Pin swapping automate the timeconsuming process of manually reassigning nets on high pincount components in your design. Solidworks 2015 service pack 3 has a critical bug fix that addresses a problem with intermittent crashes during initial import of board from altium designer to solidworks. The following formats are the same for both swpcb and ad as of. Launch altium designer, open the dxp tab, and click extensions and updates on the extensions and updates page, click the purchased tab scroll down to the software extensions section.
Altium has partnered with desktop eda to provide designers with advanced ecad and mcad integration. Installation overview online documentation for altium. Altium announces new pcb design tool for integrated. Sep 30, 2015 solidworks pcb is the new printed circuit board design software from altium video article by lawrence romine createdupdated september 30, 2015 do you know the true costs associated with a failed design collaboration process between your electrical and mechanical teams. Solidworks pcb, powered by altium page 1 eevblog electronics community forum. Collaborating between altium designer and solidworks online. The solidworks pcb connector extension makes collaboration an easy and streamlined process with linked design data between altium designer and your mechanical designer s environment in solidworks. Solidworks modeler and idf modeler for altium designer. Follow the link and complete the form to have a solidworks expert contact you to answer your questions and discuss any of your needs. Oct 24, 2017 altium techdocs are online documentation for altium products, providing the basic information you need to get the most out of our tools. Req solidworks modeler for altium designer read 7431 times 0 members and 1 guest are viewing this topic. Follow the link and complete the form to have a cad microsolutions expert contact you to answer your questions and discuss any of your needs.
Solidworks pcb is the new printed circuit board design software from altium video. Search millions of altium libraries by part number or keyword. The software can be set to check for new updates, on the system general settings page of the preferences dialog. When i open the step file all the other parts in the assembly open up properly except for the board. The new application app by ecad mcad collaboration experts desktop eda is the result of altiums first addon app development partnership.
These edits can be done using topdown assembly modeling to ensure that the pcb mounts to the solidworks models after changes are made to these. Solidworks followed by design synchronization with altium designer up to the schematic level. My name is phil and i work for altium, as part of the team that develops educational material about altium designer altiums software. Launch altium designer, open the dxp tab, and click extensions and updates. Similar approach can be followed in other 3d modelling software. Recently, i attended a week of training on solidworks newest product, solidworks pcb. In addition, you can move parts or edit the shape of the pcb in solidworks and have those changes reflected in the pcb editor. Dec 12, 20 click save after making any necessary corrections. We want to use altium designer to design pcbs, solidworks is our mcad tool. This new pcb design software was developed in a collaborative effort between altium and solidworks to bridge the gap between the ecad and mcad tools solidworks pcb streamlines the design of the printed circuit board to effectively allow realtime interaction between mechanical and. The solidworks pcb connector is available as an extension to altium designer and is distributed through solidworks and their reseller network. Installing the altium designersolidworks collaboration add. Learn the features and benefits of the solidworks modeler for altium by desktopeda. There is a 50min youtube and i did not like it at all.
Solidworks pcb is focused on bringing the best of both worlds together. With all of your traditional pcb design tools at your fingertips and a seamless integration with solidworks 3d cad, designing printed circuit boards and managing changes has never been easier. Their pcb artist is a reliable software tool for electronics engineers looking for an. Aug 16, 20 the new addon applications, desktop eda solidworks modeler and the idf modeler, are available for altium designer.
Altium adds new extension to flagship pcb design tool for. This download was checked by our antivirus and was rated as malware free. Solidworks pcb was added into the product line to help electronics and mechanical designers collaborate during the development of printed circuit boards. Mar 31, 2016 the mcad co designer extension for altium designer does exactly this. On the extensions and updates page, click the purchased tab. The new addon applications, desktop eda solidworks modeler and the idf modeler, are available for altium designer the extension apps for altium designer and their companion plugins form a bridge between the electronic ecad and mechanical mcad design worlds. What i do is place the mounting holes in designer i have mounting hardware in schematic so screwsposts are in boms for costing and then position them in solidworks enclosure assemblies. Jun 19, 2009 my name is phil and i work for altium, as part of the team that develops educational material about altium designer altium s software. The altium designer pcb project must be stored in the collaboration servervault as a managed project for altium designer and solidworks to be able to collaborate on it. Download the altium schematic symbol and pcb footprint for free. The following formats are the same for both swpcb and ad as of sw pcb 2017 sp3. Altium ecad solidworks pcb solidworks video sw2016.
