If I have to re-layout one of the boards onto to other board, this will be DAYS of redoing the same work because of a limitation in the software.

Thanks,

Josh

[gerrit.agel]

Hey!

I was just about to ask the same thing. Expanding on your question I have standart schematic-"components" that appear on different PCBs. I would like to be able to be insert them in these different designs in a synchronized manner with a synchronization, just like you would insert a mechanical component into other constructions and all of them synchronize when you change the external component. Is this somehow possible?

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hello @josh_l,

I hope you're doing well. The insert Electronic Design should work, if you want to keep the layout make sure you run the command from the schematic editor. Running it from the board layout will not preserve the layout.

Try it and let me know if it works for you. Remember that the preserved layout will appear in the negative y axis beneath the current PCB in your design.

@gerrit.agel This is currently not possible but it is something we want to do. Thank you for the suggestion.

Best Regards,

[josh_l · Accepted solution]

Thanks @jorge_garcia , it's working now and I've been able to reproduce the issue that makes all the difference: You can't use the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons before placing the design. For clarity:

This doesn't work:

- Click Place -> Insert Electronic Design.

- Once schematic (which in my case is very large) appears hovering under the mouse cursor ready to click and place, click the Zoom Out button to reveal more whitespace to find a spot to place the hovering schematic.

- Click to place.

*All component layout from the inserted design is now lost.

This does work:

- First, zoom out on schematic far enough to reveal sufficient whitespace to place the schematic.

- Click Place -> Insert Electronic Design.

*Everything works as intended.

From my perspective as a customer, I'd call this a bug and I'd suggest passing on to your developers. I hope this helps other users!

Cheers,

Josh

[jorge_garcia]

Hey @josh_l,

I hope you're doing well. Thanks for the detailed report, I'll report this to our developers for review. 

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

Best Regards,