Missing functionality from Fusion 360 Electronics

[technicalF8HBR]

Had a quick play and found a few things missing, so far...

Please confirm it is present (i.e. I couldn't find it), it is on the list, it's not going to happen. etc

1) Assignable keys to commands [Options/Assign...]

2) Set Colors etc from Settings menu [Options/Set/Colours etc]

3) Set User Interface

4) My .scr for my own custom buttons/functions no longer works

5) A way to reduce size of menu/function icons

thanks

Ian

[matt.berggren · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your post!  Since this is the first pass integration with Fusion a number of things that were classically Eagle have been shuffled around or are in the pipeline, as we rationalize the alignment with Fusion.  I'll take each one by one:

1) Assignable keys to commands [Options/Assign...]

This is in the pipeline but not there as of yet.  You can still run these from the CLI but we are working at implementing Fusion's command framework to bind to commands in the Electronics Workspace in a somewhat cleaner, more consistent way.

2) Set Colors etc from Settings menu [Options/Set/Colours etc]

Color options are located under the preferences located by clicking on your username in the upper right corner or from the Display command in the main workspace.  DefaultColors.scr will also work to restore eagle colors.

3) Set User Interface

UI options are also located under preferences.

4) My .scr for my own custom buttons/functions no longer works

This is something we are discussing now.  We are planning to support the key bindings to CLI commands (SET, etc) but again, this is not in the current implementation and will take a somewhat different turn to ensure we have the best of Fusion and what you experienced with SCR files avail.  SCRs to define keyboard shortcuts and UI layout will not be a part of that but the general workflow will accommodate equivalent customization.

5) A way to reduce size of menu/function icons

You can so this thru the OS using the compatibility settings for the Fusion360.exe and targeting just the app.  What OS are you running?  

Best regards,

Matt Berggren

Autodesk

[kb9ydn]

I think it would also be a really good idea to have a way to indicate that a pin is intentionally not connected to anything.  Of course you can just leave unused pins unconnected, but then there is no way to know if it's intentional or if it's a mistake (accidentally deleted net line or just forgot to connect in the first place).

C|

[dps.lwk]

Keyboard shortcuts are essential for my use of EAGLE

Have been using eagle professional for 8 years with the shortcuts I setup in the first few months, its makes my editing so much quicker.

I have a lot of setup

30 shortcuts in the Schematic editor

68 shortcuts in the Board editor

37 shortcuts in the Library editor

several are running scripts like "Run toglays 39 40 41 42 43"

or changed commands like "change layer 95; text >Name"

Matt

[kb9ydn]

Also there seems to be no pin breakout command.

C|

[technicalF8HBR]

Hi Matt;

Thanks for your reply

1) Great news

2) 🤔 didn't think to look there

3) Ditto 2

4) I work so much faster using my custom buttons, so please pass on my feedback to discussions

5) Using Windows 10. I can't see an option in App compatibility settings to do this? I really dislike "beautiful & large" "interfaces" that steal from the working area, where we do our work.

regards

Ian

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @kb9ydn,

I hope you're doing well. If you want to indicate that a pin should not connect to anything, then in the library you should set that pin's direction to NC (No connect). If in the design anything connects to it the ERC will flag an error for it.

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

Best Regards,

[kb9ydn]

---

@jorge_garcia wrote:
Hi @kb9ydn,

I hope you're doing well. If you want to indicate that a pin should not connect to anything, then in the library you should set that pin's direction to NC (No connect). If in the design anything connects to it the ERC will flag an error for it.

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

Best Regards,

---

Hi @jorge_garcia 

Unfortunately that's not really what I'm looking for.  The idea is to give the designer an indication that a particular pin in a schematic was left unconnected on purpose, as opposed to simply forgetting to connect it (like an unused output pin for example).  If all intentionally unused pins are shown as NC, like with an "X" say, it's easy to look at a part with a lot of possibly unused pins and tell that all pins have been accounted for, connected or not.  It's not about ERC at all, it's about visual review for unintentional omissions.

Other ECADs have this and I think Eagle/Fusion Electronics should too.