Pcb routes in catia v5 or solidworks different types of electrical routes visible in the solidworks model. Altium designer viewer edition free download windows. Phoenix, az prweb uk 9 february 2015 altium limited, a global leader in electronic design automation, native 3d pcb design systems altium designer, circuitstudio, circuitmaker, ecad design data management altium vault, and embedded software development toolkits tasking today announced pcbworks, a new pcb design tool created to enhance workflow collaboration between electrical. Importing multiple altium 3d pcb exports into a single solidworks project. Creating and modifying a project with altium designer. Circuitworks pcb design tools for solidworks goengineer. Altium modeler for solidworks use this if you can have solidworks and altium available on the same pc. Snapeda is a free online altium cad library of symbols, footprints, and 3d models for millions of electronic components. It takes the guesswork out of your design collaboration process and provides a managed environment for design revisions between the altium electrical environment and the solidworks mechanical environment. Aug 01, 2016 solidworks pcb is powered by altium s tested and trusted layout engine. This executable is downloaded from the downloads page of the altium website, and can be saved anywhere on your hard disk.
Altium designer is used by pcb designers and engineers to create new electronic gadgets for. Jan, 2015 a brief overview of an altium plugin that models pcbs in solidworks, providing a means of collaboration between ecad and mcad designers. Changing the mechanical designers tool would lead to a disruption in this traditional structure. Users who have licensed and installed altium designer can integrate it with the solidworks software by installing the solidworks pcb connector. To do this exchange, users need to install the solidworks pcb connector. Solidworks and altium designer collaborate with each other through an ecadmcad project collaboration server or altium vault, whose behindthe scenes. One inside a solidworks package and one that ports altium to and from sw. Electrical engineers who have licensed altium designer can also exchange designs with solidworks 3d design software users through the repository. Do what you do best in solidworks cad, and let solidworks pcb handle all of your pcb design needs which were engineered specifically for solidworks collaboration. Altium designer is used by pcb designers and engineers to create new electronic gadgets for entertainment, industry, defence, and the. Solidworks assembly and synchronize these changes with the altium designer pcb. This is very convenient as a complete 3d model of your pcb can easily be imported into cad programs such as solidworks. Download free altium libraries for millions of electronic. Solidworks pcb powered by altium the new solidworks pcb powered by altium design tool combines the power and usability of altium with the 3d expertise of solidworks to unite the electronic and mechanical worlds, one design at a time.
Then on solidworks pcb connector, click the down arrow in the top right corner of the tile to download and begin the installation. And, their pcb solution brings together cad and pcb design for flawless. They also have a step export that is pretty snazzy, and i think there is the ability to do realtime changes in ecadmcad packages and have either or update. Altium has many features that make it easy to collaborate with the mechanical designers, one of them being the ability to import board shapes from any 3d modelling software. With pin swapping, you can interactively swap and optimize pin configurations in seconds, saving you countless hours in your design process. Mar 16, 2015 this procedure has been tested with altium designer. The solidworks modeler allows altium users to create a solidworks assembly of a printed circuit board pcb directly from the altium application. Discover features you didnt know existed and get the most out of those you already know about. It is bidirectional and provides advanced capabilities not available in other products, such as modelling of copper, silk screens and solder masks as native features. The mcad codesigner extension for altium designer does exactly this. Pcb library management preparation and customization of the common components used within the collaboration system.
Sign in to your altium account if you are not signed in automatically. Solidworks pcb, powered by altium, brings this collaborative element to focus with seamless workflow collaboration. Use modeling approximation to design the microstrip trace. Solidworks pcb design technology powered by altium. Altium designer has powerful 3d tools, allowing you to export a step model of a pcb.
If you want circuitworks to build the model of your board then you need to export from altium as idf3. Importing multiple altium 3d pcb exports into a single. When the electronic and mechanical design domains are working together, its easy to get products to market ontime and onbudget. I assume that this would work with any 3d rendering tool that reads step files. Altium issues new release of altium designer for pcb design. May 24, 2017 one inside a solidworks package and one that ports altium to and from sw. Interactive router an interactive routing engine helps to maximize your routing efficiency and flexibility with intuitive modes such as single trace, push, and avoid obstacle dragging to move around common obstacles in. Altium introduction to solidworks modeler for altium youtube.
