Allow STEP file upload as 3D model for Electrical Package or Purchased Electrical Part

[cruiz5965]

There is simply no way to add a 3D representation for Parts created as Electrical Package. Current the only way to attach 3D models seems to be with the SW plugin, which then requires the item to be of Assembly type. This leave Electrical engineers without a way of uploading models. 

I propose that Upchain includes an "Upload 3D model" to the import selection for Electrical Package selection. This should be able to pass in at minimum STEP and IGES data types.

Similarly, It would nice to see this 3D models import feature for "Purchased Electrical Parts" which is commonly used for EE board level components.

[tomislav.horvat8NHUW]

Dear cruiz5965,

Thank you for your feedback.

To attach eCAD CAD data or fabrication files like Gerber files your Admin can create an additional category where you can store such files which are needed for downstream production.

You are also able to send it through document workflow and release it so your colleagues know that they can use your design.

The second approach can be to create an additional Documents category by your Admin so you can store and revise your electrical files:

[christopher.grinde]

How does the proposed solution allow one to view the 3D model in Upchain? If I understand the above correctly, you would need to download the step-file and open it in a separate application. 

I believe the requested feature was to enable that step-files that are generated from the eCAD can be viewed as any other 3D model loaded to upchain. E.g. if I'd like to look at the diemensions of what the card looks like used the model viewer in upchain. 

[cruiz5965]

Tomislav,
I don't think you understood the proposal so I'll add a bit more background. Currently our EE team uses a single "Project" in upchain to host our entire EE component library. In this project we have "end items" which are basically component groups or buckets. Examples are include resistors, capacitors, connectors and even Board Assemblies. Within each of those end items we have actual parts which represent unique resistors, capacitor board assemblies etc. I would like a way for each and every "Purchased Electrical Component" and "Electrical Package" type parts to have the ability to upload a step file as the 3D model that Upchain uses to display in its 3D viewer. The main reason is for non-engineering members of our team to get a preview of what the parts are. These people dont have access to 3D tools to visualize the components. All ME parts have a very well defined model which Upchain pulls from MCAD tools such as Solidworks. Naturally, people are asking why none of the EE parts have 3D representation. 

Hope that helps clear things up.

[tomislav.horvat8NHUW]

Dear @cruiz5965, and @christopher.grinde,

Thank you both for providing information for your use case. It gives a bigger picture of why you need this kind of feature.

I have a few questions for non-engineering members that would consume this preview.

Q1: For what would they use electrical components view in the 3D viewer? 

Q2: In an example of a series of resistors, would they only be interested to see if that is an SMD or radial component? Or would they go deeper to check if the colors on the radial model are correct?

Q3: Would it help for each one of those items to have a picture associated with the Item number like the picture below?

[christopher.grinde]

From my perspective it is not for the individual parts, but for the assembly of the PCB. The step file is typically generated by the eCAD. Our need, is to that the step file can be uploaded as if was any other mechanical part, without having to separate the files and step file in two different items, and that the step file is handled, version-wise, similar to any other mechanical part. 

For the viewer, it is always interesting to be able to see dimensions and shape. 

[cruiz5965]

As Christopher mentioned, board assemblies is for sure the main goal, however, each individual board component could benefit from this as well. Things like connectors, IC's, or transistors can have unique packages and it would be nice being able to visualize the component from within unchain. Its handy for people in purchasing but also handy for engineers looking to reuse components in a library. I don't think color will be too important. Simple measurements would be fantastic. 

The thumbnail picture we certainly be appreciated. In the past we attempted to just import "Thumbnail's"  to each part but what we found was the png images would get distorted (aspect ratio is odd),  they would all look slightly different, and worst of all if you clicked on the thumbnail you couldn't enlarge the image because we'd get a warning saying:

The visualization is not available yet for this item. This can take some time, especially for larger or more complex models. Please check again later, or you can regenerate the visualization (seehttps://help.autodesk.com/view/UPCHN/ENU/?guid=UC_BillMaterials_bm_item_actions_bm_regenerate_item_h...) or contact Upchain support if you believe there is a problem.

Hope this helps

[cruiz5965]

@tomislav.horvat8NHUW 

Happy new year! Just seeing if this suggestion was still in consideration and if the status of "Implemented" is accurate. 

Let me know if there are any additional details needed for this suggestion.

Thanks!

[tomislav.horvat8NHUW]

Dear @christopher.grinde and @cruiz5965, 

Thank you for your feedback and Happy New Year!

I am sorry but the label was wrong, it is still not implemented.

I have a few additional questions about your current flows:

Q1: When you are saying: "without having to separate the files and step file in two different items", does that mean that today you have two Items (maybe even Item numbers) for one PCB board?

Q2: Can you describe what is your normal project development workflow?

Q3: Can you attach samples of GIFs that were distorted? It is possible to view them by right click - open in a new tab option?

Best Regards!