C|

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @kb9ydn,

Ah, thanks for the clarification. For the time being you can create a device with an attribute called _EXTERNAL_ that only consist of a single pin with and X on the end or whatever art you want to use to indicate that a connection is a no connect. That device will only have a symbol, the _EXTERNAL_ attribute will make sure it's not included in the BOM.

This has worked pretty well whenever users have needed a NC indicator.

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

Best Regards,

[kb9ydn]

---

@jorge_garcia wrote:
Hi @kb9ydn,

Ah, thanks for the clarification. For the time being you can create a device with an attribute called _EXTERNAL_ that only consist of a single pin with and X on the end or whatever art you want to use to indicate that a connection is a no connect. That device will only have a symbol, the _EXTERNAL_ attribute will make sure it's not included in the BOM.

This has worked pretty well whenever users have needed a NC indicator.

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

Best Regards,

---

That's a pretty good idea actually.  Maybe this could be included in the "docu-dummy" Eagle library?

C|

[engineeringNCMXB]

@matt.berggrenThis release seem like it should be a 'Preview'
It is neat to see what is coming, but it is not ready for the real world. I know it's early and surly there are all sorts of fixes and patches on the way. After taking a tour for a few hours - I could not see a complete project going through.

What I would LOVE to hear in a very definitive way is when will the switch be flipped on stand-alone Eagle so that I can appropriately plan my business around the progression of this transition. In a commercial application - surprises are not welcome. We would all like to know what cards we are holding well ahead of time to avoid having to swap ships in the middle of valuable project. Days? Weeks? Months? Years?

[JuergenGe]

I agree with engineeringNCMXB. 

We are in the middle of a very time constrained project and suddenly the create PCB functionality does not work any more and Eagle is suddenly patched into Fusion360. This is creating a lot of issues on our end, because we do not have the capacity or time to think about workarounds to whatever Autodesk is "now" doing.

A roadmap would be helpful to plan accordingly.

Do not get me wrong, i think that combining these two pieces of software could be great, but there are a lot of open points:

1. Currently i can save schematic and board file separately (up to the point that they are actually inconsistent). I can also save the electronics design file, which then saves both, which is confusing. This electronics design file is very hacky in general and probably results from patching eagle into Fusion. I guess this will be resolved/different?
2. What about API support? We have automated essentially every step in eagle to a point, where production files and BOMs and such are generated, exported, validated, double checked, uploaded to a Server etc. so that the staff does not need to be trained to click through a thousand different cam processor options, ULPs and such (which is btw. very error prone). Therefore we would need access to the cam processor and other functions that eagle has provided previously (via command line or ULPs). It could be great if it is in python (like Fusion itself). But please before pulling the plug on Eagle, because we also need to invest resources and time to adapt our infrastructure (and i mean 6 month min.)
3. Versioning control: I personally like the XML style structure of eagle files. These give you a real possibility to "read" what has happened, debugging options, verification options and also versioning control (e.g. via github). Your versioning control so far is very limited and i can not "see", what happened from one version to the next. And commit messages are not really a diff.
4. Currently i can not select an assembly variant: Maybe i did not find the option, but in eagle variants play an important role in our production management. Seeing, which component is part of a variant in the schematic and which is not is therefore key to do anything. If i recognize a missing component after a production run, this would be quite late. I guess this is coming?
5. Linux support: I guess you are not planning on porting Fusion to Linux, correct? Unfortunately all of our electronics developers are using Linux, because it has quite several advantages for development. This is also a reason why we use Eagle in the first place. What is your plan there?

There are also some crashes and such, which i would consider bugs, that will be resolved, but there is a long way to go conceptually and regarding the information policy.

[TrippyLighting]

As far as I understand it Eagle and Fusion 360 Electronics are NOT the same.

They coexist and Eagle is still available on it's own.

[engineeringNCMXB]

@TrippyLightingI believe you are correct, but my spidey-sense says that the curtain is rapidly closing on stand-alone Eagle. I am hearing that there are already some issues like creating PCB's and pushing to Eagle - not verified information though.

I am preparing for an unannounced and disruptive forced departure from stand-alone Eagle. Fingers crossed that I am wrong and Autodesk offers solid lead-time on the transition roadmap.