This tool allows and introduces a new workflow for the design of pcbs internally, solidworks pcb has the backbone of altium with the user interface that is similar to the solidworks environment. If you want circuitworks to build the model of your board then you need to export from altium as idf3 or idf4. The extension apps for altium designer and their companion plugins form a bridge between the electronic ecad and mechanical mcad design worlds. This product allows altium users to create a solidworks assembly directly from altium designer. Then i generate the step file from altium and import it into solidworks and simply add the aforementioned images to the board surfaces. But i am a mentorseimens now padspcb user for 25 years. The latest release, altium designer 20, offers major upgrades to the softwares unified design environment, user experience and pcb design. Choose from never, every day, every 3 days, every week, every 2 weeks, and every month. The most frequent installer filename for the software is. Before you close the file, note down the unit used for measurement in your model. Developed jointly by solidworks and altium inc, solidworks pcb was designed for those designers and engineers who want the power of altium designers core capabilities and the added benefits of seamless mcadecad collaboration. Hi, i am an old ee and have used several schematic entry programs orcadcadence, dxdesigner. Aug 29, 20 san diego, united states altium limited, a 3d pcb design altium designer and embedded software development tasking, has announced the availability of the new solidworks modeler for altium designer.
Solidworks pcb has combined the latest features in pcb design with a streamlined interface and linked it with solidworks to give you a collaborative design experience that gets your pcbs done both ontime and onbudget. The altium modeler for solidworks is an addin for altium that allows users to model their circuit boards in solidworks. Supporting bidirectional communication between altium and solidworks. Looking for downloadable 3d printing models, designs, and cad files. Use this plugin to export the schematic documents from altium designers schematic editor to the pcad v16 ascii schematic file. Place the mechanical relevant parts connectors, leds. By transferring data directly between altium designer and solidworks programs running on the same. If you are new to altium designer, you will undoubtedly have designs in some other file format either from an older altium desi.
Idf4 will give you the copper traces but idf3 doesnt. We will introduce solidworks pcb which we affectionately swpcb and discuss the use models each represents. The pcb is modeled by exporting the board outline to a solidworks sketch and extruding it. This free software is an intellectual property of altium limited. In addition, it allows you to make changes to the board outline and component locations in the solidworks assembly and synchronize these changes with the altium designer pcb. Id like to follow up on this discussion, and let you all know that were very keen to support you guys who are working with passing design data between solidworks and altium designer. A brief overview of an altium plugin that models pcbs in solidworks, providing a means of collaboration between ecad and mcad designers.
You can create a realistic model of your pcb in solidworks using native solidworks parts. So that they can use them, but we are running into an issue. It is installed by default in solidworks 2017 and in solidworks 2016 sp3, and can be separately installed for solidworks 2015 sp5. To access the altium designer solidworks collaboration setup wizard, you need to first download and run an executable altium designer solidworks collaboration. Working between solidworks pcb and altium designer since solidworks pcb swpcb was established on the same platform as altium designer ad, the file formats are the same or similar. Eel3923eel4924 design 1 and 2 university of florida, electrical and computer eng. Altium introduction to solidworks modeler for altium. This product allows collaboration between altium designer and solidworks. San diego, united states altium limited, a 3d pcb design altium designer and embedded software development tasking, has announced the availability of the new solidworks modeler for altium designer. Use the dropdown associated to the check fequency field in the automatic updates region of the page to specify how often a check is made. Solidworks pcb a new tool for electricalmechanical teams.
As for interface with solidworks, i think that altium supports 4. I am trying to open a step file in solidworks 2012 which was saved in altium designer. Collaborating between altium designer and solidworks. Both solidworks 2014 and solidworks 2015 are supported. Some of these steps like restarting solidworks may seem odd, but they must be followed exactly for this to work. This tool is an alternative to the idf and idx translators. Installing the pcb connector for altium designer solidworks. Installing the pcb connector for altium designer altium designer is a pcb printed circuit board design tool. Ecadmcad collaboration solutions for altium designer users.
Installing solidworks pcb with pcb services dasi solutions blog. You can create a realistic model of your pcb in solidworks. Hi all, i am currently work with a few suppliers that use solidworks and altium, so im exporting all my parts into. Only the edges of the board are displayed as a surface and the toolpath along with it. This executable is downloaded from the downloads page of the altium website, and can be saved anywhere on your hard disk running the setup wizard. Req solidworks modeler for altium designer sonsivri.
The solidworks pcb connector is available as an extension to altium designer and is distributed through cad microsolutions in canada. Solidworks pcb has what you need to tackle your design projects. The product are invoked from panels in both the pcb editor and the pcb library editor. Ecadmcad collaboration solutions for altium designer. Installing the altium designersolidworks collaboration. Installation overview online documentation for altium products.