Tomislav

[christopher.grinde]

Normal desired workflow for us would be:

1. Mechanical engineer provides the electronic engineer a DWG outline extracted from CAD.  
2. Electronic engineer design accordingly
3. Electronics engineer uploads the electronics files to Upchain, preferably as a part in the form of the step-file generated by the ECAD. 
4. Mechanical engineer inserts the step-file in the mechanical model and uploads the assembly to Upchain.
5. The step-file is treated as the part, so if the electronic engineer uploads a new version it is handled as any other part, it is equivalent to as if an ordinary mechanical part is updated. 

In addition to the step file, other eCAD files are handled as revision controlled parts that are edited by the eCAD program and managed/stored in Upchain. 

What we should avoid, is to handle the step file as an attached generic file or translation to a electronic item since translations cannot be used as a part directly in mechanical CAD assembly.

Same goes for the eCAD files. They are the defining files and not translations. Strictly speaking, the STEP file is a translation of the eCAD files, but since it cannot be used as a mechanical part without downloading it and uploading it back up again as a  separate item, it doesn't really ease our workflow.  

As with any other PDM system, be it mechanical or for electronics, the aim is to avoid filehandling outside the CAD and PDM system to minimize labour, manual mistakes and make the workflow as easy and rugged as possible. 

The challenges with electronics is that it is edited in a eCAD system, but used/assembled in a mechanical system. 

[cruiz5965]

I want to preface this with: I believe between my initial suggestion and @christopher.grinde suggestion we are starting to digress quite a bit. Its not a bad thing and maybe ultimately this suggestion morphs into the larger topic of EE and ME synergy. The initial suggestion: to be able to upload a step file so any EE parts (not controlled with ME cad tools) can have a nice thumbnail and the ability to view a 3d representation of the part directly in the web UI stems from the fact that Upchain doesn’t have this cohesiveness today. With that said I initially suggested a simple step upload / display because its a much easier task to tackle vs this massive undertaking of creating a structure that truly marries EE and ME workflows together.
 
@tomislav.horvat8NHUW  Let me try to answer your questions with how they pertain to my team.

1) Upchain doesn't allow for any solid synergy between EE's and ME's. Currently in my team, EE's are creating a unique part for our board assemblies as an "Electrical Package" type. This part has all defining drawings and files needed for a contract manufacture to manufacture the board. One of the files we attach is a STEP file.  We just zip it up and put it under the "drawings tab". The ME's then must create their own unique part number as a mechanical "assembly" type which they use in their full product model. They use the step file attached to the EE version of the board assembly. Download the zip locally and then manually add it to their MCAD tool to then push that data back to Unchain under the ME equivalent of the part. We have an understanding that any data (including step files) in the EE part is the accurate most up to date data. I think ultimately what would be nice (maybe this should be its own suggestion / topic) is that Upchain should allow the EE parts to be used in by MEs but more on this at the end. Again, I can create it as a new subject or maybe this topic morphs into it?

2) Once the 2 parts numbers that represent the board assembly (ME and EE) are initially created within Upchain, the workflow for our team is similar to Christopher's workflow. 

3) Attached is an example of what a manually imported thumbnail looks like. Also if you right click and open in new tab, you get the same image but it’s still very small. It makes viewing it slightly worse, however something to note is that correct image aspect ratio is maintained in the new tab. It’s squished in Upchain’s thumbnail preview. 

=========================================================================================
More on how to create synergy between EE's and MEs (can be started as new topic if needed)

In a perfect world starting from scratch, a possible solution to this synergy would be as follows. 
1) EE creates board assembly as "Electrical Package". We add EE design files as a zip to CBOM just as it works today. We typically import a zip of the altium or Cadence project directory zipped up along with an xlsx that represents the BOM structure that upchain creates under the board assembly. Any other filles we simply import the under drawings. The Electrical package type would have a unique property where you can import a step file. This STEP file is unique to each version thus creating a new version will wipe out old step file. 
2) After EE loads step file, ME checks in the electrical package into solidworks or whatever MCAD tool. The solidworks/upchain plugin somehow knows that an Electrical Package item is being imported and thus knows to pull in the step files associated to the electrical package.
3)ME's pushes data back to upchain this creates a visualization for the EE board assembly and adds the native 3d data to the CBOM (e.g. .SLDPRT). This ME push to Upchain has to avoid messing with the board assembly BOM structure created by the EEs.
4) Lastly the trick here is that once board assembly has native 3D data in the CBOM, it has to allow the web UI to allow check-in/out by the EE on the EE zip file + xlsx. Currently if you attempt this, adding MEs cad data will hijack the whole part and only allow checkin/out on the 3d cad file.

Again this is only a suggestion from the outside looking in. It hard to know how this could break the current implementation, or what limitation there are with the current architecture of the code base. 

[cruiz5965]

@tomislav.horvat8NHUW Can we please have this moved out of "implemented" ? Is this still being worked on or considered? 

Thanks!