Compose a panel from an individual pcb drawing

[mario.brizida]

Hello all;

When I finish my electronics project (pcb + schematics + simulation + 3d), I need to produce my pcb.

In Eagle I simply created a copy of the .brd file, panelize it and then compose my panel with multiple pcb's.

Could you please inform me how to do it in Fusion Electronics?

I only need help on the process of creating a panel with multiple pcb's. The rest of the process (including the generation of CAM files) is clear for me

I searched on all forums, instructions and videos and didn't find any info.

Could you please help me?

Thank you

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @mario.brizida,

I hope you're doing well. In Fusion 360, you can use the same process as you used in EAGLE. The main key is to go into preferences  > Electronics. You'll see there is a checkbox that says Detect Board shape. Uncheck it click OK and then restart Fusion 360. Now that Fusion 360 has been restarted, go into the board do a file save as and save a separate copy of the board. Now you can run the panelize.ulp and make copies of the layout and continue the process as you would have done in EAGLE.

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

Best Regards, 

[mario.brizida]

Hello Andy;

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure if I can do it the same way I did with Eagle.

In Eagle I simply copied the .brd file and worked with it.

As far as I tried (maybe I did something wrong), if I do it with Fusion and edit the copy, I will change also the original file also... the way I'm doing it now is to export tle board file as Eagle to my local disk, then import it again, and with that operation I "remove" the link between the files. I think you agree with me that is not a very practical way to do it. I think it's important for all that Autodesk details and publishes how to do compose a panel with several pcb's on Fusion Electonics, as we had on Eagle instructions. Aditionally I think that is not very practical every time we turn on and off "detecting board shape" we should restart Fusion... Please consider any action to avoid it.

Thank you;

[jorge_garcia · Accepted solution]

Hi @mario.brizida ,

I agree it's not very practical right now with having to turn off detect board shape. One thing I can recommend that will make it a little better is that instead of exporting to EAGLE to break the link, there is a better way in Fusion 360 to do this.

Make a new Electronics design and link the PCB to it. When you go to make the link you'll notice in the dialog there is a checkbox that says create a copy, check it and then make the link. It will make an independent copy of the original board file and you'll be able to make the panel from there.

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

Best Regards,

[mario.brizida]

Hi Jorge;

Do I have any way to break the link between 2 files, for example if I forget to select "make a copy"? In that case I will never be able to delete that file.

Was indeed very important and useful to avoid the need to restart fusion after a change of "detect board shape"

Thank you;

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @mario.brizida ,

I hope you're doing well. You can break the link in the electronics design file by right clicking on the board and icon on the left side and clicking break link.

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

Best Regards,

[mario.brizida]

Hi Jorge;

Could you please specify "on the board and icon on the left side"?

I tried right click on 

But I don't have the option "break link"

Thank you

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @mario.brizida,

I hope you're doing well. See this image:

You can break the PCB link and then link to the original PCB again and but this time make sure make a copy is checked.

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

Best Regards,

[mario.brizida]

Jorge;

Thanks for your answer. I understood how to break the link.

But now I have another problem. Please look at image below:

You can see a pcb file, a schematic file, a project file (that aggregates pcb and sch) and 3 3D files.

Only one of them is aggregated to the project, the other 2 are not, l but the fact is that I can't delete them.

First I did:

I clicked on ""Remove 3D PCB Link"

Then I tried do delete:

by selecting "Delete" and I got

What can  I do now?

Data managing on Fusion related files and folder management are not "user friendly", very tricky and in my opinion should be improved.

Thank you.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @mario.brizida ,

I hope you're doing well. I know exactly what you are talking about and this is just the nature of the beast with cloud data. If you are not allowed to delete the file, here's what I do.

1. Create a project called Trash

2. Any design that you are not allowed to delete can be moved to the Trash project by right-clicking on the file and selecting Move.

If you look at other threads on the Fusion forums you'll see this comes up there. The best solution for now is this one, create a trash folder and just move anything you no longer wish to see there.

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

Best Regards,