3D in Altium Designer

Most companies using Altium Designer have adopted 3D images in their PCB layout process. This process allows the design's mechanical and electrical aspects to integrate better.

Not everyone designing PCBs has access to a dedicated mechanical engineer or high-end mechanical tools such as AutoCAD, Solidworks, or ProE; however, this doesn't mean that the PCB designer cannot take advantage of the 3D capability with Altium Designer.

We will focus on how a PCB designer can create or obtain 3D components in Altium Designer.

Topics will include:

• Why using 3D in PCB design is beneficial if not crucial?
  

• A brief review of how to draw 3D bodies in Altium.
  

• A brief review of importing STEP files into Altium and how to orientate them.
  

• Demonstrate the 3D batching capability of Altium.
  

• Demonstrate a novel way of creating 3D objects in Altium that the 3D bodies cannot do (i.e., gull wings).
  

• Recommendations and sites for finding components on the web.
  

• A brief demonstration of the Onshape mechanical tool. This will be presented by Tom Cassidy, a team member who frequently uses this tool to draw 3D bodies for many of our service engagements quickly.
  

Altium Example

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3D in Altium Designer Addendum

In the video, there was some discussion about using the PCB board itself to create a STEP file. However, in later versions of Altium Designer, a button in the 3D body properties was provided that allows the user to convert their 3D body into a STEP. Altium Designer does not allow 3D bodies to be rotated; however, once they are converted to STEP, the user may rotate them as necessary. In this video, we will demonstrate the gull-wing creation in the PCB library and show how to create and rotate a solid triangle.

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Improving the Altium ECAD / MCAD Connectivity Experience

In 2008 Altium revolutionized how we handle information between the ECAD and MCAD tools. This first generation of tools can be summarized as passing STEP files to and from the ECAD and MCAD tools.
Since then, we have been stuck in this 1st generation of mechatronic collaboration.

Altium has brought forth the 2nd generation of mechatronic collaboration through their partnership with SOLIDWORKS. This collaboration improves the ability to move data between the MCAD and ECAD worlds and removes much of the manual administrative tasks that the 1st generation of collaboration demands. It goes beyond moving STEP files; in fact, it is not even moving STEP files!

We will showcase the differences between the two generations of ECAD and MCAD collaboration and the benefits that the 2nd generation of collaboration brings to the design process.

Q&A's from Webinar

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What's this Co-Design Mechatronic mishmash all about?

The ability to collaborate between ECAD and MCAD tools has been around for many years. In 2008, Altium took this collaboration to another level with the enhancements of its 3D capabilities.

With the release of the SOLIDWORKS 2019 products, a collaboration between the Altium Designer and SOLIDWORKS CAD is more potent than ever.? Practically every primitive, component, copper, silk, hardware, and even the board can be pushed between these two tools in near real-time.

In this webinar, we will discuss:

• The software tools necessary for this collaboration
  

• The configuration of the software tools for real-time collaboration (yes, version levels play a significant role)
  

• A demonstration of bidirectional handoff between the Altium Designer and SOLIDWORKS CAD
  

We will better understand the data flow if you have Altium Designer and/or SOLIDWORKS CAD.

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Exporting 3D of a Folded Rigid/Flex Design

This video provides a quick overview of how to fold the rigid-flex board and export it into a STEP.

Note that flex-rigid was introduced in version 14 of Altium Designer. The ability to export the folded view came in 14.3.

If you are new to rigid-flex but want to explore it, open the Bluetooth Sentinel project Altium provides with the installation. It is usually located: C:UsersPublicDocumentsAltiumAD16Examples.

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When Designs and Designers Need to Be "Flexible"

There have been many webinars focused on rigid-flex design. Many of these webinars come from manufacturers of rigid-flex boards. They explain what is necessary for us to achieve success in manufacturing these boards. We have also seen a few webinars from ECAD software companies showing us their tools' various capabilities.

What is missing? They are rigid-flex considerations from a designer's point of view. Our tools can do it, and our manufacturing can create it, but the real question is - how do we design it? That will be the focus of our upcoming webinar.

We will explore the following rigid-flex design topics:

• Board outline and bending
  

• Design rules about the flex circuit
  

• Component placement on a flex circuit
  

• Copper types on a flex circuit (pours, fill, and vias)
  

• Routing on a flex circuit
  

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